THIAM THE HERO IN TYKES ROMP
BARNSLEY assistant manager Andreas Winkler was full of praise for his team after they opened their season with a crushing win over Oxford, with goals from Mamadou Thiam (two), Brad Potts and Victor Adeboyejo.
After starting on the front foot, the Tykes took the lead in the 21st minute when Thiam received the ball 25 yards out, and drilled his shot low into the bottom corner of the net.
On the half-hour mark, Thiam doubled the Tykes’ advantage with a similar shot from the same position after Potts laid the ball on for him.
The hosts grabbed their third in the 76th minute when Potts picked up a loose ball, switched it onto his right foot and blasted it into the top corner from 12 yards out.
With one minute of normal time remaining, Tom Bradshaw received a cross inside the area and set up Adeboyejo, who rounded off the scoring. Winkler said: “It was a brilliant first match, a good start to the season; the whole squad, also the substitutes, did very good.
“If you have such a good first half like that maybe you can lay back and think, ‘Okay you’ve won already’, but we kept on pressing and everybody who came in, including the substitutes were very good.
“I would like to see football like that for the fans of Barnsley. Football like that is brilliant, but they have to know we can’t play every match like this, but we try to.
“I’m very happy with him (Mamadou Thiam). We can’t imagine how hard it is to come from another country at that age and have a good first season so it’s a big step for him.
“Kiefer Moore and Tom Bradshaw worked very well together for the squad and I would also be happy for them if they scored, but we want to have success as a squad and I don’t care who it is.”
Karl Robinson said: “The people in the stand showed more commitment than the players on the pitch. In some ways I’d rather get beat like that than get beat and every- one say we were unlucky. I know where we are weak, we lost the midfield. I had to go to four in midfield because our two couldn’t cope with their two.
“Losing Samir Carruthers early in the game (was key). He’s going to be out for nearly three months, we think. It’s a knee ligament problem.
“They scored where Samir should’ve been, it happened when we were down to ten men.
“We’ve agreed a fee with a football club and we’ve now got to agree personal terms with the player. “We met the transfer fee, which was very substantial, on Thursday and we thought he would be in for the game.”
BARNSLEY: Davies 7, Cavare 7, Pinnock 7, Lindsay 7, Pinillos 7, Potts 7, Dougall 7, Mowatt 6 (McGheehan 78, 5), Thiam 8 (Moncur 70, 6), Moore 7 (Adeboyejo 82, 7), Bradshaw Subs not used: Walton, Jackson, Isgrove, Bird
OXFORD UNITED: Eastwood 5, McMahon 6, Dickie 5, Nelson 5, Garbutt 6, Ruffels 6, Brannagan 5, Mackie 5 (Whyte 82, 5), Henry 5 (Hall 63, 5), Carruthers 5 (Smith 21, 6), Obika 5 Subs not used: Stevens, Raglan, Mousinho, Norman