Barnsley 2-1 Gillingham

Last updated : 02 September 2018 By Rob Miles

Barnsley continued their best start to a season for 15 years, their points return of 14 from the opening six matches equals the start to the 2003-2004 season.

The Reds have also conceded the same amount of goals as they did back then (3) but have scored more (14-9)

Gillingham's Josh Parker is the first opposition player to score at Oakwell this season, it is the first time since 2015-2016 that it has taken until the third home game of a season for the Reds to concede.

Including play-offs Barnsley are now unbeaten in their last 15 League One games and have only lost two of the last 20.

Barnsley have now scored at least twice in five of their first six matches and only league leaders Peterborough (16) have scored more than the Reds in League One this season.

It is the first time they have made a goal-scoring start like this since 2016-2017 when they scored at least twice in six of their first seven league matches (total of 18)

Barnsley have been two goals ahead at half time three times now this season, for the first time since 2016-2017 (also 3). In total Barnsley have been leading at half time in four of their opening six games, and have gone on to win all four.

Kieffer Moore bagged himself another brace, taking him to six goals in his last three games, making him the league's and Football League's joint top scorer with Peterborough's Jason Cummings and Tranmere's James Norwood.

Remarkably it is the second season in a row that Moore has six goals from his first six appearances, doing so for Rotherham last season and just like this campaign it has come from a hattrick, a brace and a single goal.

He currently has 19 goals in 28 League One outings for Rotherham and Barnsley.

Barnsley had 25 shots on goal yesterday, meaning they have now had a staggering 116 shots in their six league matches and have had over 20 in each of the last three.

Gillingham had seven shots, three of which were on target, only Oxford on the opening day (4) have managed to test Adam Davies more.

This result continued Barnsley's remarkable home record against Gillingham. The Gills have only ever won once at Oakwell, from 16 visits, and that came back in 1968. This 2-1 win was Barnsley's sixth successive home win against Gillingham.

Daniel Stendel is now unbeaten in his first six league matches in charge (W4 D2) and is now just one match away from equalling the Barnsley record, set by Lee Johnson (7 matches -W4 D3)

Barnsley had 63% possession in the game, their highest amount this season and their most since also enjoying 63% against Millwall in March.

 

Barnsley Team:

Adam Davies

Dimitri Cavare

Ethan Pinnock

Liam Lindsay

Dani Pinillos

Kenny Dougall

Brad Potts

Alex Mowatt

George Moncur

Mamadou Thiam

Kieffer Moore

Substitutes

Victor Adeboyejo (for Potts 62)

Cameron McGeehan (for Moncur 73)

Jacob Brown (for Thiam 81)

Unused Substitutes:

Jack Walton, Jordan Williams, Lloyd Isgrove, Adam Jackson.

 

Gillingham Team:

Tomas Holy, Barry Fuller, Gabriel Zakuani, Mah Ehmer, Bradley Garmston, Brandon Hanlan, Callum Reilly, Billy Bingham, Josh Parker, Tom Eaves, Elliott List.

Substitutions:

Alex Lacey (for Zakuani 40)

Josh Rees (for List 56)

Conor Wilkinson (for Hanlan 67)

Unused Substitutes:

Luke O'Neill, Navid Nasseri, Bradley Stevenson, Tom Hadler.

Gillingham manager Steve Lovell said:

“You can't give a team like Barnsley, or anybody, two goals and expect to come back. We knew they would cause us problems and they did.

“The first goal, the goalkeeper has to save it, and the second was a penalty from a short corner which we knew they would do.

“You can’t give teams a lift; after that we changed it up a bit, a few choice words were said at half-time, and I might have to buy Barnsley a new bin!

“To be fair they came out in the second half and did us proud. They fought for everything and we had a number of opportunities, perhaps, where we could have got something because they were giving us respect and taking their time because they knew they were in for a bit of a fight.

“We had too many touches, even when we won the ball we had too many touches, and when you do, someone will close you down. If you pass with one, two touch Football and pass around like they did you won’t get near them, and we didn’t in the first half.

“Our midfield players were too deep; marking space rather than players so our midfielders are protecting our centre halves when they don’t need protecting. Let our centre halves deal with their centre forwards and the midfielders just do their job and worry about theirs. When we came to terms with that in the second half we nicked the ball off them.”

 

Match Reports:

Official Website

BBC

Sky Sports

 

SkyBet League One results:

Saturday 1st September 2018:

(8th) Accrington Stanley 1-1 Scunthorpe United (18th)

                                                  Lund 80

Conneely 82

(3rd) Barnsley 2-1 Gillingham (12th)

Moore 13

Moore pen 34

                                  Parker 61

(15th) Burton Albion 3-0 AFC Wimbledon (20th)

Quinn 34

Templeton 54

Boyce 60

(19th) Coventry City 0-1 Rochdale (14th)

                                          Andrew 47

(6th) Fleetwood Town 2-1 Bradford City (17th)

Evans 12

                                             Doyle pen 23

Hunter 48                                                   

(1st) Peterborough United 1-1 Doncaster Rovers (7th)

                                                     Marquis 40

Tafazolli 58

(2nd) Portsmouth 3-0 Plymouth Argyle (24th)

Curtis 22

Lowe 63

Curtis 69

(23rd) Shrewsbury Town 1-1 Bristol Rovers (21st)

                                                  Payne pen 53

Leadbitter og 73

(13th) Southend United 1-2 Charlton Athletic (10th)

                                                Taylor57

Robinson 60

                                                Bielik 87

(4th) Sunderland 1-1 Oxford United (22nd)

                                      Holmes 16

Wyke 52

(5th) Walsall 0-0 Blackpool (11th)

 

Barnsley lie in 3rd place in Sky Bet League One with 14 points from 6 games.

We are 5 points inside the Play-Offs, 2 points off the Automatic Promotion Places, 2 points off First place and 10 points above the Relegation Zone.

Up to 02/09/18

 

Next Up:

On The Road:

Football League Trophy: Oldham Athletic v Barnsley, Tuesday 4th September 2018. Kick-Off: 7:30pm

At Oakwell:

Sky Bet League One Matchday Seven: Barnsley v Walsall, Saturday 8th September 2018. Kick-Off: 3pm