THE VERDICT: TOWN 2 BARNSLEY 1 Grant fires Town out of drop zone for derby spoils
TOWN RATED STRIKER SECURES POINTS AS COWLEY’S MEN STRETCH UNBEATEN RUN TO SIX MATCHES
Cool under pressure with ball at his feet and handled well on his return to the starting line-up for a clean sheet.
BATTLING Town won a first Yorkshire derby for Danny Cowley thanks to goals from skipper Christopher Schindler and leading marksman Karlan Grant in front of a crowd of 22,718.
The deserved 2-1 win extended Town’s unbeaten run to six matches and lifted them out of the Championship relegation zone.
Schindler pounced inside half an hour from a Grant presentation, while the creator hit the mark himself inside eight minutes of the second half, curling home a superb shot.
Since his debut in February, Grant has scored 12 league goals, only one fewer than the rest of the team have managed combined in the same period (13).
It would have been much easier had Elias Kachunga not missed a couple of chances, but Jacob Brown’s 80th-minute strike had Town fans biting their nails and Barnsley’s 2,129 travelling faithful hoping.
Cowley made three changes, bringing Liverpool loan goalkeeper Kamil Grabara back in after illness, along with midfielder Juninho Bacuna and striker Fraizer Campbell.
Ryan Schofield, Trevoh Chalobah and Adama Diakhaby were all dropped to a bench which also included Alex Pritchard, who had recovered from the illness and groin injury which kept him out against Middlesbrough.
Town started off by playing themselves into trouble, and Barnsley looked lively enough to take advantage.
In fact, it took an excellent block from Jaden Brown to deny Dimitri Cavare a direct shot at goal after more wasteful work by Town on five minutes.
All this was while Lewis O’Brien was receiving treatment to his left shin, following a heavy challenge which went unpunished. He then had to change a blood-stained sock.
When play restarted, Town were no more sure of themselves and were almost caught out by a long punt upfield, with Danny
Collins, Diaby, Andersen, Sibbick, Dougall, Cavare (Thomas, 75), McGeehan, (Wilks, 58) Mowatt, Brown, Woodrow, Chaplin. Subs: Ben Williams, Bahre, Walton, Oduor, Simoes.
Simpson doing well to stop Conor Chaplin from nipping in.
Town, again looking sloppy at the back, failed to clear a 20thminute raid and they were fortunate when Cauley Woodrow poked wide when in plenty of space.
There were loud appeals for a penalty barely 90 seconds later when Campbell was upended by Kenny Dougall in the box, but referee James Linington was totally unmoved, in accordance with is assistant James Wilson.
With relief, Town took the lead