Conor Chaplin put the Reds ahead but the hosts levelled almost instantly then the visitors retook the lead just after half-time. Cardiff equalised against the run of play midway through the second half then won it deep in injury-time. Barnsley are now six points adrift of safety at the bottom of the table while they have yet to win any of their ten away matches, despite an impressive performance in Wales.
Gerhard Struber kept the same side that beat Hull City 3-1 a week earlier, ending a 17-match winless run. The Reds played the better football but were always vulnerable to the hosts’ set piece threat.
Cardiff started the better and had the first chance when huge centre-back Aden Flint headed wide a corner by Marlon Pack in the ninth minute. Chaplin then had a shot blocked in the box, after a clever corner by Alex Mowatt, before Jordan Williams fired over from 25 yards.
Junior Hoilett curled a shot wide from just outside the box but it was the visitors who took the lead in the 16th minute. After good work by Jacob Brown and Cauley Woodrow, Mike Bahre’s clever pass played in Chaplin on the right of the home box and he provided a cool finish past the goalkeeper for his fourth goal of the season and third in four games under Struber.
But the lead lasted just three minutes as Flint got away from Diaby and seemed to flick in a left-wing cross by Hoilett from eight yards out at the front post. It was later given as an own goal by Diaby.
A Joe Bennett cross was then flicked just wide by Nathaniel Mendez-Laing before, at the other end, goalkeeper Neil Etheridge almost spilled a long-range Cauley Woodrow strike into his own net. Woodrow’s low right-wing cross was then met by Chaplin ten yards out but he lifted the ball over the bar when he could have sent the visitors in 2-1 up at the break.
The visitors took the lead two minutes after the break when, after a set piece, Chaplin collected the ball on the right of the box and whipped in a low cross which deflected in and home defender Lee Peltier was credited with the goal after Diaby initially claimed it.
Chaplin then thought he should have had a penalty after getting behind the home defence and going down after a push in the back by Flint but the referee declined to give a spot-kick. Chaplin’s right-wing cross was then headed wide by Woodrow from ten yards out before Jacob Brown had a close range shot deflected wide following an excellent team move.
But the hosts levelled against the run of play in the 69th minute when Ben Williams was tackled in the left-back position by Lee Tomlin who squared for Danny Ward and the substitute made no mistake when one-on-one with Sami Radlinger.
The hosts almost won it in the 86th minute when Halme could not clear a corner and Pack blazed over on the volley ten yards out. Tomlin then fired narrowly wide of the bottom left corner from just outside the box before Radlinger made a mess of punching a corner but the ball was scrambled wide.
The winner eventually came when a Murphy cross was headed high into the air by Flint and the equally unmarked Tomlin smashed 12-yard volley into the bottom left corner.
Cardiff (4-4-1-1): Etheridge; Pelter, Flint, Nelson, Bennett; Mendez-Laing, Pack, Bacuna (Vaulks 75mins), Hoilett (Murphy 59mins); Tomlin; Madine (Ward 65). Subs: Smithies, Morrison, Paterson, Richards. Yellow cards: Tomlin. Goals: Diaby OG 19, Ward 69, Tomlin 90+4.
Barnsley (4-4-2 diamond): Radlinger; J Williams, Diaby, Andersen, B Williams; Halme, Bahre (Oduor 90+3mins), Mowatt, Woodrow; Chaplin, Brown (Schmidt 81). Unused: Collins, Sibbick, Dougall, Mottley-Henry, Thomas. Yellow card: Halme, Bahre, Andersen, B Williams, Mowatt. Goals: Chaplin 16, Peltier OG 47.
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