Laws' Rallying Cry For Derby

Wednesday boss Brian Laws is relishing the South Yorkshire derby clash with in-form Barnsley tonight, but insists Simon Davey's men are favourites going in to the game.

The Oakwell club were tipped as one of the favourites for relegation after narrowly missing out on a swift return to League One this season - but have proved all doubters wrong with a fine start of the season, culminating in the 3-2 win over league leaders Watford at the weekend.

And for that reason alone, Laws has labelled the Tykes the favourites coming in to the match, but is sure his charges will give the Reds a run for their money after going five games unbeaten.

'Barnsley's position in the league and their win over Watford (3-2 on Saturday) shows that they will be coming into the game cock-a-hoop and probably favourites to win the game,' Laws told the official SWFC website.

'One thing is for sure; we will give them a real good run for their money. We want to use this game as a yardstick for us and continue to push up the league.'

He added: 'Barnsley came here last season and were the better team but lost and then we beat them 3-0 at their place and I know they are smarting from that. Their results this season show you they are a tough nut to crack but this is a local derby and I am sure it will have every ingredient for that.'

And Laws has called on the Hillsborough faithful to give their usual vocal backing to the side on Tuesday night, after turning out in their numbers to see the stalemate at QPR at the weekend.

He continued: 'That vocal support that we had at QPR was exceptionally good and I appeal to the supporters to come out in a local derby and give us that fantastic support again; make it an intimidating atmosphere for the Barnsley players. They (Barnsley) have sold 5,000 tickets so we're expecting a big gate and a hell of a big noise.'