DARYL DO NICELY
Mowatt & Dike too hot to handle
ALEX MOWATT celebrated his Championship Player of the Month award by firing his rampant Barnsley side a step closer to the play-offs.
On Friday the Tykes skipper, 26, was crowned the division’s best performer for March and he took centre stage again yesterday at Oakwell.
With the visitors proving a tough nut to crack, former Leeds star Mowatt curled in an inswinging corner from the right flank which flew all the way over hapless Marcus Bettinelli and into the Boro goalkeeper’s net.
Mowatt’s 62nd-minute strike was added to 15 minutes from time when American striker Daryl Dike dived to head home a second.
Barnsley boss Valerien Ismael, whose side are now five points clear of seventh-placed Reading with just five games remaining, said: “I think Alex is finding some great form at the moment.
“He played at a very high level with consistency and has just got the reward with the Player of the Month.
“Alex and Dike are key players and showed that again today.
“We have crossed the 70-point mark and psychologically that’s very important.
“Now our purpose is to get the job done together but we take it one game at a time.”
Chances were scarce until Bettinelli’s major blunder and
Middlesbrough manager Neil Warnock said: “What can you say about a goal like that?
“My missus would have been disappointed to concede it.”
Warnock pledged to overhaul his squad during the summer and also aimed a jibe at Barnsley’s long-ball approach.
He said: “I don’t think they will get away with playing like this two seasons on the trot.
“They have to go up this season and ruffle a few feathers but I don’t think some of my lads would enjoy playing in the team.
“I’m glad I only have to come here once. Their defenders don’t think about anything except hoofing it straight away.”
Ismael also believed that Bettinelli should have seen red for chopping down Dike in the second half.
The Frenchman said: “It is another big mistake from the referee.”
Barnsley have been out of the top flight since their solitary Premier League campaign in 1997-98 but have been a side transformed under Ismael.
He added: “Today was about getting the job done.
“Middlesbrough tried to take the intensity out of the game.
“But in the second half we changed things around and that had more of an impact and, as usual, set-pieces make the differences at this level.”
BARNSLEY: Collins 6; Sibbick 6, Helik 6, Andersen 6; Brittain 6, Palmer 6 (Halme (57th)
6), Mowatt 8, Styles 7; Frieser 6 (Morris (46th)
6), Woodrow 7 (Chaplin (57th) 6); Dike 8
MIDDLESBROUGH: Bettinelli 4; Fisher 6, Hall
7, McNair 6, Bola 6 (Johnson 80th); Saville 6, Howson 6; Spence 6 (Coulson 80th), Kebano 6 (Bolasie (70th) 6), Watmore 6 (Assombalonga
(70th) 6); Akpom 6 (Fletcher (70th) 6)
STAR MAN: Alex Mowatt
REF: K Stroud