Barnsley’s worst season in terms of league pyramid placing for 25 years at least ended on a positive note as they picked up their 11th away league win of the season – only three teams won more on the road in 2024-2025.
Barnsley finish in 12th place in League One therefore 56th in the English football pyramid, their lowest position since finishing 13th (57th) in 2004-2005.
This was Barnsley’s first final day victory for five years, last achieving the feat in that famous final day of 2019-2020 when Clarke Oduor scored a last second winner at Brentford to keep the Reds in the Championship.
A 4-2 final day win is the Reds biggest since a 4-1 triumph at Wigan at the end of 2015-2016 that secured a League One play-off berth. These three victories are the only ones Barnsley have managed on the final day in the past ten years (W3 D2 L5)
This was the 11th league game this season to be 0-0 at half time and only the third the Reds have gone on to win (W3 D2 L6)
Stephen Humphrys opened the scoring with his ninth of the season, after failing to score for 23 appearances in all competitions he has gone on to score five in his final five of 2024-2025.
Humphrys scored in eight separate games this season but seven of his strikes came in back to back appearances, whereas his other two were only separated by one match.
Another player who has come into form just as the season is closing is Jon Russell who doubled Barnsley’s lead by scoring for a third successive game and fourth in five appearances (a total of five goals), he is the first Barnsley player to score in three successive league games since Davis Keillor-Dunn did so in four between 29th December 2024 and 4th January 2025 netting against Bolton, Peterborough, Wrexham and Crawley.
Speaking of the Reds top scorer, Keillor-Dunn bagged a brace for the second time this season to see him finish on 19 goals (all comps) in his debut season the most by a Barnsley player for six years when both Cauley Woodrow and Kieffer Moore scored 19 in the promotion season of 2018-2019. Eighteen of his goals came in the league the same as last season’s top scorer Devante Cole.
Following on from Humphrys brace at Leyton Orient it means there has been a Barnsley brace in successive away games for the first time since March/April 2021 when Daryl Dike netted two at Wycombe and Luton.
There has also now been a brace scored in five of Barnsley’s last six matches.
One team has now scored exactly four goals in five Barnsley league matches this season (4-0 defeat to Leyton Orient, 4-3 win over Lincoln, 4-1 win over Bolton, 4-3 defeat to Leyton Orient and 4-2 win against Reading) – the most in a season since 2018-2019 when it occurred on seven occasions.
Three of the five have occurred in the last five matches under Conor Hourihane plus a 6-2 defeat Birmingham, one team has scored four in successive Barnsley away games for the first time since March 2007 when the Reds won 4-2 at Plymouth but then lost 4-1 at Coventry – there was actually three successive away games of 4+ goals as they then lost 5-1 at Ipswich.
It is the first time Barnsley have scored four on the road for 14 months since also winning 4-2, at Wycombe in March 2024.
Barnsley scored as many as four second half goals for the first time since the opening game of 2023-2024 when they netted five on the way to a 7-0 win over Port Vale – remarkably they did conced four second half goals in their previous away game, at Leyton Orient.
All six goals were scored in the second half, the second time this season there has been as many as six second half goals in a Barnsley game – also occurring in the 6-2 defeat at Birmingham on the 5th April.
It means of the 142 goals that have been scored in Barnsley’s 46 league games this season a remarkable 93 have been netted in the second half (65%)
Barnsley failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their final 14 league games of the season, their longest run without a shut-out since also going 14 without one between November 2020 and January 2021 in the Championship.
They have conceded a staggering 73 goals in their 46 league games, the exact same amount as they conceded when they finished rock bottom of the Championship in 2021-2022.
These two campaigns are the most goals Barnsley have conceded in a league season since 2013-2014 when they conceded 77 and were again relegated from the Championship.
Only four League One teams conceded more than the Reds and three of them (Crawley, Shrewsbury and Bristol Rovers) have been relegated with this the most Barnsley have conceded in a third tier season since 1964-1965 when they conceded 90, finished bottom and were relegated to the bottom division.
On the flip side only five teams scored more than Barnsley’s 69 and four of those have finished in the top six.
It is however the first time they have scored fewer than 80 goals in a third tier season since 2015-2016 when they scored 70 and is their lowest amount of goals scored at this level since 2014-2015 (62)
2024-2025 is Barnsley’s first mid-table finish for eight years since they finished 14th in the Championship in 2016-2017 as they have been embroiled in either a promotion/play-off or relegation fight in the subsequent seasons:
· 2017-2018 – relegated to League One
· 2018-2019 – promoted to the Championship
· 2019-2020 – survived relegation from the Championship with a last minute winner at Brentford (survived by one point)
· 2020-2021 – reached Championship play-offs
· 2021-2022 – relegated to League One
· 2022-2023 – reached League One play-offs
· 2023-2024 – reached League One play-offs
Despite not providing an assist in any of his final 18 appearances Corey O’Keeffe becomes the Reds highest assister for the second successive season with his nine in 2024-2025 surpassing the seven from last season, it is the joint most assists in a season since 2018-2019 when Alex Mowatt got 13. Luca Connell (2022-2023) and Jacob Brown (2019-2020) also provided nine.
