Barnsley U18s were unable to make it a league double over Hull City, who took away all three points from the Oakwell Training Ground on Saturday afternoon.

Rob Guilfoyle’s early goal was cancelled out after the interval by Aiden Marsh, before the visitors secured the victory through McCauley Shelgrove’s strike and Kareem Hassan-Smith’s unfortunate own goa.

The young Reds were unable to gain a foothold in the match before Guilfoyle found himself in on goal after being played through by Harry Wood, and the forward made no mistake by keeping calm to slot the ball across goal and into the back of the net inside four minutes.

With the Tigers seemingly in confident mood, Barnsley’s defence had to be on high alert to avoid falling further behind but the hosts still looked dangerous in attack.

With just one goal between the two sides, Tom Harban’s side were still well in the contest and provided a reminder of that at the end of the first half when Charlie Winfield almost played in Will Calligan to score.

HALF-TIME: Barnsley 0-1 Hull City

Barnsley re-emerged after half-time in fantastic fashion, as Joe Ackroyd set up Marsh with a low ball into the box, the striker providing a smart first-time finish to divert the ball into the Hull goal.

Just before the hour mark, though, the visitors were back in front. Wood won the ball back for his side and moved it onto Shelgrove, who did well to cut inside and curl a fine strike beyond the outstretched Harry Widdop.

As the game entered its final stages, Harban’s side sought out a late leveller. Brad Binns and Sam Nicholson caused trouble with great balls into the box from free-kicks, however there was unfortunately no end product on both occasions.

The Tigers sealed all three points, though, when Hassan-Smith inadvertently diverted the ball into his own goal as he attempted to clear his lines.

Despite their second league defeat of 2020, the young Reds remain fifth in the Under-18s Professional Development League 2 table and will look to ramp up the pressure on fourth place Nottingham Forest and third place Burnley with a victory away at Crewe Alexandra next Saturday.

REDS XI: Widdop, Hassan-Smith, Ariely, Nicholson, Calligan, Lancaster, Ackroyd, Winfield, Binns, Marsh, Sila-Conde.

Subs: Brown, Walmsley, Hodgson, Birks, Chapman.

HULL XI: Fisk, Thompson, Ward, Wood, Swift, Leake, Power, Best, Guilfoyle, Snelgrove, Beckett.

Subs: Cartwright, Green, Jarvis, Rees, Mills.