Barnsley’s unbeaten start to the 2025-2026 campaign finally came to an end, with this first defeat coming in their fifth league game, the longest they have started a league season without defeat since 2018-2019 when they didn’t lose until the eighth.
If you include the Fleetwood cup game it has taken until the sixth match overall to lose (W3 D2 L1) which astonishingly is the longest Barnsley have gone into a season without losing in any competition since 1988-1989 when it also occurred in the sixth game (W1 D4 L1)
Barnsley’s first defeat of a season has come against a promoted League Two side for the second season in a row – they opened 2024-2025 with a 2-1 home defeat to Mansfield who had secured automatic promotion from League Two in 2023-2024.
They have now lost four of their last six matches against promoted League Two sides.
This is the first time Barnsley have lost to the previous season’s League Two play-off winners since they returned to the third tier in 2022 – they had done the double over the last two play-off winners (Crawley last season, Carlisle the season before whilst taking four points off Port Vale the season prior to that)
On Tuesday Barnsley kept their first clean sheet under Conor Hourihane (after 15 matches) however four days later they have gone on to fail to score for the first time under the Irishman – this is their first blank since the game before he took over, a 3-0 defeat to Blackpool on the 8th March.
Interestingly this is only the second time Barnsley have lost 2-0 in 60 league games – it only occurred once last season, at Huddersfield in October 2024.
Both Barnsley and Wimbledon had 16 shots, the first time both the Reds and their opponents have had the same amount of shots since the 22nd February at Rotherham when both had ten.
As both sides had 16 shots it meant there was a total of 32 in the match, the most in a Barnsley game since the 18th April at Leyton Orient (34)
This was only the third ever meeting between Barnsley and AFC Wimbledon with their 2-0 victory meaning every outcome has occurred in those three games – a 0-0 DRAW in August 2028, a BARNSLEY win, 4-1 in January 2019 and now a WIMBLEDON win, 2-0 in August 2025.
Barnsley Team:
1. Murphy Cooper
27. Tennai Watson
5. Jack Shepherd
32. Josh Earl
14. Nathanel Ogbeta
48. Luca Connell
22. Patrick Kelly
7. Caylan Vickers
8. Adam Phillips
40. Davis Keillor-Dunn
10. David McGoldrick
Substitutes:
45. Vimal Yoganathan (for Kelly 62)
23. Neil Farrugia (for Ogbeta 62)
3. Jon Russell (for Connell 73)
19. Reyes Cleary (for McGoldrick 73)
30. Jonathan Bland (for Watson 77)
Unused Substitutes:
51. Kieran Flavell, 20. Connor Barratt.
Wimbledon Team:
1. Nathan Bishop
2. Nathan Asiimwe
33. Isaac Ogundere
6. Ryan Johnson
26. Riley Harbottle
3. Steve Seddon
11. Marcus Browne
4. Jake Reeves
12. Alistair Smith
21. Myles Hippolyte
14. Matty Stevens
Substitutions:
9. Omar Bugiel (for Stevens 64)
16. Antwoine Hackford (for Browne 65)
8. Callum Maycock (for Hippolyte 85)
Unused Substitutes:
20. Joe McDonnell, 15. Patrick Bauer, 7. Danilo Orsi, 29. Aron Sasu.
Sky Bet League One Results
Saturday 23rd August 2025
Luton Town (11th) 0-1 Cardiff City (1st)
Willock 68
Rotherham United (17th) 2-2 Wigan Athletic (12th)
Raggett og 42
McWilliams 60
Sherif 80
Mullin 88
AFC Wimbledon (10th) 2-0 BARNSLEY (6th)
Stevens 29
Hackford 70)
Bolton Wanderers (15th) 1-1 Lincoln City (7th)
Draper 1
Hamer 90+7og
Huddersfield Town (2nd) 1-0 Stevenage (3rd)
May 66
Mansfield Town (9th) 4-1 Leyton Orient (13th)
Hendry 15
Hendry 29
Koroma 37
Evans 59
Bolton 90+5
Northampton Town (18th) 2-0 Exeter City (14th)
Wheatley 1
Dyche 16
Peterborough United (24th) 1-1 Bradford City (4th)
Swann 55
Hayes 90+1
Plymouth Argyle (19th) 1-0 Blackpool (20th)
Boateng 48
Port Vale (22nd) 0-1 Doncaster Rovers (8th)
Bailey 54
Stockport County (5th) 2-1 Burton Albion (16th)
Godwin-Malife 24
Diamond 69
Norwood 77
Wycombe Wanderers (21st) 2-2 Reading (23rd)
Onyedinma 10
Camara 42
Wing 44
Tilley 89
Barnsley lie in 6th place in Sky Bet League One with 10 points from 5 games. We are Goals Scored inside the Play-Offs, 2 points off the Automatic Promotion Places, 3 points off First Place and 8 points above the Relegation Zone.
Up to 24/8/25
Next Up:
At Oakwell:
EFL Cup Second Round: Barnsley v Rotherham United, Tuesday 26th August 2025. Kick-Off: 7:45pm
On The Road:
Sky Bet League One Matchday Eight: Blackpool v Barnsley, Saturday 20th September 2025. Kick-Off: 12:30pm
