Mon Mar 09, 2026 7:26 am
After losing 1-0 to Wycombe Wanderers on Tuesday evening, Barnsley returned to winning ways by beating Exeter 2-1 at Oakwell Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Although Conor Hourihane's side sit eight points behind Huddersfield Town, who currently occupy the final playoff place, the Tykes do have three games in hand on the Terriers, as well as many of the teams around them.
What has prevented Barnsley from pushing further up the League One table so far has undoubtedly been their leaky defence, as despite there being only three other sides hitting the back of the net on more occasions, only two teams have conceded more than the South Yorkshire side's 55 goals after 33 games.
Having not won back-to-back matches since November 8, Barnsley will be looking to begin a promotion charge on Tuesday evening by winning consecutive matches ahead of a fixture run in which their following five games are all against sides below them in the league table.
However, claiming all three points against Cardiff will be no easy feat, with the Tykes losing seven of their previous nine matches against the Welsh side, the most recent of which being a 4-0 drubbing at the Cardiff City Stadium earlier in the season.