BARNSLEY FOOTBALL CLUB

Barnsley Under18s produced a stunning turnaround to come from 2-1 down to beat Sheffield Wednesday Under18s 3-2 at Oakwell.

Adam Lund’s spectacular volley from a clever corner routine and Louis Wardle’s stoppage time penalty helped the Reds to their first win of the season.

Sam Tingle’s fine solo goal gave the Reds the lead three minutes into the second half before goals from Lonchar and Preston put Wednesday in command.

A succession of Aaron Murphy saves helped keep the sides scoreless in the first half, with Kane Swinburn and Tom Clare also coming close to scoring.

Preston fired an early effort straight at Murphy and he had to be alert to deny Wednesday’s Alex Hunt moments later.

Swinburn was the first Reds player to chance his arm, firing just wide of the target as the Reds began to grow into the game.

George Hirst kept the pressure on the Reds defence, bringing another fine save out of Murphy after a spell of good Wednesday possession.

On the stroke of half time, Preston curled a free kick towards the top corner, but once again Murphy was on hand to tip the ball over the top and keep the game scoreless at the break.

The hosts finally broke the deadlock three minutes into the second half with a superb individual goal from winger Tingle.

He picked the ball up almost at the half way line, danced between the challenges and calmly slotted the ball left footed into the bottom corner of the goal.

Murphy produced another fine double save to deny Hirst and Lonchar from levelling the tie before Swinburn saw his rasping drive saved.

Wednesday made their pressure pay and levelled the game when Lonchar’s left-footed volley flew into the bottom corner past the despairing dive of Murphy.

The Reds felt they should have had a penalty when Mo Saeed was clumsily upended in the area but the referee waved away their appeals.

Almost immediately, a long ball forward from the Owls stopper and a low cross into the area allowed Preston to slot the visitors into the lead with just over a quarter of an hour remaining.

The Reds dug in and got the equaliser their efforts deserved when centre-back Lund scored a goal that would not look out of place in the Premier League.

A slick corner routine saw him escape his marker and race unmarked to the back post.

Wardle’s delivery was perfectly flighted and Lund met it on the volley, to smash home and send the home crowd, bench and players wild.

With both sides seemingly settling for a point, Wardle took matters into his own hands, breaking into the box before being chopped down, giving the Reds a stoppage time penalty.

Wardle dusted himself down and lashed into the bottom corner to spark mad celebrations and earn the Under 18s their first win of the season against fierce South-Yorkshire rivals, Sheffield Wednesday.

After the match, Academy Under 18s Coach Chris Howarth said: “It’s always nice to get a win, especially against your rivals. The lads were magnificent in terms of their attitude.

“We could have done a little more with the ball which we’ll grow into but confidence comes from winning games and I’m delighted.

“We’ve worked on lots of different things this week with players out of positon and it gave us a lift, you cannot fault the lads’ application.

“Lundy will tell you we’ve worked on that set play on the training ground for the last three years and we’ve hit the post, the crossbar, had it on the AstroTurf, everything.

“When it comes off like that it’s special, it’s time on the training field and he was by far man of the match, he dealt with possibly the best striker all game but he gave him a real tough test.

“It was the team that scored the goal, we’ll continue to get better but you cannot beat that winning feeling.”