Barnsley’s winless league run has now stretched to five league games (D2 L3), their worst run since a run of seven between 4th March and 5th April.
Prior to this they had won five of their opening seven League fixtures of 2025-2026.
At Oakwell the Reds were unbeaten in their opening four league games, winning three but have now lost back to back home league games for the first time in 2025, last occurring in the final two home games of 2024 against Birmingham (1-2) and Leyton Orient (0-4)
This was the fourth league game this season to be 0-0 at half time and Barnsley have failed to go on to win any of them, losing each of the last three.
Indeed since the start of 2024-2025 Barnsley have won only three of 15 league games to have been goal-less at the break.
It is only the second time this calendar year Barnsley have lost 1-0 at Oakwell – the other occasion coming against Stevenage in January.
Barnsley scored three goals in three of their first four home league games this season however have now gone successive Oakwell league outings without scoring for the first time since the beginning of 2025 when they lost 1-0 to Stevenage and drew 0-0 with Burton in January/February - these are the only two occasions it has occurred since the start of last season.
One positive is this result ended a run of six successive games in all competitions in which Barnsley had conceded at least twice and they have now kept only one clean sheet in their opening 17 games of a season (all comps) their worst start defensively since 2017-2018 when it took until the 18th game to achieve a second.
Twelve games in and Barnsley are six point adrift of the top six, the furthest behind they have been at this stage of a League One season since 2015-2016 when they sat 17th and was seven points back – they did however go on to win the play-offs that season.
Barnsley picked up two first half yellow cards for only the second time this season, also occurring in the season opener at Plymouth – and ironically Jack Shepherd has been booked in first half stoppage time in both.
The 15th minute booking for Marc Roberts is Barnsley’s earliest yellow in a game since Conor McCarthy against Exeter on the 14th December 2024 (11th minute)
This defeat ended an incredible 14 match unbeaten record against Rotherham in all competitions, stretching back 43 years to 1982.
The Reds had won each of the last seven meetings prior to this.
Only one team has managed to score in three of the last four meetings and seven of the last ten.
This result ends an even longer unbeaten record for the Reds against the Millers at Oakwell, they had remained unbeaten in the previous 16 Oakwell clashes (W10 D6) stretching back 55 years to 1970 when the Millers had won 1-0 in a League Cup tie.
It is their first victory in a league meeting at Oakwell in 15 visits stretching back to 1969 and another 1-0 success.
This was the first time in four Oakwell meetings that Rotherham had even managed to score, they haven’t managed to score more than in their last 19 visits.
Barnsley failed to score for the first time in 11 Oakwell meetings (all comps)
Despite failing to score Barnsley attempted the most shots (19) in a game since the final home game of last season against Shrewsbury (25)
Barnsley Team:
1. Murphy Cooper
6. Mael de Gevigney
5. Jack Shepherd
4. Marc Roberts
14. Nathanel Ogbeta
19. Reyes Cleary
30. Jonathan Bland
48. Luca Connell
22. Patrick Kelly
10. David McGoldrick
40. Davis Keillor-Dunn
Substitutes:
7. Caylan Vickers (for Bland 70)
27. Tennai Watson (for de Gevigney 71)
3. Jon Russell (for Kelly 79)
Unused Substitutes:
51. Kieren Flavell, 18. Jake Rooney, 45 Vimal Yoganathan, 23. Neil Farrugia.
Rotherham Team:
1. Cameron Dawson
2. Joe Rafferty
3. Zak Jules
15. Jamal Baptiste
11. Ar’Jany Martha
17. Shaun McWilliams
8. Kian Spence
44. Daniel Gore
7. Joe Powell
19. Josh Benson
9. Jordan Hugill
Substitutions:
10. Sam Nombe (for Benson 45)
22. Denzel Hall (for Rafferty 53)
6. Reece James (for Hugill 79)
5. Sean Raggett (for McWilliams 90)
Unused Substitutes:
13. Ted Cann, 4. Liam Kelly, 16. Dru Yearwood.
Sky Bet League One Results
Thursday 23rd October 2025:
Exeter City (18th) 2-0 Plymouth Argyle (22nd)
Cole 18
Higgins 58
Saturday 25th October 2025:
BARNSLEY (11th) 0-1 Rotherham United (15th)
Spence 64
Bolton Wanderers (7th) 1-0 Cardiff City (3rd)
Cozier-Duberry 90+4
Mansfield Town (8th) 1-1 Wigan Athletic (13th)
Evans 32
Cooper 59
AFC Wimbledon (6th) 0-1 Burton Albion (20th)
Hartridge 51
Leyton Orient (14th) 1-0 Lincoln City (5th)
El Mizouni 62
Northampton Town (16th) 0-1 Luton Town (10th)
Fanne 77
Peterborough United (24th) 1-2 Blackpool (23rd)
Kioso og 35
Garbett 44
Banks 85
Reading (19th) 1-1 Doncaster Rovers (12th)
Sharp 61
Doyle 68
Stevenage (4th) 1-1 Bradford City (2nd)
Byrne 3
White 18
Wycombe Wanderers (17th) 3-0 Huddersfield Town (9th)
Woodrow 38
Onyedinma 75
Vost og 80
Monday 27th October
Port Vale (21st) 0-3 Stockport County (1st)
Lowe 13
Wootton 23
Diamond 29
Barnsley lie in 11th place in Sky Bet League One with 18 points from 12 games. We are 7 points off the Play-Offs, 9 points off the Automatic Promotion Places, 10 points off First Place and 5 points above the Relegation Zone.
Up to 29/10/25
Next Up:
At Oakwell:
FA Cup First Round: Barnsley v York City, Saturday 1st November 2025. Kick-Off: 3pm
On The Road:
Sky Bet League One Matchday Thirteen: Doncaster Rovers v Barnsley, Saturday 8th November 2025. Kick-Off: 3pm
