FRIDAY’S play-off semi-final first leg will be the 50th competitive meeting between Wanderers and Barnsley – two sides that have got to know each other pretty well over the last few seasons.
Indeed, in the 1,001 days between their League Cup meeting in August 2021 and the moment the final whistle blows at the Toughsheet Stadium next Tuesday, they will have squared off on 10 different occasions in all competitions.
Ian Evatt has already noted that there will be “no secrets” but with Bolton’s 3-0 win at Oakwell last January aside, there has also been very little to separate the sides whenever they have met on the pitch.
We decided to look at some of the potential match-ups through the frame of the two drawn games this season and what we might expect on another night of play-off drama.
JOSH SHEEHAN V LUCA CONNELL
It has been an outstanding season for Sheehan, who was rightly crowned Bolton’s player of the year for his midfield influence across the whole campaign. He has not yet, however, produced his very best against a major promotion rival.
His two halves at Oakwell were chalk and cheese. Kept well away from danger and kicked from pillar to post in the first 45 minutes, he touched the ball in the final third just once in open play. After the break he was much more involved and got Bolton playing at the sort of tempo that got them back into the game. We won’t mention the penalty at the end because Randell Williams spared his blushes.
Wanderers academy product Connell won’t necessarily be pitched directly against Sheehan but if he is allowed to influence and break up play in the way he likes to do, it will present issues.
In February, Sheehan had one of his most difficult home games of the season as Bolton were forced to go slightly more direct and looked ill at ease with the physicality of the match until the latter stages.
It was also one of only three home games this season where the Welshman has featured for more than an hour but failed to create a goalscoring opportunity – the others being a 4-0 defeat to Wigan and the 1-1 draw with Portsmouth.
Connell will hope to ruffle feathers and make the game more to his own liking, especially if that can generate the set pieces that have created 198 shots on goal this season – a total beaten only by Cheltenham and Stevenage in League One.
RICARDO SANTOS V DEVANTE COLE
Bolton’s captain was missing for the 1-1 draw at the Toughsheet, with Caleb Taylor called in to deputise. Within six minutes, a crucial flick from a long throw was missed and Cole nipped between Kyle Dempsey and Paris Maghoma to open the scoring.
Cole had more success in the air during that game than any other game this season – but with Santos back fit and available, Barnsley are unlikely to have it all their own way again.
Cole managed just 12 touches over 90 minutes in the second game, and just one in the penalty area. It was a shot on goal, though, and a reminder that his goalscoring instincts need very little encouragement. One lapse of concentration can be costly.
Barnsley have tended to pair Cole with John McAtee and both players tend to drift across the front line, meaning the whole back three will have to be on message. They also have the option of going more direct, with Sam Cosgrove, for example.
Santos is one of the Bolton players who regularly rises to the occasion in the biggest games, and knowing full-well he will be left marking with lots of space behind him, here’s hoping there is still some fuel left in the afterburners.
GEORGE THOMASON V ADAM PHILLIPS
Thomason was suspended for the home game and his midfield energy was missed, with Phillips particularly influential on the right side of Barnsley’s central midfield three.
The Liverpudlian midfielder has so often been the Reds’ key man against the better opposition this season, boasting more assists than anyone else in the squad and an attitude to shoot from practically anywhere when he is in the mood.
Thomason’s influence on the Bolton midfield has strengthened considerably this season and few in Evatt’s squad are more adept at breaking up play and covering the yards between the two boxes. His very recent form has been patchy, though, and he will want to be much more reliable in possession than we saw against Peterborough on Saturday.
The game at Oakwell did not start well for him, a mistake leading to the opening goal, but Thomason’s character shone through in the end and along with the finesse supplied by Sheehan and Collins, Wanderers dragged themselves back into the contest.
DION CHARLES V JOSH EARL
Charles did not feature in the 2-2 draw at Oakwell but Bolton’s top-scorer may feel like he owes Barnsley one after he experienced a frustrating time during the draw back in February.
Aaron Collins had stolen the headlines with an assist on debut for Zac Ashworth and had also come close to scoring a winner late on – all of which magnified what a scrappy day it had been for the starting front two.
Charles and Adeboyejo touched the ball just seven times in the penalty box, the former restricted to a few reactive shots early on. Both players’ form had been under scrutiny and former Whites loanee Earl did a very decent job of keeping Evatt’s top scorer in places where he could not threaten the Barnsley goal.
Injury would strike soon after that, and it was not until Saturday at Peterborough that we saw Charles back among the goals and looking more like the waspy, high-pressing threat that we know him to be.
He scored in the first leg of last year’s play-off semi-final – and extraordinarily nervous affair – and also in the 3-0 win at Oakwell at the start of 2023, so Barnsley don’t hold any obvious fears. But the match-up between Earl, who over the course of the two meetings with Bolton has seen more of the ball than any of his colleagues, and Charles, who makes a living out of picking defender’s pockets, could be an interesting one indeed.
AARON COLLINS V MAEL DE GEVIGNEY
Collins made a late impact in the first game, producing a pin-point ball for Ashworth’s equaliser and then very nearly winning it with a fizzing shot from distance.
It was the second game where the former Bristol Rovers man came into his own, and if he can reproduce some of the trickery and intelligent touches that he showed in the second 45 minutes at Oakwell, Bolton might be on to something.
Frenchman De Gevigney was heavily involved in the first game, and his penalty box defending was excellent, but his two worst passing returns have been against Bolton this season (50 per cent success and 51.7 per cent, respectively) which suggests he can be put under pressure on the ball.
He played a part in McAtee’s goal in the second game, blocking Thomason’s intended pass, but also lost the run of Adeboyejo for Bolton’s first goal of the second half.
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