It was Junior Takeover Day at Oakwell on Friday, as the Reds were set the task of gaining a much needed three points against former Head Coach Lee Johnson, who brought his Bristol City side to Oakwell.
The Junior Takeover Day saw plenty of young Reds across the Barnsley community taking on different roles. On match report duty was Kyle Walker, a year-11 student who will be studying in a media related field once his GCSE’s have been completed.
Kyle’s account of the game is below.
In what was a quiet opening 5 minutes at Oakwell, sprung into life, as Bristol City defender Bailey Wright brought down Kieffer Moore on the edge of the box, in which Moore would have gone through on goal, however the referee decided to show just a yellow card to the defender, though many inside Oakwell felt aggrieved that it wasn’t red. Less than a minute later Barnsley went ahead, when George Moncur’s teasing corner was powerfully met by the head of Kieffer Moore. Barnsley had the chance to go 2-0 up when Kieffer Moore found himself through on goal, but his tame effort was comfortably saved by Frank Fielding in the Bristol City goal, before Famara Diedhiou curled an exquisite strike over the despairing dive of Adam Davies. Barnsley had one final chance to go into the break 2-1 ahead when Andy Yiadom floated the ball into the box towards Kieffer Moore who headed the ball back across goal to McBurnie who headed straight at the keeper.
Half time: Barnsley 1-1 Bristol City
It was a quick start from Barnsley after the break, as George Moncur crossed the ball to the back stick from a difficult angle, Brad Potts met the cross but couldn’t manage to poke the ball past Frank Fielding, although many people inside Oakwell thought that Potts had scored. Kieffer Moore was again causing the Bristol City backline problems, as he raced through on goal brought the ball down on his chest and volleyed goalwards only for him to be denied by an inspired Frank Fielding, who palmed the ball behind for a corner. Barnsley had a strong penalty appeal on the hour mark when McBurnie held the ball up inside the 18 yard box, and then seemed to be hauled to the floor by the Bristol City defender. Barnsley, however did re-take a deserved lead on 78 minutes when Brad Potts lashed home the ball from which Kieffer Moore had laid off to him. However it would be a happy return to Oakwell for Lee Johnson, as just a minute into injury time former Barnsley man Josh Brownhill nodded home from close range to sink Barnsley’s hope of a first win at Oakwell in 11 games.
Full Time: Barnsley 2-2 Bristol City
Barnsley remain 21st just a point outside the relegation zone (with Birmingham due to play Ipswich on 31/03/18) while Bristol city are sat 7th with just goal difference separating themselves, Middlesbrough and Derby.
Barnsley boss Jose Morais said:
“I have the feeling that we deserved much more than what we got, and I need to be grateful and happy for what we got because it was what was possible in the game.
”I feel happy because the team created, played and deserved, really the 3 points and showed the quality that is expected to exist in a league, like the league we are playing in. I believe we have the quality to stay in this league, and we showed this quality, let’s go for the next game.
“I think that we are getting better and better as a team and I felt like this was a very consistent performance.”
Bristol City boss Lee Johnson said:
“I was disappointed with our start, i thought Barnsley started better than us, quicker to the ball, I thought Kieffer Moore caused us some right problems to be honest in the first twenty, twenty-five minutes. Yeah i thought we looked a bit ropey at the back, which is unlike us, normally we are very, very solid, but like i say credit to Barnsley you know obviously it was a great goal to get back into it from Famara, we needed that bit of individual brilliance, pleased for him because he’s been working on that. That settled us a little bit but then it became end to end and it could have gone either way.
“Before the game I would have been disappointed with a draw, but after the game I’m quite pleased with a resilient point.”
