Barnsley lost 3-2 against their former head coach Lee Johnson's Bristol City in a thrilling match at Ashton Gate on Saturday.
George Moncur, who had never scored for the club before, twice gave the Reds the lead with long-range strikes – although the first just before the break may be taken off him as it hit Alex Mowatt and went in. Tthe home side levelled twice then won it with a quarter of an hour to play as they exploited a rearranged Barnsley back four following an injury to captain Marc Roberts who came off at half-time.
It was a huge win for City who moved six points clear of the relegation zone but it meant 14th-placed Barnsley have now won just one of their last 12 matches.
Paul Heckingbottom made two changes to the side that drew 1-1 with Brentford on Monday. Matty James – whose partner gave birth that morning – came out of the squad while Tom Bradshaw was benched. Coming in were Alex Mowatt and Adam Armstrong. Young centre-back Will Smith was on the bench for the first time as Adam Jackson could not recover from his hamstring problem.
Armstrong, playing on his own up front in a 4-5-1, had the first shot on target in the sixth minute but his low effort was easily saved by home goalkeeper Frank Fielding. The Robins thought they should have had a penalty for handball by Saidy Janko after the right-back made a mess of a long ball but recovered to win it back off Matty Taylor. Taylor was then inches away from turning the ball in after Joe Bryan whizzed the ball across the face of goal having been played in by ex-Red Josh Brownhill.
Moncur fired off target from 25 yards after skipping past two defenders then Marley Watkins headed over a cross from Gethin Jones. Mowatt almost scored his first Reds goal on 19 minutes when he exchanged passes impressively with Ryan Kent just outside the box and went through on the left of the box but his deflected shot hit the right post and bounced back into Fielding's grasp.
Marlon Pack had Bristol City's first shot of the game in the 35th minute, a low long-ranger which went through a crowd of bodies and was brilliantly saved by Adam Davies down low to his left then Angus MacDonald made a superb block from the rebound. It was 1-0 two minutes later when Moncur's low 25-yard shot took a big deflection to wrong foot Fielding before it nestled in the bottom corner.
Davies made another good save in first half injury-time, again getting down to his left to push wide a shot from Taylor. Centre-back Aden Flint sent a overhead kick over but the hosts were behind at the break.
Barnsley captain Marc Roberts sustained an injury near the end of the first half and had to come off, meaning that Callum Evans was brought on at left-back with Gethin Jones moving into the middle of defence alongside Angus MacDonald.
The hosts started the second half well and Taylor fired just over from 20 yards before his strike partner Tammy Abraham levelled. The 19-year-old Chelsea loanee fired in from close range after Taylor's shot had been blocked.
Abraham almost put his side ahead five minutes later but hit the bar after meeting a cross from the left two yards out. Brownhill then curled a 20-yard shot inches wide of the top left corner.
Moncur restored the visitors' lead with a fantastic strike into the top corner from the edge of the box after Armstrong played him in on the counter-attack. But again Johnson's side responded well and, after Davies saved another long shot by Taylor, Jamie Paterson levelled with a lob over Davies after Jones misjudged a long ball and allowed the home player to go through on goal.
It was 3-2 soon after when Flint, who had been marked at set pieces by Roberts before his injury, was free to power in a header from a right-sided corner. Abraham almost made it 4-2 when he collected a cross from the right side, took a touch and fired just wide of the bottom right corner from 12 yards out.
