Tykes Do The Business At Home Park

Barnsley began the afternoon at Home Park knowing that only a point would secure their Championship status for another season and send Norwich City into League 1, whatever their result against Charlton Athletic at the Valley.

However, Plymouth Argyle were not prepared to roll over, despite their safety having already been assured by Reading`s victory over the Norwich on the previous Monday night.

It was Plymouth who began brighter, taking the lead after just twelve minutes through a set play. Paul Gallaghers corner was met by Gary Sawyer who crashed home a header past the despairing Luke Steele and into the Barnsley goal to make it 1-0. It looked like Barnsley had their work cut out to get anything from the game.

The Tykes were looking nervous and found it difficult to string a series of passes together, with Plymouth looking the better side and on 25 minutes their lead was almost doubled but for a super save from Luke Steele. Another cross found a Plymouth head in the Barnsley box, but this time Alan Judge`s effort was tipped on to the underside of the crossbar by Steele who also managed to hold on to the inadvertant rebound from Rob Kozluk.

Just after the half hour mark, Barnsley found themselves level. Adam Hammill, the on loan winger from Liverpool, found space 30 yards from goal and let fly with a rocketing low drive into the bottom corner to beat Larrieu to send the already noisy Barnsley contingent into hysterics.

The football started to flow for Barnsley and Bogdanovic and Colace both had shots at goal before the referee Clive Penton blew the half time whistle to bring proceedings to a break.

Half-Time Score: Plymouth Argyle 1 Barnsley 1

Minutes after the restart, all fears of relegation were laid to rest for Barnsley when Jamal Campbell-Ryce slotted home his 9th goal of the season to make it 2-1. Jon Macken did well in the Plymouth box to hold the ball up and afford the tricky Jamaican winger time and space to send the ball into the bottom corner on 47 minutes.
Barnsley supporters were in party mood now, celebrating Championship survival once more and saw their side take the game to Plymouth with Hammill and Macken going close to making it three for the Tykes.

With ten minutes remaining, Campbell-Ryce already a hero, cut inside from the left flank in his trademark style to curl a shot towards Larrieu`s far post but this time the Barnsley winger`s shot whizzed past the wrong side of the post.

Plymouth finished the game with a few tame efforts from Mackie, Noone and Donnolly but the day belonged to Barnsley, who ran down the clock with cameo appearances from Mifsud, El Haimour and Devaney in the final minutes.
Celebrations from both sets of supporters ensued at the final whistle as both teams will meet once more next season in the Championship.

It`s also worth noting a hat-trick from a certain Deon Burton, who never did very much at all in his spell at Oakwell but managed to come up with the goods this afternoon for the Tykes with three of Charlton`s four goals en route to victory over Norwich, albeit they were surplus to requirements in the end as victory over Plymouth had saved the Tykes anyway.

So, jubilation in a fashion for Davey`s men for now but when the dust settles the club must surely be taking a long hard look at how they can avoid another relegation dog fight next season. As one fan said, “he (Davey) can`t keep putting us through this every year”.

Final Score: Plymouth Argyle 1 Barnsley 2