Stendel sent off as Reds suffer second loss of week

The hosts raced 2-0 ahead during a first half in which the Reds produced their worst display of the season. Ethan Pinnock pulled one back just after the break then but the Shrews scored again midway through the second half. 

Barnsley’s miserable night was compounded when their head coach Daniel Stendel was sent to the stands late on after an altercation on the sidelines. The Reds remain in fifth place in League One. 

Stendel made four changes from the side that lost 2-0 at Charlton Athletic on Saturday. Teenager Ben Williams replaced the suspended Dani Pinillos at left-back while Mike Bahre and Kieffer Moore made their first starts after recovering from injury in place of Jacob Brown and Cameron McGeehan. Mamadou Thiam replaced George Moncur on the left wing as Barnsley started in a 4-2-3-1 formation. 

The hosts took the lead after just 84 seconds when Barnsley goalkeeper and captain Adam Davies dropped a cross from the right and Greg Docherty fired in from close range. 

McGeehan came off the bench when Kenny Dougall limped off injured on 15 minutes after the latest in a series of physical challenges on the Australian saw Anthony Grant flatten him and receive a yellow card. 

Shrewsbury’s Lee Angol fired wide five yards out from a tight angle after Ryan Haynes was allowed to power into the Reds box. It was 2-0 on 24 minutes when Oliver Norburn’s 25-yard shot hit Alex Mowatt and looped past the helpless and wrong-footed Davies.  

It should have been 3-0 when Fejiri Okenabirhie was put clean through on goal and tried to blast it into the top right corner from just inside the box but Davies made amends for his earlier error with a fantastic save to tip it over the bar. 

Town had two penalty shouts in a minute as they appealed for a handball by Dimitri Cavare then a tug on Lee Angol. Davies saved a low 30-yard strike from Norburn then Pinnock gave the ball away deep in his half and Angol hesitated before being tackled in the box. 

Barnsley had been extremely poor in the first half, barely launching an attack while they struggled to get on the ball in midfield and let their hosts break through them regularly and easily. 

The Reds began the second half much more brightly and Mowatt had the first shot on target from long-range which was impressively turned away by Joel Coleman. From the resulting Ben Williams corner, the ball was knocked down for Pinnock to fire in his first goal of the season from close range.

Thiam’s left-wing cross was then headed well wide by Brad Potts, who was immediately replaced by George Moncur who nearly levelled when a corner fell to him but the low shot was cleared off the line. Barnsley were on top for ten minutes but then were hit by a suckerpunch 3-1 goal as a right-wing corner was headed into the top right corner by former Oakwell youth player Luke Waterfall. 

Lindsay then gifted the ball to Angol whose 20-yard shot was straight at Davies who fumbled but gathered at the second attempt.  Stendel was then shown a record card with coach Chris Stern getting his second yellow of the season after they both left their technical area to argue with Shrews players following a foul by Alex Mowatt directly in front of them. 

Lindsay almost made it 3-2 in the 87th minute but his header from Mowatt’s corner hit the bar. 

Barnsley (4-2-3-1): Davies; Cavare, Lindsay, Pinnock, B Williams; Potts (Moncur 60mins), Dougall (McGeehan 17mins), Mowatt, Thiam (Hedges 73); Bahre; Moore. Unused: Walton, Jackson, J Williams, Brown. Yellow cards: Hedges Goals: Pinnock 49. 

Shrewsbury (3-5-2): Coleman; Bolton, Waterfall, Beckles; Emmanuel, Norburn, Grant, Docherty (Barnett 88mins), Haynes (Laurent 66); Okenabirhie, Angol  Unused: Arnold, Sadler, John-Lewis, Gilliead, Amadi-Holloway.  Yellow cards: Grant.  Goals: Docherty 2, Norburn 24, Waterfall 68.