Preview: Nottingham Forest vs. Barnsley - prediction, team news, lineups

Nottingham Forest will be targeting a third successive Championship win when they play host to Barnsley on Tuesday evening.

While the home side currently sit just outside of the playoff positions, the visitors are eight points adrift of safety at the opposite end of the standings.

Match preview

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There will come a time when Steve Cooper will expect more goals from his Forest side on a consistent basis, the East Midlands outfit netting just six times in as many matches in all competitions.

More importantly, however, Saturday's 2-1 victory over Derby County was their second win in succession, extending another run to five triumphs from seven outings.

Such is the competitiveness of the Championship that they remain four points adrift of the top six, but Cooper and his squad appear to be grinding out more second-half victories than their rivals.

In the closing months of the campaign, that will be an important trait, as will Forest rebuffing any attempts from Brentford to sign Brennan Johnson.

The 20-year-old ended a four-game wait to score his sixth league goal of the campaign versus the Rams, a strike which followed Lewis Grabban getting on the scoresheet for the third match in succession.

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While Barnsley still have 21 games to retain their second-tier status, Saturday's 2-1 reverse at Birmingham City was their ninth successive league game without a win.

The fact that it is still well short of their longest period without a victory this season tells you everything that you need to know about the fortunes, and Poya Asbaghi knows that he can ill-afford many more games without breaking their current streak.

Coronavirus-related postponements have prevented the Tykes from generating any kind of momentum, but they cannot be used as an excuse with many other teams facing the same predicament.

To their credit, their last three defeats have only been by a 2-1 scoreline, all coming away from Oakwell, so Asbaghi will still feel that he has something to work with providing that his squad can turn the corner.

Nevertheless, Barnsley are yet to win on their travels all season, collecting just four points and scoring only nine goals during their 13 matches.

Team News

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Cooper must decide whether to keep Max Lowe in the Forest XI after the wing-back made a successful return from injury at the weekend.

Although Joe Worrall is out until March, an alternative is Tobias Figueiredo featuring at centre-back, Ryan Yates moving into midfield and Jack Colback switching to left wing-back.

The front three is expected to remain the same, although Philip Zinckernagel is an option if Cooper wants to freshen up his attack.

Barnsley' starting lineup is dependent on how players recover from their first outing in two weeks and whether other squad members affected by coronavirus are fit enough to come into contention.

Michal Helik overcame injury to last 90 minutes against Blues, but Jasper Moon is an option if Asbaghi opts against taking any risks on the centre-back.

Devante Cole is also pushing for a chance ahead of Aaron Leya Iseka in the final third.

Nottingham Forest possible starting lineup:
Samba; Yates, Cook, McKenna; Spence, Garner, Colback, Lowe; Johnson, Grabban, Davis

Barnsley possible starting lineup:
Collins; Williams, Helik, Andersen, Kitching; Palmer, Gomes; Styles, Adeboyejo, Morris; Cole

We say: Nottingham Forest 2-0 Barnsley

While Barnsley have shown fight in some of their recent outings, they still do not possess the confidence to get over the line, especially against the better teams. With that in mind, we are backing Forest to record a relatively comfortable win at the City Ground.

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