Barnsley v Shrewsbury - Match preview

It was a disappointing result last time out for Salop, with Peterborough United running out 3-0 winners on Good Friday.

It has been a successful season to date, with Shrews sitting 10th in League One with just seven league games left to play.

But it has been a challenging period for Steve Cotterill’s men of late, tough fixtures, a mountain of away games and a long injury list is testing the resolve of the Town squad – who have been largely excellent this season.

They are depleted on numbers and Christian Saydee became the latest player to pick up an injury as he limped off 18 minutes into proceedings against Posh.

With Tom Bayliss missing until the end of the season, Dan Udoh and George Nurse are the same.

Rekeil Pyke battling with an Achilles injury meant Town were only able to name six substitutes against Darren Ferguson’s men, and three of those have not made a league appearance between them.

It is hard to see how it will be any different in Yorkshire today.

There was some good news ahead of the trip to take on the Tykes, as Tom Flanagan returns from suspension, having been dismissed in last month’s away defeat at Charlton Athletic.

But it is another difficult task, as they travel to face a Barnsley side who continue to probe at an exposed top two.

The reverse fixture demonstrated the difficulty of taking on Michael Duff’s Tykes, with Salop falling to a 1-0 defeat at the Meadow in November.

It is yet another away fixture, the trip will make it seven of Town’s last 10 League One games on the road – something which would be tough for any team.

A cluster of home games will follow today’s journey to Oakwell, with the Meadow set to welcome promotion high-flyers Plymouth Argyle and Sheffield Wednesday among others.

The home fixtures, with the Shrewsbury faithful behind them, will be seen as an opportunity by Cotterill and his players as they look to consolidate their position in the league.

The boss has spoken at length about the effort his players have put in this season to date, and how he is desperate for them not to tail off at the end of the season.

One thing is for sure they will keep working hard until their final game at Lincoln at the start of May.

It’s four wins out of five for Barnsley, but they were on the receiving end of a surprise defeat on Good Friday as they lost 2-1 to Burton Albion.

They will still have ambitions of automatic promotion, but the six-point margin they need to make up to catch Ipswich looks like a big gap to close at this late stage of the season.

They are currently fourth and a play-off spot looks like the bare minimum they will achieve.