Barnsley will be looking to continue their recent revival when they travel to Bristol City in the Championship on Saturday afternoon.
The Tykes have only lost one of their last seven in the league during an impressive run, although they are still inside the relegation zone ahead of this weekend's clash with ninth-placed Bristol City.
Match preview
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Bristol City lost four straight Championship matches between December 10 and December 26 to drop out of the playoff picture, but the Robins have picked up two victories from their last three.
They were thumped 4-0 at home by Brentford on New Year's Day but have beaten Luton Town and Wigan Athletic in two of their last three Championship encounters.
Lee Johnson's side were dumped out of the FA Cup on Tuesday night courtesy of a 1-0 loss at Shrewsbury Town, although they will now be able to fully focus on their league form.
As it stands, Bristol City are ninth in the table with 41 points, just one point behind Sheffield Wednesday in sixth. Incredibly, just six points separate third-placed Brentford from Preston North End in 10th, suggesting that there is going to be a fascinating battle for the playoff spots in the second half of the season.
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Barnsley, meanwhile, currently sit 22nd in the division having collected just 24 points from their 27 matches, recording just five league victories during the current season.
The Tykes have shown improvement under new head coach Gerhard Struber, however, with 42-year-old winning five of his 12 games since taking charge in the latter stages of November.
As mentioned, Barnsley have only lost once in the Championship since the start of December, while they will enter this game off the back of successive wins over Crewe Alexandra and Huddersfield Town in the FA Cup and league respectively.
The table shows that the Yorkshire club still have a lot of work to do if they are to remain in the division, but a victory this weekend could move them out of the bottom three depending on other results.
Bristol City Championship form: LLLWLW
Bristol City form (all competitions): LWLDWL
Barnsley Championship form: WWDDLW
Barnsley form (all competitions): WDDLWW
Team News
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Bristol City are set to be without defender Nathan Baker for an extended period due to a groin problem, meaning that Taylor Moore could come into the side for this weekend's clash.
Josh Brownhill is also under consideration having featured against Shrewsbury in the FA Cup amid the widespread speculation surrounding a possible January exit.
Andreas Weimann and Famara Diedhiou were the front two in the win over Wigan at the DW Stadium last weekend, though, and that is again expected to be the case on Saturday afternoon.
As for Barnsley, head coach Struber has no fresh concerns from the side that impressively overcome Huddersfield on home soil last weekend.
Elliott Simoes and Patrick Schmidt are two players pushing for spots in the XI, but the likes of Conor Chaplin and Alex Mowatt are certain to feature for the visitors to Ashton Gate.
Bristol City possible starting lineup:
Bentley; Hunt, Williams, Moore, Dasilva; Watkins, Massengo, Smith, Eliasson; Wiemann, Diedhiou
Barnsley possible starting lineup:
Sahin-Radlinger; Williams, Diaby, Andersen, Oduor; Ritzmaier, Halme, Thomas; Mowatt; Chaplin, Brown
We say: Bristol City 2-2 Barnsley
Barnsley have shown a lot of improvement in recent weeks, and we fancy the visitors to secure a share of the spoils this weekend. Bristol City have won two of their last three in the Championship but have only been victorious in one of their last five matches on home soil.
Matt Law
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a win with a probability of 42.25%. A win for had a probability of 32.54% and a draw had a probability of 25.2%.
The most likely scoreline for a win was 1-0 with a probability of 9.27%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.92%) and 2-0 (6.95%). The likeliest win was 0-1 (7.95%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.9%).
