The two form sides in League One went head to head with 4th placed Barnsley hosting top of the table Sheffield Wednesday in a South Yorkshire derby at Oakwell.
Reds gaffer Michael Duff made one change from the side that won at Wycombe on Saturday with top scorer Devante Cole coming in for Max Watters who reverted to the bench. It meant that Barnsley started with the usual two strikers of Cole and Norwood who both scored in the 2-0 win at Hillsborough back in September.
The reds went into the game unbeaten in 11 games winning nine with the Owls being unbeaten in 23 games stretching back to October. Oakwell was a sell out and the game televised live on Sky TV.
The first nine minutes were frenetic as you would expect in a local derby but amongst the hustle and bustle, skipper Mads Andersen calmly fed Devante Cole who from an acute angle nutmegged the Wednesday keeper to put the reds one goal up.
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 left foot strike into the Wednesday goal to send the Oakwell faithful wild.
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. We wish Beth a speedy recovery.
Wednesday’s first real opportunity came on 30 minutes when Andersen manhandled Michael Smith (the same Smith who had been doing the very same to any Barnsley player insight but went unpunished) to concede a free kick. Barry Bannan took the subsequent freekick with the header going over Isted`s bar.
Wednesday were back in the game two minutes later. with Barnsley attempting to play the offside trap, 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. Thomas inches away from making the clearance before it reached Gregory.
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 again 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 and one that he probably should have scored.
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.
Neither side made any changes at halftime with the Wednesday players sent out early prior to kick off as the Barnsley players kept them waiting for a few minutes.
Where in the first half, referee Ross Joyce let tackles go, it was a different story in the second as cards were served up on a regular basis.
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. Norwood was convinced the Wednesday goalkeeper saved his shot that he picked up a yellow card for his protests. Phillips had also received a yellow card a few minutes earlier.
Wednesday continued to apply pressure with a number of corners putting the Barnsley defence under pressure with the Owls winning most of the headers and the second balls.
Wednesday’s 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 all half in fairness and with Wednesday in the ascendency it looked like there could be only one winner from here.
Two more changes for the reds as Cole and Kane were withdrawn in favour of Watters and Benson.
Then from nowhere and 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 from the reds fans as a few even ran on to the pitch.
Credit to the Reds substitutes who made a difference when coming on. Thomas and Watters in particular who both pressed well and added that injection of pace. 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 with virtually the last kick of the game as Oakwell erupted.
Despite being put under some great pressure, praise has to go to every single player in a Barnsley shirt who threw everything at it and found another gear from somewhere when there was no longer a lead to protect.
Cole and Norwood had set the reds on the way to victory early on and put another great shift. Wednesday pegged them back but great efforts from Max Watters, Tedic and Thomas from the bench to make 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 to be the best it has been for a number of years. Now Barnsley have a week to rest up and go again for the final run starting away at Exeter next Tuesday.
COYR
