Visitors Tyke the win in harsh lesson for changed Boro
MIDDLESBROUGH’S Carabao Cup adventure came to end at the very first hurdle as a much-changed and youthful side received a harsh lesson in making dominance count in their 1-0 defeat to Barnsley.
Josh Benson left it until the dying moments of the game to fire the Tykes into the second round, capitalising on a Liam Roberts error.
As expected, Chris Wilder made a raft of changes for the game - eight in total, with only Anfernee Dijksteel, Marc Bola and Duncan Watmore retained in the starting line-up from the weekend defeat at QPR.
Of the incoming players, Roberts and Sonny Finch made their debuts, Tommy Smith captained the side while making his first start and youngsters Hayden Hackney, Joe Gibson and Caolan Boyd-Munce made up an inexperienced midfield.
It was a bright start from Boro, with Watmore spurning a chance with less than two minutes on the clock when he broke in behind. His effort wasn’t placed well enough to beat Jack Walton in the Barnsley goal.
And just two minutes later Boro went close again. Finch’s cross was headed out but only as far as Hackney, whose second touch was a well-hit volley at goal from the edge which was only a fraction wide of the post.
Boro were settled and in control from the early stages and after early chances they almost took the lead with a freak goal. Bola sliced his cross from the left but very nearly spun it into the top corner. Walton just about got back to tip it behind.
Barnsley eventually settled in the game and began to slow the tempo down to knock Boro’s momentum somewhat. It led to a couple of chances around the half-hour mark, with Roberts just about blocking a long-range drive from Mads Andersen, making himself big to deny Aiden Marsh as he ran onto to a slack back-pass, and then diving down well to intercept Marsh’s ball across the box aimed at Devante Cole.
There was very little in the game as the two sides headed down the tunnel for the half-time break, however, after 45 minutes of football that looked every bit a first-round Carabao Cup tie where both sides had made numerous changes.
Sticking to the same fashion in the second half, with more substitution breaks than clear-cut chances.
That did offer Wilder the chance to get another 30 minutes into the legs of strikers Chuba Akpom and Marcus Forss, with Akpom once again causing problems, just as he had at the weekend. There were also debuts for Bryant Bilonga, Daniel Dodds and Isaac Fletcher, with Dodds particularly bright at right wing-back.
With the changes impacting the flow of the game, it took until the 82nd minute for any meaningful action of note, as Boro had a late flurry of chances to win it.
Forss wanted too many touches as Fry ran out of defence well with the ball, while the centre-back was still up from a corner moments later to head Caolan Boyd-Munce’s wonderful cross at goal, only for
Walton to save. Moments later, Dodds crossed well to Bilongo at the back post who was unmarked, but unable to get any decent connection on his header as it spun back towards Akpom rather than the goal and the senior striker was unable to control the spin and get any power on his header.
With new striker Matthew Hoppe watching on from the sides, he watched Boro squander plenty of half chances to win the game as theft largely controlled proceedings without being spectacular.
Low and behold, deep into three minutes of added time, with the game looking like it was heading to a penalty shoot out, substitute Josh Benson saw his initial effort spin away from Roberts, and he followed it in quicker than anyone else to fire Barnsley into the second round draw.
It was a harsh lesson for a muchchanged Boro side who had many young players on the pitch at the end, as they largely controlled the game without creating many clear-cut chances and not taking those they did.