David McGoldrick's red hot
scoring streak continued as his 11th goal in 11 games got Barnsley back to
winning ways and into the top half of the division for the first time in 2026.
It was McGoldrick's 13th league
goal of the season which puts him level with the departed Davis Keillor-Dunn as
the Reds league top scorer this season whilst both players have also netted
three cup goals in 2025-2026.
There are now only five players
(Stockport's Kyle Wootton, Reading's Jack Marriott, Leyton Orient's Dom Ballard,
Exeter's Jayden Wareham and Plymouth's Lorent Tolaj) who have scored more
League One goals than the 38 year old this season.
The veteran put the Reds in
front after just eight minutes, the earliest Barnsley have scored in a game
since Boxing Day when Reyes Cleary netted after two minutes against Mansfield.
It is the 11th game McGoldrick
has netted in for Barnsley and his strike has been the Reds first goal now in
ten of them whilst three of his last five goals have come inside the opening
ten minutes of a game.
Barnsley were 2-0 up after 16
minutes when Vimal Yoganathan netted his first ever league goal at Oakwell -
the second time in four home league games in which Barnsley have been 2-0 up at
this stage of a game (also v AFC Wimbledon when they were 2-0 up after 14
minutes)
They have been 2-0 up after 16
minutes on three occasions in the league at Oakwell this season as they were
2-0 up after 13 in the aforementioned Mansfield match which they eventually
lost 3-2 - which means it is the first time they have been 2-0 up this early in
a game and NOT gone on to then concede three goals themselves since March 2023
when they led Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 after 12 minutes and eventually won 4-2.
Yoganathan's goal was set up by
McGoldrick, the sixth time this season (all competitions) in which a player has
both scored and assisted with McGoldrick joining Reyes Cleary in doing it on
two occasions.
Speaking of Cleary he assisted
McGoldrick’s opener to put him on 14 for the season, the most by a Barnsley
player since his head coach Conor Hourihane set up 19 goals a decade ago in
2015-2016.
It meant Barnsley held a 2-0
half time lead for only the third time in League One this season, with the
other two occurrences coming in the first month of the season against Plymouth
and Huddersfield - they did lead Luton
3-0 at the break in November.
Exeter did grab a goal back in
the second half through Jayden Wareham – his 16th league goal of the
season (and one of the five players who has netted more than McGoldrick) becoming
the third player to have scored in both league meetings with Barnsley this
season after Bolton’s ex red John McAtee and Reading’s Jack Marriott.
This was the seventh Barnsley
match to finish 2-1 this season (all comps) five of which Barnsley have won.
Barnsley’s last five league
results have seen them WIN/LOSE/WIN/LOSE/WIN, the first time this has occurred
since September-October 2023.
Despite
the Reds travails this season this was their ninth home league win of
2025-2026, only the teams in the top six have won more.
They
have scored 34 home league goals, only Cardiff, Lincoln and Wycombe have netted
more.
However
Exeter’s goal was the 26th league goal they have conceded at
Oakwell, only Plymouth (27) have conceded more in front of their own supporters.
The
lack of clean sheets for Barnsley this season is well documented but this was
the first time the Reds have conceded exactly one goal in three successive
games since the final two games of 2024 and first of 2025 with this game the 14th
time from 33 games they have conceded only one.
They
have now conceded 55 league goals this season, only Leyton Orient (58) and
Doncaster (57) have conceded more.
They
have also now scored 55 themselves, only three teams, Cardiff (68), Lincoln
(65) and Huddersfield (56) have scored more, two of those are the top two sides
in the league with the other sixth.
It
is now 19 league games since Barnsley kept a shut-out, their longest run since
a streak of 22 games between 31st August 2002 and 18th
January 2003.
This was Barnsley’s tenth win in 28 meetings with Exeter overall
and only their fourth in the last eight.
There has been no draw in any of the last 11 meetings with
Barnsley winning five and Exeter six since the last stalemate, a 2-2 draw in
November 1979.
Four of the last five meetings have now finished 2-1.
This win ended a run of three successive Oakwell defeats to the
Grecians and is only their second victory here against them in the last eight.