Barnsley’s opponents Reading still had high hopes of making the play-offs and the attendance for this game of 21,481 was the Royals highest home crowd since the final game of the 2022-2023 season.
For the last two seasons Barnsley, Bolton and Peterborough have been League One Play-Off losers, this season none of that trio has even made the end season lottery finishing 8th, 12th and 18th respectively.
It is the first time Barnsley have finished 12th in any division since 2003-2004 when they did so in this division. It is their seventh 12th placing in their history.
Barnsley will now enter a fourth successive season in the third tier for the first time since another run of four between 2002-2003 and 2005-2006
Barnsley are now undefeated for five meetings with Reading (W2 D3), after losing three of the prior four.
This is the third successive meeting in which the home team have netted twice, prior to this the home team had netted once in four successive meetings.
The away side has now scored at least twice in four successive meetings with this the second time they have netted four after Reading won 4-0 at Oakwell in March 2012.
Barnsley have won two of the last four meetings, prior to this they had failed to win any of the previous 10.
No side has kept a clean sheet in any of the last five meetings with it only occurring once in the last seven.
Barnsley have won successive meetings at Reading, prior to this they had lost four in a row.
It is only the second time ever they have won back to back meetings in Berkshire, also winning 2-1 in August 2011 and then 3-1 in March 2014.
The Reds have scored seven goals in their last two visits, winning 3-1 and 4-2, they had failed to score even one in the previous five visits.
Barnsley had nine shots on target, their most for 10 away games since also having nine in the 3-1 defeat at Bristol Rovers on the 18th January.
Barnsley Team:
18. Joe Gauci
20. Dexter Limbikisa
6. Mael de Gevigney
4. Marc Roberts
32. Josh Earl
30. Jonathan Bland
48. Luca Connell
3. Jon Russell
2. Barry Cotter
40. Davis Keillor-Dunn
44. Stephen Humphrys
Substitutes:
7. Corey O’Keeffe (for Humphrys 71)
8. Adam Phillips (for Connell 82)
36. Max Watters (for Cotter 82)
31. Kieran Graham (for Keillor-Dunn 90)
Unused Substitutes:
51. Kieran Flavell, 21. Conor McCarthy, 42. Luke Alker.
Reading Team:
22. Joel Pereira
14. Tivonge Rushesha
27. Amadou Mbengue
24. Tyler Bindon
30. Andre Garcia
7. Harvey Knibbs
29. Lewis Wing
8. Charlie Savage
20. Chem Campbell
19. Jayden Wareham
9. Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan
Substitutions:
17. Andy Yiadom (for Rushesha 57)
10. Billy Bodin (for Ehibhatiomhan 57)
3. Jeriel Dorsett (for Garcia 82)
28. Mamadi Camara (for Campbell 82)
11. Tom Carroll (for Savage 90)
Unused Substitutes:
1. David Button, 38. Michael Stickland.
Sky Bet League One Results – Saturday 3rd May 2025
Blackpool (9th) 4-1 Bristol Rovers (22nd)
O’Donkor 18
Bloxham 40
Morgan 55
Ennis 76
Finnigan 89
Bolton Wanderers (8th) 1-1 Stevenage (14th)
Dacres-Cogley 66
Young 76
Cambridge United (23rd) 1-2 Birmingham City (1st)
Klarer 25
Lavery 36
Watts og 82
Charlton Athletic (4th) 3-1 Burton Albion (20th)
Bennett pen 13
Godden 24
Godden 34
Mitchell 51
Huddersfield Town (10th) 1-4 Leyton Orient (6th)
Agyei 2
Chapman og 24
Koroma 41
Ageyi 48
Abdulai 79
Lincoln City 11th) 0-2 Wrexham (2nd)
Lee 53
Longman 61
Mansfield Town (17th) 3-0 Exeter City (16th)
McLaughlin 25
Dwyer 38
Waine 82
Northampton Town (19th) 1-1 Wigan Athletic (15th)
Fosu 33
Taylor 90+6
Reading (7th) 2-4 BARNSLEY (12th)
Humphrys 52
Russell 57
Wing 67
Keillor-Dunn 79
Keillor-Dunn 85
Bodin 90+4
Rotherham United (13th) 2-1 Peterborough United (18th)
Odoh 1
Nombe 36
Humphreys 66
Shrewsbury Town (24th) 1-2 Crawley Town (21st)
Hepburn-Murphy pen 50
Anderson 60
Benning 87
Wycombe Wanderers (5th) 1-3 Stockport County (3rd)
McCleary 31
Andresson 70
Norwood pen 77
Collar 81
Barnsley finish in 12th place in Sky Bet League One with 61 points from 46 games. We finish 17 points off the Play-Offs, 31 points off the Automatic Promotion Places, 50 points off First Place and 15 points above the Relegation Zone.
Up to 4/5/25
Next Up:
On The Road:
2025-2026
At Oakwell:
2025-2026