EFL roundup: Plymouth top after Barnsley halt Sheffield Wednesday’s run
Barnsley scored two late goals in a dramatic 4-2 League One victory over South Yorkshire rivals Sheffield Wednesday to end their opponents’ 23match unbeaten league run as they dropped down to second.
The game burst into life in the 10th minute when Mads Andersen slipped the ball through to Devante Cole on the left-hand side of the area and the striker beat goalkeeper Cameron Dawson with a low angled shot.
James Norwood increased Barnsley’s lead two minutes later with a low strike from just outside the area after receiving the ball from Cole. Wednesday reduced the arrears when a long ball from Will Vaulks found Michael Smith on the right and he sent over a low cross that was turned into the net from close range by Lee Gregory just after the half-hour mark.
It was 2-2 when Barry Bannan’s ball over the top found Marvin Johnson on the left and his low cross was finished by Gregory from close range after 74 minutes.
When Luca Connell’s ball into the area caused problems for the Wednesday defenders, Max Watters fired past Dawson with seven minutes remaining to put the hosts ahead. Liam Kitching added a fourth goal in stoppage time as Barnsley strengthened their hold on fourth and extended their own unbeaten league run to 12 games.
That mean a deflected Matt Butcher strike and a late Conor Grant goal sent Plymouth Argyle top of League One after a 2-0 win over 10-man Accrington Stanley.
Plymouth opened the scoring on 14 minutes when the former Stanley midfielder Butcher’s long-range strike hit the back of the defender Baba Fernandes and looped into the net, wrongfooting keeper the Toby Savin. It went from bad to worse for Accrington on 51 minutes when Mo Sangare saw red for two yellow cards – their sixth League One dismissal of the season.
However, the home side came close to an equaliser after 65 minutes when Tommy Leigh’s 40-yard free-kick was superbly pushed out by Callum Burton. Plymouth sealed it when Danny Mayor fed the substitute Grant in the 78th minute and he fired the ball low into the far corner of the net.
In League Two, Carlisle moved back into the automatic promotion places after picking up a point in a goalless draw at Bradford. It was a second straight 0-0 draw for the Cumbrian side against a top-seven rival following their weekend stalemate with Stevenage.
The substitute Rafiq Khaleel rescued a point for relegation-threatened Crawley with a late goal as the
Reds held Doncaster to a 1-1 draw at the Broadfield Stadium. Caolan Lavery headed Rovers into the lead on the stroke of half-time but Crawley were rewarded for an improved second half when Khaleel rifled the ball home to put his side two points above secondbottom Hartlepool with a game in hand.
Aiden O’Brien scored his first Gillingham goal to give Neil Harris’s side a 2-1 victory over Crewe. The Ireland international scored with 20 minutes to go after Callum Ainley had drawn the visitors level following Tom Nichols’s opener.