Barnsley make the long trip to Exeter City for a ‘really, really difficult game’ tomorrow from 7.45pm.
The Devon club – based roughly 260 miles from Oakwell – are currently 12th in League One, eight points below the Reds who are in the lowest play-off place.
Exeter lost 2-0 at Portsmouth on Saturday while the Reds were winning 3-1 at home to Accrington Stanley.
City won 2-0 at Oakwell in October, starting a run of four winless and goalless games for the Reds.
They were then under caretaker Kevin Nicholson after Matt Taylor moved to Rotherham United.
He was replaced by Gary Caldwell, the former Wigan and Scotland centre-back whose brother Stephen played with Reds boss Michael Duff at Burnley.
Reds boss Michael Duff said: “They’ve been excellent. They are a newly-promoted team, not a big team in the division and I don’t mean that disrespectfully. They could have been two or 3-0 up at half-time against Portsmouth.
“They have goals in the team and they are organised. They always look like a together group who stay in games. We’re expecting a really, really difficult game.
“They beat us comfortably at our place so if there was any sort of complacency, we know it will be tough game.
“Gary has made a few little tweaks. They are playing a little bit more football. They have flipped formations a couple of times and played around with the front three. They are a bit more adaptable. Last year they played a certain way which was clearly effective. They have a few extra passes now.”
Barnsley were due to travel down to Devon on Monday afternoon.
Duff said: “It will be a long journey but it’s not as far as Plymouth.
We have given the lads Wednesday and Thursday off then they are in on Friday and Saturday.
“Exeter have to do this every other week. There are no excuses, we just get on with it.
“It will be a long day in the hotel before the game. But we will try to break it up.
“We will have a couple of meetings with group and individual units and take them for a decent walk.”
The two clubs have met 21 times, with Barnsley winning seven and losing ten.
They lost eight of their ten visits to St James Park between 1964 and 1980.
They triumphed 3-0 in 1966 then, after seven straight losses, won 1-0 in their last meeting there in November 1980.
Glyn Riley scored for Norman Hunter’s promotion-bound Reds.
James Norwood was at Exeter from 2009 to 2011, playing just four League One games before making his name in non-league football.
