Barnsley battle and hit Wednesday for four

Two form sides went head to head in a clash of 4th placed Barnsley hosting top of the table Sheffield Wednesday at Oakwell.

Michael Duff made one change from the side that won late on at Wycombe on Saturday with top scorer Devante Cole coming in for Max Watters who reverted to the bench. The Tykes were spearheaded by the usual two strikers of Cole and Norwood both scored in the 2-0 win at Hillsborough back in September.

The Tykes went into the game unbeaten in 11 games winning nine with the Owls being unbeaten since early October. The game was a sell out and televised on Sky TV.

First half

The first nine minutes were frenetic as you would expect in a derby but amongst the hustle and bustle, skipper Mads Andersen calmly fed Devante Cole who from an acute angle nutmegged the Wednesday keeper to set the blue touch paper and put the reds one up.

If that wasn’t enough mayhem, straight from the restart Barnsley pressed the Owls with Connell feeding Norwood who turned and ran at the Wednesday defence. From well outside of the penalty area, Norwood struck with a low strike into the Wednesday goal to send Oakwell into delirium.

On 16 minutes Oakwell lit up with fans showing their support to Barnsley employee Beth Sefton who is poorly in hospital and a well thought of member of the club.

The Owls first real opportunity came on 30 minutes when Andersen manhandled Michael Smith to concede a free kick. Bannan took the subsequent freekick with the header going over Isted`s bar.

Wednesday were back in the game two minutes later when an innocuous ball down the right fed in Smith whose first time cross was met by Lee Gregory who smashed the ball in from close range.

Smith was booked a minute later for a foul on Herbie Kane. The resulting freekick was headed tamely at goal from Bobby Thomas.

Thomas was heavily involved moments later winning the ball on the right. Adam Phillips whipped in a great cross which was met by Norwood whose header was saved. A real chance for the reds to open up another two goal lead.

A succession of deep crosses from both sides came into the Barnsley penalty area. The last was headed well over by Flint when he should have hit the target.

The Owls applied more pressure a couple of minutes before halftime when Bannan`s cross was met with a bullet header from Smith only for Isted to make a superb one handed save.

The Reds went in at halftime a goal up and Michael Duff`s mantra of “win each half” continued.

Second Half

Neither side made any changes at halftime with the Wednesday players sent out early prior to kick off.

Where in the first half, referee Ross Joyce let tackles go and didn’t give cards out like confetti in the second half Joyce penalised some late tackles with Thomas and Williams going into the referees notebook.

On the hour mark, Duff looked to his substitutes bench making a double change with Tedic and Luke Thomas replacing Norwood and Phillips. Norwood`s last mark on the game was to come close again to scoring his second when he got on the end of a Jordan Williams cross. The veteran striker was convinced the Wednesday goalkeeper saved his shot that he picked up a yellow card for his protests.

Wednesday continued to apply pressure with a number of corners putting the Barnsley defence under pressure with the Owls winning most of the headers.

The visitors’ pressure continued with the reds being unable to get out of their own half. After Bannan`s deep cross was put into the penalty area by Johnson, Gregory was there to score from two yards out. The goal had been coming.

Duff replaced Kane for Benson and Cole for Watters for the last ten minutes in a hope to get the reds on the ball more and have a spell of possession to take the pressure off.

Out of nothing the reds were back in front. Luca Connell`s cross wasn’t dealt with and Max Watters placed his shot calmly into the top corner with possibly his first touch of the game. Cue pandemonium in the Ponty End with Duff the calmest man in the ground.

Credit to the Reds substitutes who made a difference when coming on. Luke Thomas helped make the ball stick up top and take the pressure off the defence. It was no surprise Thomas was heavily involved in the sixth goal of the game when he placed it on a plate for the flying Liam Kitching who had sprinted the length of the pitch to slot the ball into the Wednesday net to send Oakwell into orbit.

Summary

Despite being put under some great pressure, praise should go for Bobby Thomas and Harry Isted who put their bodies on the line and kept the visitors at bay.

Cole and Norwood had set the reds on the way to victory early on and put another great shift. Max Watters, Tedic and Thomas came off the bench and made sure the three points went Barnsley`s way.

There is real momentum at Oakwell at the minute both on and off the pitch. The fans are buying into what the team is doing with the atmosphere going up several notches recently. Now Barnsley have a week to rest up and go again for the final run starting away at Exeter next Tuesday.