Bournemouth v Barnsley: Flitcroft wants win to end Tykes’ ‘hurting’

The Barnsley manager has seen his side impress in spells this season, but the Reds have picked up just four points and sit in the bottom three.

At the City Ground on Saturday the Reds rallied to level at 2-2 against high-flying Nottingham Forest only for Darius Henderson to plunder a late winner.

“You need points on the board,” stressed Flitcroft. “It’s no good coming away with an ‘unlucky’ story and saying to ourselves we could have done this and we could have done that. At the end of the day we need to get points on the board.

“We’ve got some catching up to do, but I certainly believe – and the squad do as well – that we can beat Bournemouth. There was some positive play at Forest and we went toe-to-toe with them, but we just fell short.

“But we’ve got to make sure the next time we perform that we don’t fall short.

“We didn’t capitulate against Forest, we dug in and stuck in – and there were aspects which pleased me apart from the result.

“I’ve got a squad that’s hurting because we wanted to get a point at Forest and build on what we did a couple of Saturdays ago (with a 2-1 home win over Huddersfield Town).

“I wanted to go into the Bournemouth game, that I definitely believe we can win, with a point from Forest.”

Tonight’s hosts Bournemouth are the perfect example of what a crazy league the Championship can be. Thrashed 6-1 at Watford and 5-1 at Huddersfield, the Cherries sit in the top 10 with nine points.

Last time: Bournemouth 1 Barnsley 1; February 28, 2006; League One.

Last six: Bournemouth LWLLWL, Barnsley LDLLWL.

Referee: Brendan Malone (Wiltshire).