Each of the last three Oakwell clashes have finished 2-1 whilst
one side has scored exactly two goals in each of the last four and five of the
last six.
Barnsley’s opponents have now had more shots than them in each of
the last three matches at Oakwell.
There were only five shots on target though in this game, the lowest
in the last 10 Barnsley matches since another total of five at Reading on the
24th January and lowest at Oakwell since another haul of five
against Lincoln on the 29th December.
After the Reds failed to muster a single shot on target last time
out against Wycombe they restricted Exeter to just one this weekend – the lowest
by an opponent since Stevenage eight games ago.
Both Barnsley and Exeter won six corners, the first time both
Barnsley and their opponents have won the same amount since Barnsley and
Bradford on the 18th October.
There have been 23 freekicks awarded in each of Barnsley’s last
two games.
Barnsley Team:
1. Owen Goodman
7. Corey O’Keeffe
6. Mael de Gevigney
15. Eoghan O’Connell
5. Jack Shepherd
8. Adam Phillips
48. Luca Connell
45. Vimal Yoganathan
19. Reyes Cleary
10. David McGoldrick
9. Tom Bradshaw
Substitutes:
14. Nathanael Ogbeta (for
Shepherd 51)
30. Jonathan Bland (for Bradshaw
72)
18. Scott Banks (for Cleary 72)
27. Tennai Watson (for Phillips
89)
Unused
Substitutes:
51.
Kieren Flavell, 17. Georgie Gent, 20. Charlie Lennon.
Exeter Team:
1. Joe Whitworth
26.
Pierce Sweeney
20.
Luca Woodhouse
2.
Jack McMillan
14.
Ilmari Niskanen
34.
Liam Oakes
6.
Ethan Brierley
3.
Ryan Rydel
7.
Mendes Gomes
10.
Jack Aitchison
9.
Jayden Wareham
Substitutions:
45. Charlie Cummins (for Rydel
45)
12. Reece Cole (for Gomes 63)
27. Josh Magennis (for McMillan
70)
19. Sonny Cox (for Aitchison 83)
Unused Substitutes:
23. Jack Bycroft, 42. George
Birch, 29. Kevin McDonald.
League One Results
Saturday 7th March
Cardiff City (2nd) 0-2 Lincoln City (1st)
Street 55
Jefferies 73
Huddersfield Town (6th) 1-0 Rotherham United (22nd
Agbaire og 76
BARNSLEY (12th) 2-1 Exeter City (15th)
McGoldrick 8
Yoganathan 16
Wareham 75
Blackpool (20th) 1-1 Wigan Athletic (19th)
Casey 4
Moxon 39
Bolton Wanderers (3rd) 3-2 Wycombe Wanderers (9th)
Woodrow 27
Harris
41
Rodrigues 88
Burstow 90+1
Blackett-Taylor
90+5
Bradford City (4th) 2-1 Leyton Orient (21st)
Sarcevic 33
O’Neill 43
Sarcevic 79
Burton Albion (17th) 0-1 Stevenage (8th)
Reid 44
Luton Town (11th) 2-3 Reading (7th)
Ehibhatiomhan
5
Lonwijk 45+3
Saville 53
Ehibhatiomhan
81
Ehibhatiomhan
84
Plymouth Argyle (10th) 2-1 Doncaster Rovers (18th)
Lee 22
Pepple 45+3
Kane 74
Sunday 8th March
AFC Wimbledon (14th) 1-0 Northampton Town (23rd)
Maycock 10
Barnsley lie in 12th
place in Sky Bet League One with 47 points from 33 games. We are 8 points off the
Play-Offs, 25 points off the Automatic Promotion Places, 27 points off First
Place and 11 points above the Relegation Zone.
Up to 9/3/26
Next Up:
At
Oakwell:
Sky Bet League One Matchday Thirty Four: Barnsley v Cardiff City, Tuesday 10th March 2026. Kick-Off: 7:45pm
On
The Road:
Sky Bet League One Matchday Thirty Five: Mansfield Town v Barnsley, Saturday 14th March 2026. Kick-Off: 3pm
