Barnsley strengthened their grip on a top six place thanks to a Boxing Day triumph over Peterborough. This was the 10th time the Reds have been at Oakwell in their last 12 Boxing Day outings, but only the fourth victory they have got from those games. (W4 D3 L5).
However Barnsley have now won their past two home matches on Boxing Day following a 2-0 victory over Blackburn in 2016 and coupled with a 0-0 draw at Preston 12 months ago have not conceded a Boxing Day goal since a 1-0 defeat at Preston in 2014.
This is the second time the Reds have faced the Posh on Boxing Day, and after 54 years Barnsley gained revenge for a 4-1 defeat in 1964.
Barnsley have now completed a league double over Peterborough following a 4-0 victory at the ABAX Stadium. It is their fourth league double over the Posh and the first since 2011-2012.
Barnsley have scored six goals without reply against Peterborough this season, the most against them in one campaign since 2004-2005 (7 - 4-0 and 3-1 wins)
It is the first time ever Peterborough have failed to score against Barnsley in a season in which they have met twice.
Barnsley have now lost just one of their last seven home league games against Peterborough (W4 D2), a 2-0 defeat in October 2012.
Alex Mowatt gave Barnsley the lead, turning home Dimitri Cavare's low right wing cross, his third of the season, all of which have come at Oakwell (W2 D1)
The game was sealed by an absolute stunner from Cauley Woodrow, his seventh goal in 12 games for Barnsley and the Reds are still unbeaten when he has netted (W4 D2)
This was the 13th time Barnsley have opened the scoring in 23 League One matches this season and they are unbeaten when scoring the first goal (W11 D2)
It is the 10th time Barnsley have led at half time this season, going on to win all 10!
Barnsley have dropped only four points from winning positions in League One so far this season - only Southend (three) and Luton (two) have dropped fewer points.
This was the ninth time this season Barnsley have scored in both halves of a league game - the same amount as they managed in the whole of 2017-2018.
Kieffer Moore missed the game due to a flu bug, it is only the sixth game he has not appeared in this season (all comps) but only the second in the league (also at Charlton)
He has though only played 36 minutes against Peterborough this season after being forced off in the first half at the ABAX Stadium.
Barnsley have won back to back league games for the fourth time this season, the most in a season since 2016-2017 (5)
Three of the four back to back wins this season have also been accompanied with back to back clean sheets with the only exception being when they followed a 4-0 victory at Peterborough with a 3-2 home win over Luton.
Prior to the Boxing Day fixtures Peterborough were the third highest scorers in League One and they have now only failed to score in four league fixtures this season - two of which have been against Barnsley.
This was Peterborough's first defeat in 12 in all competitions.
Barnsley's first substitution did not arrive until 74 minutes were on the clock, the latest Daniel Stendel has ever waited before turning to his bench at Oakwell.
Barnsley won on a Wednesday for only the second time in the last six fixtures played on this date. It was their first Wednesday fixture since the 17th August 2016 when they defeated QPR 3-2.
This was Barnsley's 23rd league game of the season meaning they have now reached the halfway stage of the campaign. They have won 12 of those games and have 42 points. It is their best halfway tally since the 1999-2000 season when they also had 42 points but had 13 wins.
They have six more wins and 21 more points than they did at this stage of their last League One campaign. They were also in 21st place after 23 games of 2015-2016.
They also have two more wins and five more points than they had in the promotion season of 2005-2006.
This result kept Barnsley unbeaten at home this season (11 league games) however they only have the fifth best home record in the division.
The Reds seven home goals conceded is the best record in League One however.
It is Barnsley's best home start to a season since 2003-2004 (12 matches) and means Daniel Stendel is the first Barnsley manager to go unbeaten in his first 11 home league games since Gudjon Thordarson in that 03-04 campaign (two out of three of Barnsley's foreign managers have now accomplished this)
Overall, excluding a penalty shootout Barnsley are unbeaten in their first 15 home matches - the best start since 1967-1968 when they went the entire season without losing at Oakwell - all in the league.
Including last season the Reds are now unbeaten at Oakwell for 19 matches (all comps), W10 D9 their best home run since 2005-2006 when they also went 19 without defeat in front of their own supporters.
After Blackpool became the first League One opponents to have more ball possession than the Reds last time out normal service was resumed here with Barnsley enjoying 52% against Peterborough.
Peterborough managed only one shot on target, the joint lowest by a league opponent at Oakwell this season along with Bristol Rovers.
They only had three shots in total which is the lowest by a Barnsley opponent home or away in all comps in 2018-2019.
