Barnsley 0 - 2 Manchester United

Quartet ineligible for Tykes

Updated: October 26, 2009, 3:37 PM UK

Barnsley will be without on-loan trio Ryan Shotton, Carl Dickinson and Nathan Doyle plus striker Andy Gray for the Carling Cup clash with Manchester United.

Stoke defenders Shotton and Dickinson and Hull midfielder Doyle have all played for their parent clubs earlier in the competition while Gray played for Charlton in the first round before his move to Barnsley in late August.

Otherwise, manager Mark Robins has a full-strength squad to choose from, with no new injury problems following Saturday's 3-2 home defeat to Bristol City.

Robins must decide whether to recall Brazilian midfielder Anderson De Silva and the rested Jon Macken to his starting line-up while fellow striker Daniel Bogdanovic was on the scoresheet on Saturday.

Barnsley won at Lincoln and Reading in rounds one and two respectively and beat Burnley 3-2 at Oakwell in the third round to book a fourth-round clash with Robins' former club.

Almost 20 years after his FA Cup goal for Manchester United probably saved Alex Ferguson's job, Barnsley boss Robins will try and knock his former manager out of the Carling Cup at Oakwell.

Robins' goal in a 1-0 third-round victory over Nottingham Forest at the City Ground in January 1990 came at a time when the pressure was on Ferguson after three trophyless years at United.

United went on to win the FA Cup that year; the European Cup Winners' Cup arrived the following season and in 1993 Ferguson won the first of his 11 Premier League titles.

The Scot is still going strong at Old Trafford, despite Sunday's 2-0 league defeat to rivals Liverpool, having won 23 titles to become the most successful manager in English football.

Had Robins not scored that goal and United lost to Forest, the club may well have fired Ferguson - thus changing the recent history of the game in this country and on the continent.

Ahead of the Carling Cup holders' fourth-round visit, Robins recalled how he wrote his name into United folklore.

"I had just broken into the first-team fold. The week before I had scored my first league goal against Wimbledon at Plough Lane. There was no alternative but to play me against Forest because there were a lot of injuries to senior players,'' said the 39-year-old.

"In the first half, I got a chance where the ball was played into my feet. I had my back to goal but I turned and hit it just past the post. I got the hair-dryer treatment at half-time because I didn't lay it back to Brian McClair.

"For the goal, I remember Lee Martin was tackled, the ball came to Mark Hughes and with the outside of his right foot he laid it into the penalty area, but it hit the ground as it came up to me and I needed to guide it back where it came from.

"I got pushed in the back by one of their players but it went in the net and we won 1-0.''

Robins is more than happy to accept the credit for saving Ferguson's job, even if the United boss has a different version of the events that day.

He said: "It's nice that people think of the goal in that way and that I can have that claim, if you like.

"But Sir Alex wrote a book and, in it, he was asked the question did the goal save his job? He wrote that in training I would have missed it - but because I got a push in the back from Stuart Pearce it went in! So did I save his job? Yes, I did.''

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson will again ring the changes for the match.

Promising striker Danny Welbeck could be given a run-out after getting the goal that brought down Wolves in the last round. Midfielder Darren Fletcher might also feature if he recovers from a groin injury that ruled him out of the defeat at Liverpool.

Senior professionals like Michael Owen, Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and Wes Brown are all set to be involved.

Assistant manager Mike Phelan confirmed: "We will change things around as we need to have a look at some players.

"Then we will move on to the match against Blackburn. We need to put things right after losing to Liverpool.''