Following victory over bitter rivals Sheffield United on Sunday, the Owls now turn their attentions to Barnsley as they travel to Oakwell on Tuesday evening.
In anticipation of the game that is less than affectionately termed the Dingles against the Dee Dar's by the rival sets of supporters, Barnsley-mad editor Barnsley Boy was good enough to answer a few questions and fill us in on recent happenings at Oakwell.
It has generally been a struggle for the Tykes so far this season, what's gone wrong?
We didn't strengthen properly in the summer really. Last season Davey brought in a whole new team of mainly foreigners and it took the league by surprise at the start but then teams started to come to terms with them and we ended up in a relegation struggle. It was plainly clear we needed new strikers this summer and Davey did great by signing Iain Hume but he has nobody to partner him. We are struggling for goals. Our defence looks ok but if we don't score we don't win.
You looked like you could be turning a corner with the win over Doncaster, but the team didn't take this forward into the Palace game at the weekend, did the international break come at a bad time?
Looks like it. We have only won twice this season, the first one was against Derby which came directly before an international break and then when we came back we didn't win again until Doncaster and then it's another break so it seems they are coming at the worst possible time. But if we start blaming them for our predicament we are losing track of the real troubles.
Barnsley spent some good money in the summer on the likes of Iain Hume. What are your early impressions of your new signings?
Hume must be the most hard-working striker in the league because he works his socks off for 90 minutes. But he just doesn't have a partner. His work rate has made him a fans favourite already and he scores some cracking goals (but does miss the odd open goal) As for the others Hugo Colace looked great but then got injured-should be back tomorrow- and needs to because Anderson De Silva isn't the same player without him. Mounir El Haimour looks woefully slow for a winger, then had to fast for Ramadan so cant get back in the team. Darren Moore has taken a lot of stick from fans but nothing beats him in the air, he's just got no pace but then again who has at 34. We also have Maceo Rigters in on loan- the top scorer at last years Euro Under 21 Championships where he scored an overheard kick against England. Isn't match-fit yet due to injuries but getting sharper with every game.
What about losing Brian Howard? He was excellent in the cup last season but he has never performed that well against Wednesday. Will he be a big loss or is he over-rated?
Bit of both. On his day he's pure class and for the first part of last season he was outstanding. Then he scored THAT goal at Anfield and was never the same. The hype seemed to get to him; he has been shocking this season and told the board he didn't want to play for us anyway. Not bad for a player who kissed the badge when he scored against Ipswich back in March and cried when we lost at Wembley. It will be interesting to see what he's like when he's not the star in the team as he won't be at United.
Campbell-Ryce is getting a great deal of praise in the press of late and is holding down a place in the Jamaica midfield ahead of Jermaine Johnson. Is he likely to be your main threat and who else should we be wary of?
Against Doncaster JCR was unbelievably good and scored a wonder goal, but he was poor against Palace and made a horror mistake which led to the first goal. But really Jamal is our biggest threat on the ball because he has pace to burn. If your full-backs slow he'll murder him.
Do you have any key players struggling with injury ahead of the match?
Bobby Hassell limped off against Palace but is fit. Davey's actually come out and said that this is the first game this season he's had a fully fit squad. (So something's bound to go wrong)
What about a score prediction?
Well we usually lose at Hillsborough and draw at Oakwell. 0-0.