The Posh only forced one corner, the lowest by a league opponent at Oakwell since February when Burton failed to win any.
Barnsley Team:
1. Adam Davies (c)
12. Dimitri Cavaré
5. Ethan Pinnock
6. Liam Lindsay
23. Dani Pinillos
8. Cameron McGeehan
4. Kenny Dougall
27. Alex Mowatt
20. Brad Potts
21. Mike Bähre
25. Cauley Woodrow
Substitutes:
33. Jacob Brown (for Potts 74)
26. Mamadou Thiam (for Bähre 78)
29. Victor Adeboyejo (for Dougall 87)
Unused Substitutes:
7. Ryan Hedges, 10. George Moncur, 18. Adam Jackson, 35. Jake Greatorex.
Peterborough Team:
25. Conor O'Malley
2. Jason Naismith
16. Rhys Bennett
5. Ryan Tafazolli
3. Colin Daniel
15. Joe Ward
4. Alex Woodyard (c)
8. Mark O'Hara
21. Marcus Maddison
9. Matt Godden
17. Ivan Toney
Substitutions:
10. Siriki Dembele (for Daniel 56)
35. Jason Cummings (for Godden 57)
22. Darren Lyon (for Naismith 69)
Unused Substitutes:
1. Aaron Chapman, 11. Louis Reed, 19. George Cooper, 26. Matt Stevens.
Peterborough manager Steve Evans said:
“We’ve been running on three tyres rather than four since early in November,” Evans stated. “The lads are giving the club everything, but it’s too easy to get into our team at the moment and I need that to change.
“Saying we’ve lost for the first time in 12 games makes it look better than it actually is. It’s not a sticky run of form, it’s worse than that. We won’t go up if we stay as we are. “We are not suffering from a lack of hard work, we are suffering from an inability to get the ball down and play.
“And yet we’ve lost today because of fine margins. We should have had a penalty at 0-0, we missed two great chances to score at important times and then we’ve suffered from a horrible decision later on when Ivan Toney is booked for simulation after he’d been hauled down when through on goal. “If we score the penalty early on and take the lead we have a different game. If we get back to 2-1 like we should have done and maybe Barnsley get nervous. “I know referee Carl Boyeson is a referee of high integrity, but he will be ringing me tomorrow as he was shocking from start to finish. His decision not to send off the Barnsley player and to book Ivan Toney was scandalous. It looked like he took advice from an assistant, but that sort of decision is just not good enough. If they go down to 10 men for 20 minutes who knows what would happen? “The change of system worked well at times. We deserved to be level at half-time and we would have been if we had tracked a runner into the penalty area properly.
Match Reports:
Official Website
BBC
Sky Sports
Sky Bet League One results:
Wednesday 26th December 2018:
BARNSLEY 2-0 Peterborough United
Mowatt 24
Woodrow 49
Gillingham 2-0 Portsmouth
Parker 45
Reilly 90+1
Accrington Stanley 2-1 Shrewsbury Town
Clark 1
Kee 21
Norburn 52
AFC Wimbledon 2-1 Plymouth Argyle
Fox 23
Wordsworth 32
Pinnock 75
Burton Albion 3-1 Wycombe Wanderers
Buxton og 27
Akins 33
Templeton 34
Akins 45+4
Coventry City 2-1 Charlton Athletic
Hiwula-Mayifulia 41
Pratley 58
Bayliss 89
Fleetwood Town 3-0 Doncaster Rovers
Madden 11
Hunter 48
Madden 90+1
Oxford United 0-1 Southend United
Kightly 79
Rochdale 2-1 Blackpool
Rathbone 19
Nottingham 35
Henderson 89
Scunthorpe United 0-2 Luton Town
Shinnie 37
Cornick 50
Sunderland 1-0 Bradford City
McGeady 31
Walsall 1-3 Bristol Rovers
Lockyer 7
Rodman 10
Gordon 45
Holmes-Dennis 52
Barnsley move up to 5th place in Sky Bet League One with 42 points from 23 games. We are 3 points inside the Play-Offs, 8 points off the Automatic Promotion Places, 9 points off First Place and 21 points above the Relegation Zone.
Up to 27/12/18
Next Up:
At Oakwell:
Sky Bet League One Matchday Twenty Four: Barnsley v Charlton Athletic, Saturday 29th December 2018. Kick-Off: 3pm
On The Road:
Sky Bet League One Matchday Twenty Five: Luton Town v Barnsley, Tuesday 1st January 2019. Kick-Off: 3pm