For the second successive season an injury time Cauley Woodrow goal in front of the Ponty End secured a 2-2 draw with Bristol City, the FIFTH successive 2-2 draw between the two sides at Oakwell.
In each of the last four occasions an injury time leveller has produced the scoreline with Woodrow grabbing the last two, Josh Brownhill netting for Bristol in 2018 and Adam Hammill for Barnsley in 2016.
Barnsley have opened the scoring in three of the five games and subsequently fallen behind in two of them.
The Reds netted from open play for the first time in the league this season in their fifth match – the latest in a season it has come since 1992-1993 when they had failed to score at all until the fifth match.
Michal Helik scored his first goal in English football to open the scoring – the first time Barnsley’s first open play league goal of a season has come from a defender since 2011-2012 when Middlesbrough’s Stephen McManus got the Reds up and running with an own goal but also the next goal was scored by Stephen Foster.
Helik’s header from a Romal Palmer corner after just two minutes is the earliest Barnsley have scored since Woodrow netted in the first minute against Brentford in September 2019.
It also ended Barnsley’s run without scoring a first half league goal at Oakwell, after failing to do so in the previous nine Oakwell league matches since netting against Sheffield Wednesday in February.
Woodrow’s late leveller came from the penalty spot, his sixth spot-kick goal for the Reds and second in successive games. It is the first time Barnsley have scored penalties in successive matches since the start of 2015-2016 when Josh Scowen scored from 12 yards in a 1-1 League Cup tie at Scunthorpe and then Conor Hourihane did so the following game in a 1-0 League One victory over Burton Albion
Woodrow has now scored in back-back games for the ninth time in his Barnsley career (including runs of more than two in a row)
Barnsley held a half-time lead in the Championship for the first time in 2020-2021 and the first time at Oakwell in 12, last doing so against Huddersfield in January.
However this is the first time Barnsley have not won a match when opening the scoring in 14 such matches (all comps). They had beaten Fulham, Huddersfield, Crewe, Millwall, QPR, Middlesbroughx2, Hull, QPR, Blackburn, Nottingham Forestx2 and Brentford since last failing to do so in a 1-1 draw with Reading in December 2019.
There was a goal in the first five minutes of the first half and the first five minutes of the second half (2 and 47), the first time this has occurred since an FA Cup tie at Crewe in January (3 and 48), it is the first occurrence in a league game since Brentford at home in September 2019 when a goal was scored in the first minute of both halves.
Jack Hunt scored Bristol City’s equaliser, the defender made 11 appearances during a loan spell at Oakwell in 2014, and is the first ex Red to score against them since Luke Berry scored for Luton in July. It is the first time at Oakwell since Jacob Butterfield (again for Luton) in August 2019. It was Hunt’s first league strike since April 2019.
This was the first time Bristol City have both gone behind and not won in the 2020-2021 Championship campaign.
Adam Murray took charge of a Barnsley match for the sixth time and he is yet to earn a win (D4 L2) This was his third 2-2 draw, two of which have come against Bristol City.
This is now Barnsley’s worst start to a season since 2009-2010 when they had only one point after five games.
Barnsley had 17 shots in total, their most in 2020-2021 and most since the final home game of 2019-2020 against Nottingham Forest (20)
There were 30 shots in total, the most in a Barnsley league game in 2020-2021 and most since Reading away in February (30)
14 of the 30 shots hit the target, the most in a Barnsley league game since Fulham away in January (14)
Nine of the on target shots were from Bristol City, the most by a Barnsley opponent at Oakwell since Stoke in November 2019 (9)
Barnsley Team:
1 Jack Walton
6. Mads Andersen
26. Michael Sollbauer
30. Michal Helik
21. Romal Palmer
27. Alex Mowatt
2. Jordan Williams
22. Clarke Oduor
16. Luke Thomas
11. Conor Chaplin
9. Cauley Woodrow
Substitutes:
8. Herbie Kane (for Palmer 57)
23. Elliot Simoes (for Oduor 63)
28. Dominik Frieser (for Chaplin 77)
Unused Substitutes:
40. Brad Collins, 7. Callum Brittain, 18. Isaac Christie-Davies, 19. Patrick Schmidt.
Bristol City Team:
12. Max O'Leary
5. Alfie Mawson
23. Taylor Moore
26. Zak Vyner
14. Andreas Weimann
10. Jamie Paterson
2. Jack Hunt
25. Tommy Rowe
30. Tyreeq Bakinson
7. Chris Martin
21. Nahki Wells
Substitutions:
18. Antoine Semenyo
22. Tomas Kalas
11. Callum O'Dowda
Unused Substitutes:
13. Joe Wollacott, 43. Steven Sessegnon, 42. Han-Noah Massengo, 9. Famara Diédhiou.
Bristol City manager Dean Holdensaid:
"It doesn't look clear enough for me to give a penalty, I've got to be honest, but we have to get on with it.
"We took a while to get to grips with the game. In the second half we were so much better. We played the game on our terms, scored two good goals and we were in control of the game then.
"We had opportunities to take the game away from them, but if you don't do that then you're always at the mercy of a referee's decision or an equaliser."
Sky Bet Championship results
Other Fixtures:
FRIDAY 16TH OCTOBER 2020
Derby County (21st) 0-1 Watford (5th)
Joao Pedro 76
SATURDAY 17TH OCTOBER 2020
BARNSLEY (22nd) 2-2 Bristol City (1st)
Helik 2
Hunt 47
Bakinson 51
Woodrow pen 90+12
Birmingham City (16th) 0-1 Sheffield Wednesday (24th)
Bannan pen 49
Blackburn Rovers (9th) 0-1 Nottingham Forest (20th)
Lolley 90
Bournemouth (3rd) 0-0 Queens Park Rangers (14th)
Brentford (10th) 2-0 Coventry City (19th)
Toney 46
Toney 55
Luton Town (6th) 0-2 Stoke City (8th)
Fletcher 46
Powell 55
Middlesbrough (15th) 0-0 Reading (2nd)
Rotherham United (17th) 1-2 Norwich City (11th)
Ladapo 3
Ihiekwe og 68
Hugill pen 90+5
Swansea City (4th) 1-2 Huddersfield Town (13th)
Toffolo 23
Ayew pen 33
Koroma 67
Wycombe Wanderers (23rd) 1-2 Millwall (7th)
Kashket 9
Wallace pen 48
Leonard 63
SUNDAY 18TH OCTOBER 2020
Preston North End (18th) 0-1 Cardiff City (12th)
Ojo 52
Barnsley lie in 22nd place in the Sky Bet Championship with 2 points from 5 games. We are 7 points off the Play-Offs, 11 points off the Automatic Promotion Places, 11 points off First Place and 1 point inside the Relegation Zone.
Up to 18/10/20
Next Up:
On The Road:
Sky Bet Championship Matchday Six: Stoke City v Barnsley, Wednesday 21st October 2020. Kick-Off: 8pm.
At Oakwell:
Sky Bet Championship Matchday Eight: Barnsley v Queens Park Rangers, Tuesday 27th October 2020. Kick-Off: 7:45pm