The Super Reds came from behind with two late, late goals to beat in form Leyton Orient 2 -1 at Oakwell.
A first ever brace from Adam Phillips secured all three points. His goals coming in the 88th and 95th minutes after Orient had taken the lead after only 10 minutes. A superb long ball from de Gevigney enabled Phillips to head over the on rushing goalkeeper and then he was able to poke home from an O’Keeffe free kick.
Barnsley were excellent in the first half, creating chance after chance but the Orient goalkeeper made save after save as the reds pummelled the goal. The reds did however find themselves going in to the break 1 – 0 down after conceding a poor goal after only ten minutes.
Williams made a poor mistake when failing to clear and allowing Orient to steal the ball and former red George Moncur to run in to the box. A feeble challenge from de Gevigney allowed him all the time and space that he needed to pick out his man who easily slotted home. Williams will rightly receive criticism for his error in the goal but the defending afterwards was extremely poor and the goal could still have been prevented after Williams’ poor initial defending.
The second half saw Orient play more defensive and sit back and allow Barnsley to have the ball amongst the back three. Orient were compact and reds midfield and front men were struggling to find space to receive the ball from the back three and for the majority of the time they had no choice but to go sideways and backwards and this frustrated the fans. This has been the case numerous times this season. And it is not the first time this season that Williams and de Gevigney have exchanged a number of hospital balls with each other when having no other option. And the other has been under pressure from the opposition when receiving the ball.
Credit to Collins who knew we needed a different dimension and introduced Cosgrove which enabled us to go more direct as there was no other option. This worked and the more direct play created the first goal but it was Phillips with the header to put us level.
Between his two goals there was a second yellow for Connell who had clearly said something he shouldn’t to the ref after being frustrated with the Orient time wasting. This woke the crowd up for the first time all season at Oakwell and also galvanised the players who then seemed determined to come away with all three points.
It was O’Keeffe who provided the cross for Phillips’ winner and he had put a few good balls in to the box when he came on, both from open play and set pieces.
Earl was excellent at the back and rightly awarded man of the match. He looks a terrific signing and has certainly improved the back line.
Three points was certainly what the reds deserved and now we travel to Shrewsbury on Tuesday in search of another three points for our promotion push.
COYR
