BARNSLEY will look to end a four-game winless run in all competitions when they visit Steve Bruce’s Blackpool from 3pm.
Both the clubs have 15 points from their first ten games but Blackpool are one place ahead, in tenth due to a goal difference of plus one whereas Barnsley’s is zero.
Neil Critchley – who had returned for a second spell having previously taken Blackpool to the Championship – was sacked after losing the first two league games of this season to newly-promoted Crawley Town and Stockport County.
Caretaker Richard Keogh oversaw draws with Cambridge, 4-4 after leading 4-1, and Wycombe before Bruce was appointed at the start of last month.
He won his first four league games, lifting them out of the relegation zone, then they were denied a fifth straight victory by an injury-time leveller for ten man Lincoln City in their last home game.
Their seven-match unbeaten league run ended when Bruce suffered his first defeat, 2-0 at high-flying Mansfield before the international break.
Like Barnsley, Blackpool have not lost at home in the league since their first home game of the season.
Only Wrexham and Peterborough have scored more goals than Blackpool’s 17.
Barnsley head coach Darrell Clarke said: “Steve has done a good job since he’s been in and they have a similar record to us. We expect a tough game but we want to focus on ourselves and we need to see in games what we’ve seen in training in the last two weeks.”
Bruce, the 63-year-old who has taken charge of more than 1,000 club games since moving into coaching in the 1990s, has managed against Barnsley 16 times for seven different clubs, losing six and winning eight including the last three.
He first made his name as a player, mainly for Manchester United in the era in which Clarke followed the Red Devils closely as a young fan.
Bruce’s assistant manager is former Barnsley player Steve Agnew.
Clarke said: “Steve Bruce has had a fantastic managerial career.
“He’s still got that love for the game, that’s why he’s back in the game.
“Aggers, his assistant coach, coached me years and years ago at Hartlepool.
“I am looking forward to seeing them both but we’re there to do business.
“It’s how we can put our performance on them.”
Blackpool have two strikers who spent time at Oakwell in Ashley Fletcher and Jordan Rhodes.
Fletcher – who helped fire the Reds to promotion in 2016 – signed this summer and has one league goal so far while Rhodes, who impressed on loan to Blackpool last season, is yet to net since signing permanently but has eight career goals against the Oakwell club after starting off in their academy.
Barnsley have lost their last five meetings with Blackpool in all competitions, including three last season.
The Seasiders won 1-0 at Oakwell in September last year thanks to a Rhodes penalty conceded by Corey O’Keeffe then knocked the Reds out of the EFL Trophy at Bloomfield Road in December with a 2-1 win.
Barnsley returned in April and were beaten 3-2, having gone 3-0 down just after half-time – prompting a furious reaction from the away end to then head coach Neill Collins who was sacked the following day with one game remaining in the league season.
Blackpool could have overtaken the Reds in the final play-off place on the last day of the season, if they had won, but they lost at Reading.
Barnsley’s last win over the Seasiders was in April 2019 – a 2-1 home success which proved to be enough to secure their last promotion from League One.
They had also won away earlier in the season, with Cameron McGeehan getting the only goal, which is their solitary win in the last eight trips to Bloomfield Road since 2013. This will be the 109th meeting of the two clubs, with Barnsley winning 46 and losing 37.
