The League One campaign is heading for a thrilling finish and Barnsley still remain in contention for a play-off spot.
The club are just one point behind Sheffield United in the fifth place. Realistically, the battle for the final two play-off spots will be taking place between Sheffield United, Barnsley, Peterborough United, Chesterfield, Fleetwood Town, and Rochdale. Barnsley had the better momentum amongst these teams have to having won four out of the last five matches. Their run of six straight victories in the league recently came to an end after the 0-0 draw against Leyton Orient.
Undoubtedly, this run has played a crucial role in confirming Barnsley as a play-off contender towards the end of the campaign. Even though they are far away from the automatic promotions spots, it is usually the club with the most momentum who are successful in the play-offs. Manager Lee Johnson has spoken ahead of the weekend’s match against Preston North End that his team will be able to have a return to winning ways. The character of the team will be tested the most after dropping two points against Leyton Orient. There are only there are only nine games remaining and Johnson will be aware that his team cannot drop any more points.
“I hope so, but we don’t know yet because we haven’t seen them enough. You can never fully say what’s going to happen in any individual match, but what I do feel is that over the period of the next nine games we’ll give it everything to get in there [into the play-offs]. They’re [Preston] a strong side. The biggest thing with the is that they have a strong squad because they’ve invested heavily.They had a good year in League One last year and they’ve got a good manager [Simon Grayson] who knows the division,” said Johnson.