Barnsley had Peterborough to thank for starting the promotion party early at Oakwell, as the play-off-chasing side dashed rivals Portsmouth’s hopes of an automatic spot.

And it was a brace from ex-Red Ivan Toney which gave the Posh the win and sealed Barnsley’s ticket back to the Championship.

Toney, Peterborough’s top scorer this season with 21 goals in all competitions, had two loan spells at Oakwell in the 2015/16 when he played in the wins in both the Football League Trophy final and the League One playoff final at Wembley.

Adam Davies, who played alongside Toney, said he had been in touch with his former teammate ahead of the Portsmouth game. Davies said: “Sitting at home on Tuesday night with my missus, flicking between Sky Sports News and ‘SAS Who Dares Wins’, I was thinking we’d have to go into Saturday and get a result.

"I had text Ivan the day before and said, ‘a couple of goals from you tomorrow please’. And he actually told me he was going to score a brace.  So thank you for that, Ivan.”

Davies – who has played more than 200 games in five years at the club – is out of contract at the end of this season. He said: “Obviously the season’s done now, so we’ll sit down and try to work something out. I’ve got to wait and see what the club’s saying before I say anything. I’ve loved it here and it’s been great, so we’ll wait and see.”