Barnsley head into the weekend looking to put a disappointing 2-1 defeat to Charlton behind them as they host Sheffield Wednesday, eager to close the gap to the teams above them in safety.

The Tykes are currently battling hard against relegation to League One, after only just being promoted in the summer from the third tier. 

Their season got off to a poor start under Daniel Stendel as they only managed to record one win in their first 18 league games, coming on the first day against Fulham. They were immediately brought back down to Earth in the Championship the following game when they made the short trip to Hillsborough to face Sheffield Wednesday and found themselves a goal down inside two minutes, and ended up on the end of a 2-0 defeat to the Owls.

Since then, Barnsley fortunes and performances have changed a lot. They still remain in the relegation zone but have climbed out of the abyss and have a genuine shot at climbing out of the bottom three with 16 games to play.

However, they have an uphill battle to close the gap to 21st with six points currently separating them. They will be feeling confident of a derby victory over the Owls on Saturday following their own poor recent run of form.

Here is the expected lineup we expect manager Gerhard Struber to field against Wednesday…

Having slightly changed up the formation against Charlton to a 4-3-3, we expect Struber to continue in this setup to get the best out of his squad and allow for his most in-form players all to play together in attack.

In goal will be the first change for Struber as Sami Radlinger sits out with a muscle injury, which was confirmed by the Austrian manager in his pre-match press conference. Brad Collins will step in to replace him in between the sticks, which has more or less been his role in the squad since the appointment of the new boss.

The defence will remain unchanged with Jordan Williams, Michael Sollbauer, Mads Andersen, and Clarke Oduor making up the back four.

While they conceded two against relegation rivals Charlton last time out, the form of those down the pecking order has outlined the weaknesses in the squad at Oakwell and why Struber was so keen to bring in an experienced centre-back in Sollbauer.

In front of the defence will be converted holding midfielder Aapo Halme, playing in between Alex Mowatt and Luke Thomas. Halme has been very dependable in that position after moving up from centre-back under Struber, while Thomas and Mowatt have also been very solid going forward and providing service to the front men. The other injury concern here is with Marcel Ritzmaier, who has a knee problem that has seen him miss out recently, and he will again not make the squad along with Radlinger.

Can you get 16/16 in this Barnsley quiz?

Up front will be an attacking trident of Jacob Brown, Cauley Woodrow and Connor Chaplin. Chaplin and Brown’s form has taken off under the new boss and their performances will be a massive factor in their fight for survival. This comes alongside top scorer Cauley Woodrow who has returned to the fore in recent games and scored in their 2-1 defeat at the Valley last time out.

This Barnsley side has the quality to fight their way out of this rut and certainly can take advantage of a very low Sheffield Wednesday camp. It’s set up to be a very gripping encounter at Oakwell on Saturday.