Barnsley winger Luke Thomas has hailed the upcoming clash against fellow strugglers Stoke City at the weekend as ‘massive’.

Barnsley and Stoke are both currently without a manager and occupy the bottom two places in the Championship after the weekend’s results, with Stoke bottom on eight points and Barnsley just above them with nine.

The Tykes come into this fixture on the back of a dreadful 14-game unbeaten run, stretching back to the beginning of the season where they beat Fulham 1-0 at Oakwell, where Luke Thomas scored the winner.

Barnsley have been without a manager since early October after they parted company with Daniel Stendel, while their opponents Stoke have more recently departed with Nathan Jones following a start to the season much below the standards expected of the players he had at his disposal.

A win for the Tykes at Oakwell on Saturday could potentially see them move level on points with Middlesbrough and end a torrid run without a win, finally building some confidence in the squad going into the winter months.

Speaking to the Sheffield Star, Barnsley winger Luke Thomas outlined how important a fixture this is for their season, he said: “It’s still early days in the season but it’s a massive game this Saturday.

“We’re at home so we have that to our advantage and I’m sure that if we keep fighting.

“If we cut out the mistakes, we can pick up three points against Stoke and ensure the fans again leave the stadium feeling positive.”

Thomas added to this, stating that there is a feeling within the squad that Barnsley are very down on their luck at the moment:  “We need a little bit of luck, when you’re down at the bottom it’s harder to get three points as you don’t seem to get that bit of luck.”

The Verdict

They have been somewhat unlucky recently in their draws against promotion-chasing sides.

They could have made domination count when they drew with Bristol on Friday night and would have certainly felt like they did enough to beat West Brom.

Thomas is bang on in his assessment of the fixture ahead though. If Barnsley are to begin to pick up results to move out of the relegation zone, they need to be winning home games against the teams that are around them.