Reds come from 2-0 down to rescue point

Barnsley were the better side in the first half but the visitors netted from their first real chance just before the break. The Robins doubled their lead midway through the second half before Aapo Halme pulled one back then former Bristol City striker Woodrow scrambled home at the death. 

Caretaker Adam Murray made two changes from the side that lost at Huddersfield six days earlier, with Halme replacing Mads Andersen at centre-back while Mallik Wilks came in for Cameron McGeehan and playing up front as Conor Chaplin dropped back into central midfield.  Bristol’s Callum O’Dowda had the first shot of the game in the 15th minute but his low 20-yard effort was easily held by goalkeeper Brad Collins. That was the only action of a dull first quarter of the game, after which Barnsley began to create regular chances. 

The hosts came close in the 26th minute when they broke from a City corner and, after a good header by Chaplin, Alex Mowatt nudged the ball on to Mallik Wilks whose shot from just inside the box on the right was touched impressively wide by goalkeeper Daniel Bentley. Wilks then had another chance when he headed wide 12 yards out from a Dimitri Cavare cross. 

Bristol lost their captain and former Barnsley player Josh Brownhill to injury after half an hour. Mowatt almost found the net but his rasping low 25-yard strike went narrowly wide of the bottom right corner after Wilks laid the ball off to him. 

Goalkeeper Bentley then made another superb save to touch a ten-yard Chaplin shot onto his right post after Jacob Brown crossed low from the left wing.

The visitors took the lead in the 43rd minute after the referee Jared Gillet judged that Bambo Diaby had pulled the shorts of former Barnsley forward Marley Watkins, booking the home man and giving a free-kick on the left wing. Substitute Niclas Eliasson took the set piece which was headed in at the back post by veteran centre-back Ashley Williams who was totally unmarked. 

The second half began, like the first, with neither side creating any meaningful opportunities for the first 25 minutes as both teams battled in a scrappy contest played out in constant rain.

City almost doubled their lead when Andi Weimann beat the offside trap on the right wing and went clean through at a tight angle then his shot hit Halme then Toby Sibbick and went behind for a corner. From the following right-wing corner, Eliasson claimed his second assist of the night as his set-piece was headed home by Andi Weimann who had escaped Kenny Dougall’s attention. 

Barnsley pulled one back on 76 minutes when Halme sent in a bullet header from a Mowatt corner for his second goal of the season.  Cauley Woodrow almost levelled in the first of four added minutes when Cavare was released down the right side of the box and fired in a low cross which Barnsley’s top-scorer met but was off balance as he shot tamely at the goalkeeper five yards out. Diaby then headed over a Mowatt cross at the back post. 

The equaliser eventually came in the fourth minute of added time when Sibbick and substitute Elliott Simoes swapped passes on the left of the box and a low cross was turned in from close range by Woodrow. 

Barnsley: Collins; Diaby, Halme, Sibbick; Cavare, Mowatt, Dougall, Chaplin (Schmidt 72mins), Brown (Simoes 80); Woodrow, Wilks (Thomas 58).  Subs: Radlinger, Andersen, McGeehan, Oduor.   Yellow cards: Diaby, Thomas.  Goals: Halme 76, Woodrow 90+4.  Bristol City: Bentley; Kalas, Moore, Williams; Pereira, O’Dowda, Brownhill (Eliasson 30mins), Massengo, Rowe; Weimann, Watkins (Semenyo 72) Subs: Maenpaa, Wright, Baker, Rodri, Palmer.  Goals: Williams 43, Weimann 70.