THE VERDICT: BARNSLEY 1 TOWN 1 Town made to pay again for lack of cutting edge
TOWN RATED CORBERAN FAILED TO GET RESPONSE HE WANTED FROM TERRIERS WITH DISAPPOINTING SHOW AGAINST BARNSLEY
LEE NICHOLLS
THE Terriers wasted a golden opportunity to get their season back on track as their old habits cost them dear once again at Oakwell.
Carlos Corberan and his players had talked a good game about providing an appropriate response to their worst performance of the season against Middlesbrough.
But despite some glimpses of training-ground movement producing some promising openings, Huddersfield Town continued to look woefully unable to turn their most promising chances into goals.
In the torrential downpour of the first half, any hopes of a big performance went out of the window.
Performances can wait for another day – this game was all about the points.
In the end Town did not wholly deliver on either front, with a bold and experimental attacking line-up providing a few nice moves and nice touches but no real clearcut chances beyond the one that the outstanding Lewis O’Brien placed perfectly into the far bottom corner to open the scoring off Josh Koroma’s pass.
That meant Barnsley needed just one moment of inattention, one slip-up, to ensure they got their share of the spoils, and they got it as Town failed to mark up properly on a second ball from a set-piece, allowing Carlton Morris to get onto a ball over the back line and finish past a helpless Lee Nicholls moments before the break.
Town kept getting into good positions in the second half, but having claimed that assist in the first half and having hit the bar just before Barnsley levelled, Koroma looked absolutely determined to add a goal to his name – and that came to the detriment of his side.
That desperation and lack of confidence was clear from the winger as he ignored better passes in favour of taking too
Collins, Helik, Andersen, Kitching, Brittain, Palmer (Benson, 75), Gomes, Styles (Williams, 86), Iseka (Adeboyejo, 62), Woodrow, Morris. Subs: Walton, Moon, Hondermarck, Cole.
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many touches, telegraphing his intentions and inevitably having his shot blocked.
That included a potential cutback to the deeper-lying Danny Ward that would have teed him up to shoot from the edge of the box, but most egregious was opting for glory instead of playing a ball for substitute Mipo Odubeko that would have put the striker clean through on goal.
That kind of desperation was only best summed up by Koroma, though in truth it is