Barnsley won successive league games for only the third time in 2025-2026 and the first time since September as they thumped Luton Town to record their biggest league victory for two years.
This 5-0 success is the Reds biggest league win since the opening day of the 2023-2024 season when they hammered Port Vale 7-0.
The Reds were up and running through Reyes Cleary after just seven minutes, Barnsley’s earliest goal so far this season and earliest since almost 12months to the day – Davis Keillor Dunn also scored after seven minutes against Reading on the 26th November 2024. The last time they netted earlier than this minute was on the 28th September 2024, a fourth minute Adam Phillips penalty against Stockport.
Barnsley were three goals up at half time for the first time since the 31st August 2024 at Crawley and first time at Oakwell since the 1st April 2023 against Morecambe – another game that finished 5-0.
The third goal came courtesy of a beautiful freekick from Luca Connell, the second time he has scored a freekick for Barnsley – also doing so against Burton in September 2024.
It became 4-0 courtesy of an own goal, the first time Barnsley have benefitted from one in a league game since the opening day at Plymouth and first time at Oakwell since the 7th December 2024 against Birmingham.
Barnsley had five different scorers in a game for the first time since the aforementioned 7-0 Port Vale win when one was also an opposition player.
Cleary and Keillor-Dunn both scored and assisted in this game, the first time Barnsley have had two players achieve this in a match for nearly five years, last occurring in February 2021 when Carlton Morris and Alex Mowatt did so in a 2-1 Championship win against Blackburn.
This is only the second time DKD has both scored and assisted in game for the Reds, also doing so in a 4-3 win over Lincoln in March.
As well as opening the floodgates Cleary assisted two goals, the second Red to do so in a league game this season after Phillips against Burton.
Cleary is now Barnsley’s “top assister” in 2025-2026 as he now sits on five.
It was an eventful game for Cleary as he completed a hattrick of scoring, assisting and being booked, the first Barnsley player to do this since Herbie Kane at Reading in December 2023.
He becomes the sixth Barnsley player to both score and be booked this season after Vimal Yoganathan, Davis Keillor-Dunn, Luca Connell, Adam Phillips and David McGoldrick.
This is only the fourth time in the 21st Century that Barnsley have won a league game 5-0 – also occurring against Morecambe in 2022-2023, Rochdale in 2014-2015 and Birmingham in 2012-2013.
This is only the fifth time in 2025 that Barnsley have won back to back games with two of those occasions being in a block of three successive wins.
FINALLY a clean sheet, only their second in 21 games in all competitions in 2025-2026, their worst start defensively to a season since 2006-2007 when they also had to wait 21 games to achieve two shuts outs.
It has taken 13 home games to achieve a clean sheet, their longest ever wait at the start of a season for the Oakwell faithful.
These five goals put Barnsley onto 25 for the season which is the joint highest in League One alongside Cardiff, Wycombe and Leyton Orient.
Barnsley have now beaten two of the three teams relegated from the Championship last season, matching the tally from 2023-2024 when they defeated Reading and Wigan.
This is the ninth different game DKD has scored in this season (all comps) with Barnsley going on to win seven (D1 L1) - whilst overall in his Reds career he has scored in 26 different matches with the Reds going on to win 18 (69%)
This was Barnsley’s joint biggest ever win against Luton, emulating a 6-1 success back in September 1950.
It was only the Reds second victory in the last eight meetings.
This was Barnsley’s first clean sheet in seven meetings since a 0-0 draw on New Year’s Day 2019.
This is the first time Barnsley have beaten Luton by more than two goals since a 3-0 win in October 1992.
This result ended a run of three straight Luton wins at Oakwell and indeed is only the second victory in the last nine Oakwell clashes (D1 L6)
Prior to that run Barnsley had won 10 of the previous 11 Oakwell duels (D1)
Barnsley scored as many goals in this match as they had in the previous five Oakwell meetings.
Despite winning 5-0 Barnsley only had 31.3% possession of the ball, their lowest amount since the 31st August 2024 at Crawley (31.1%)
Barnsley Team:
1. Murphy Cooper
27. Tennai Watson
4. Marc Roberts
5. Jack Shepherd
32. Josh Earl
22. Patrick Kelly
30. Jonathan Bland
45. Vimal Yoganathan
48. Luca Connell
19. Reyes Cleary
40. Davis Keillor-Dunn
Substitutes:
8. Adam Phillips (for Kelly 49)
14. Nathanel Ogbeta (for Earl 60)
6. Mael de Gevigney (for Shepherd 78)
7. Caylan Vickers (for Cleary 78)
10. David McGoldrick (for Keillor-Dunn 79)
Unused Substitutes:
51. Kieren Flavell, 23. Neil Farrugia.
Luton Team:
24. Josh Keeley
25. Isaiah Jones
15. Teden Mengi
5. Mads Andersen
3. Kal Naismith
30. Gideon Kodua
8. Liam Walsh
37. Zack Neilson
23. George Saville
33. Cohen Bramall
21. Nahki Wells
Substitutions:
9. Jerry Yates (for Wells 20)
16. Hakeem Odoffin (for Jones 45)
27. Jake Richards (for Nelson 45)
7. Millenic Ailli (for Bramall 45)
22. Lamine Fanne (for Saville 71)
Unused Substitutes:
1. James Shea, 19. Jacob Brown.
League One Results
Thursday 20th November
Peterborough United (21st) 3-0 Stockport County (4th)
Woods 5
Lisbie 37
Khela 76
Saturday 22nd November
BARNSLEY (9th) 5-0 Luton Town (12th)
Cleary 7
Kelly 35
Connell 45
Kodua og 62
Keillor-Dunn 75
Port Vale (24th) 0-1 Plymouth Argyle (23rd)
Tolaj 46
AFC Wimbledon (8th) 1-2 Wigan Athletic (15th)
Smith 70
Bettoni 77
Bettoni 87
Bolton Wanderers (5th) 0-0 Bradford City (2nd)
Leyton Orient (16th) 1-1 Blackpool (22nd)
Connolly 23
Fletcher 90+4
Mansfield Town (13th) 1-3 Huddersfield Town (7th)
Radulovic 5
Charles 12
Sorensen 16
Evans 64
Northampton Town (17th) 1-3 Cardiff City (1st)
Colwill 7
Wheatley 57
Wheatley og 60
Willock 90+3
Reading (18th) 1-1 Rotherham United (11th)
Benson 20
Savage 78
Stevenage (6th) 0-0 Doncaster Rovers (19th)
Wycombe Wanderers (10th) 3-2 Lincoln City (3rd)
Bell 16
Bell 45
Obikwu 64
Draper 76
Grimmer 88
Barnsley lie in 9th place in Sky Bet League One with 24 points from 14 games. We are 3 points off the Play-Offs, 4 points off the Automatic Promotion Places, 5 points off First Place and 8 points above the Relegation Zone.
Up to 24/11/25
Next Up:
On The Road:
Sky Bet League One Matchday Fifteen: Stockport County v Barnsley, Saturday 29th November 2025. Kick-Off: 12:30pm
At Oakwell:
Sky Bet League One Matchday Seventeen: Barnsley v Leyton Orient, Saturday 13th December 2025. Kick-Off: 3pm
