Two quick goals sink Barnsley in home loss

The visitors netted twice in as many minutes midway through the second half which they dominated following a very dull first half.  The loss leaves Barnsley, who did not have a shot on target, bottom of the Championship table with nine games remaining. 

Left-back Ben Williams replaced his namesake Jordan and midfielder Luke Thomas came back in for Clarke Oduor who was not in the squad. Mads Andersen was on the bench after being dropped a month previously. 

The first 30 minutes were very dull, with only a long-range shot from Cauley Woodrow which went well wide. The most eye-catching things were some of Cardiff’s brightly-coloured hairstyles while the most animated the home crowd got was when Sean Morrison appeared to strike Michael Sollbauer in the home box. 

Luke Thomas advanced from the right wing into the Bluebirds’ box in the 35th minute but blazed a shot from a tight angle across the face of goal. Cardiff had the game’s first shot on goal in the 42nd minute when Callum Paterson released Albert Adomah on the right of the penalty area and his shot from a tight angle was turned behind by Brad Collins then Dion Sanderson headed the resulting corner well over. 

Cardiff dominated from the start of the second half. Sanderson’s right-wing free-kick was headed across goal by Morrison and Paterson nodded tamely into Collins’ hands from seven yards out. Junior Hoilett then missed a glaring chance as he shot over from five yards out after meeting Joe Ralls' low cross from the left. 

The visitors seemed to be denied a clear penalty on 55 minutes when Collins dropped a simple long ball and then tripped up Paterson who would have been through on goal. It was an almost identical incident to when Fulham’s Marek Rodak conceded a penalty for a foul on Jacob Brown in Barnsley’s 3-0 win on February 15, but the same referee James Linnington gave a foul by Paterson against Aapo Halme. 

Cardiff’s Curtis Nelson then headed a corner over the bar before Collins touched wide Bennett’s blasted effort across the face of goal from the left of the box and easily held a shot by Will Vaulks. 

The first goal saw Adomah gifted plenty of space on the right of the box to pass to Vaulks whose initial shot was cleared off the line by Kilian Ludewig but the former Rotherham man blasted the rebound in from close range then celebrated with a series of somersaults. 

The second goal came from a long Nelson long ball which Halme missed then Paterson went clean through on goal and shooting past Collins. 

Not much happened in the remainder of the game, although Barnsley substitute Patrick Schmidt had a tame shot from the left of the box easily saved late on. 

Barnsley: Collins; Ludewig, Halme, Sollbauer, B Williams; Mowatt, Ritzmaier, Thomas, Woodrow; Chaplin (Schmidt 84mins), Brown (Simoes 72).  Unused: Walton, Dougall, Andersen, Bahre, J Williams.  Cardiff: Smithies; Sanderson, Morrison, Nelson, Bennett; Bacuna, Vaulks, Ralls (Pack 82mins); Hoilett (Murphy 85), Paterson (Glatzel 88), Adomah  Unused: Etheridge, Flint, Smith, Whyte. Goals: Vaulks 65, Paterson 66.