After a third-place finish, Wanderers travel to Oakwell to take on Barnsley in the first of two legs in the Sky Bet League One Play-Offs on Friday night.
Ian Evatt’s men will backed by a sold out away end once again as they look to secure a positive result to bring back to the Toughsheet Community Stadium ahead of the second leg on Tuesday night.
Manager quotes
Ian Evatt: "For us it's just about focusing on this game, not getting ahead of ourselves and also not dwelling on what's happened in the past.
"We’re treating this almost as a cup tie, a one-off cup tie, and we need to get a positive result. That’s where our mindset is and that’s what it needs to be for Friday to try and get a positive result.
“We don’t go anywhere to draw. We go and try and win every game and Friday will be no different. We’re in a mini-league now of four teams and we have to be the ones to progress.
“We finished highest out of all these teams, which should give us confidence, and now it’s about going out to execute on a pressurised stage on Friday and then we can think about what it looks like moving forwards after that."
Barnsley Interim Manager Martin Devaney: "It's two cup games and that's how we have to approach it. The season is over and ultimately, we're two games away from Wembley.
"We know Bolton's strengths so it's a case of being organised and ready. We've had two tough games so far this season against them and we know these two games will be tight too.
"We've done well against the bigger teams in the league. We'll have to replicate that again in these games."
Team News
Ian Evatt will have the same selection of players to choose from as he did in the final game of the regular season with the welcome return of Victor Adeboyejo who could be available for selection against his former team.
Form Guide
It’s a common phrase that form goes out the window in Play-Off or cup scenarios and Barnsley will be looking to put their end of season form behind them heading into this Play-Off campaign.
They Tykes’ last victory came in a 3-1 win away at Burton Albion at the start of April which leaves them winless in six which ultimately cost Neil Collins his job in the Oakwell dugout.
Former player Martin Devaney is now in charge in the interim and will no doubt have the Reds fired up as they look to go one better than last year’s Play-Off final heartbreak.
Wanderers approach the Play-Offs unbeaten in seven games with three wins and four draws in that run of games. A final day draw at Peterborough ensured a third place finish with 87 points.
Both fixtures in the regular season between both sides resulted in draws. A 1-1 draw at the Toughsheet Community Stadium before Wanderers fought back from two down at Oakwell in March.
Officials:
Referee: Will Finnie
Assistant Referees: Paul Newhouse and Darren Williams
Fourth Official: Benjamin Speedie
Kick-off:
Friday, 7:30pm.
Coverage:
This game will be live on Sky Sports and therefore isn’t available to stream on Wanderers TV in the UK.
International supporters are still able to watch live on Wanderers TV with UK based supporters able to listen with an audio pass.
You can buy a match pass by clicking HERE.
International supporters can buy either a match pass, an annual pass or a monthly pass to watch the match by clicking HERE.