George Moncur netted twice as Barnsley won 2-1 at home to Bradford City on Tuesday to progress through their Checkatrade Trophy group.
The visitors took an early lead but Moncur turned the match around then, after Barnsley captain Adam Jackson was sent off, the Reds held on to win.
Going into the final Group F match, Barnsley needed to avoid defeat by two or more goals to reach the knock-out stage. The result meant that they won the group and went Into last 32.
Daniel Stendel made 11 changes from the side who beat Notts County 4-0 in the FA Cup on Saturday with a bench mainly made up of untested under 18s and under 23s players. The Reds used a 4-4-1-1 system with Moncur just behind Victor Adeboyejo while Jacob Brown and Ryan Hedges were on the wings and Mike Bahre played alongside Jared Bird in the centre.
Barnsley almost took the lead in the first minute when they had three on one break on the counter-attack from a Bradford corner. Moncur ran almost from box to box before finding Jordan Williams free on the right of the box but the right-back blazed over from 15 yards. It was the visitors who took the lead in the eighth minute when former Barnsley trialist David Ball curled into the top left corner past the helpless Jack Walton from 15 yards after a good move opened the home side up.
Moncur shot inches wide of the bottom right corner from the edge of the box after a short corner routine involving Hedges and Dani Pinillos. A Hedges corner was then flicked on by Brown but cleared off the line by Anthony O’Connor.
Moncur shot weakly straight at goalkeeper Richard O’Donnell from 30 yards then but he eventually levelled in the 28th minute. A sensational reverse pass by Hedges put Pinillos free on the left wing and his cross was volleyed home deftly by Moncur from close range.
Brown saw a powerful 30-yard effort comfortably saved then a Hedges cross from the left just snuck wide of the far post. At the other end, Walton brilliantly clawed out a 25-yard free-kick by Ball from his top right corner.
In the second half, Walton denied ball again with another fine save high up to his left after a deflection off Ben Williams. Bradford then had the ball in the net but Jack Payne’s tap-in was ruled out for offside.
The second goal came in the 65th minute. After a good move down the left involving brisk passing by Hedges and Pinillos, Moncur received the ball just inside the box and, on the turn, he curled it into the bottom right corner.
Nat Knight-Percival then headed a Payne free-kick wide before Walton let a backpass comically go under his foot and had to stop it on the line with his hand, leading to an indirect free-kick which was tapped to Payne who smashed it off the underside of the bar from eight yards out.
A Bradford overlap then led to Payne going clean through but Walton made a good one-on-one block before the rebound was chipped towards goal but Bird headed away near the line.
Jackson was then sent off on 76 minutes for a second yellow card and Will Smith made his debut off the bench with scorer Moncur being sacrificed.
Stendel also introduced another teenage academy product Jordan Helliwell off the bench late on. Walton picked up a late injury but limped his way through six minutes of injury-time.
Barnsley team (4-4-1-1): Walton; J Williams, Jackson, B Williams, Pinillos; Brown (Isgrove 66mins), Bahre, Bird, Hedges; Moncur (Smith 78), Adeboyejo (Helliwell 86), . Subs: Greatorex, Isgrove, Otim, Smith, Helliwell, Feeney, Fielding. Goals: Moncur 28, 64 Red cards: Jackson.
Bradford (4-5-1): O’Donnell; Devine, O’Connor, Knight-Percival, Chicksen; Ball, Wright, J O’Brien (L O’Brien HT), Payne, Seedorf (Wood 55mins); Bruenker (Miller 76), Subs: Isherwood, Doyle, McGowan, Wilson. Goals: Ball 8.
