Barnsley vs West Bromwich Albion Predictions

• Fewer than three goals have been scored in eight of 11 Barnsley home league games, including the last three.
• Fewer than three goals have been scored in six of the last seven West Brom Championship matches.
• Barnsley have conceded 13 goals in their last seven home league contests.

Unified Baggies can dig in at Oakwell

COVID-hit West Brom dug out a huge result last weekend in beating Reading and, with a similar group of players available at Barnsley, can do so again when up against the division’s worst side. WBA are likely to be without Cedric Kipre, Semi Ajayi, Matt Clarke and Conor Townsend for Friday’s game with Valerian Ismael likely to keep faith with a makeshift defence that kept the Royals at bay.

Another positive to emerge from that 1-0 win at The Hawthorns was Callum Robinson rediscovering his goal touch after a long drought. His ability to dovetail with Karlan Grant will be crucial to their hopes of staying in the automatic promotion hunt over Christmas with Grady Diangana currently ill and out of form.

Back-to-back wins under testing circumstances have shown the Baggies to be a unified group and they should be able to deal with the troubled Tykes here.

Tykes yet to show improvement under Asbaghi  

Barnsley have lost five of their last seven home games, conceding 13 goals in the process with no sign of improvement yet under new boss Poya Asbaghi. Their goalscoring rate is decreasing alarmingly with just three strikes to show from their last six games and we cannot be confident they would breach even a patched-up Albion defence – still marshalled by one of the best goalkeepers in the country.

If West Brom were at full strength, they would be a no-brainer in the match result betting but because of the uncertainty over their personnel, we prefer to recommend an ‘unders’ bet.

Fewer than three goals have been scored in scored in six of the last seven West Brom Championship matches and 73% of Barnsley home games in 2021-22. A 2-0 away win is favoured in correct score betting because of Barnsley’s woeful defensive record since the start of November.