Hourihane out to dash the Premier League hopes of a club that still adores him
Barnsley have finally recovered from losing their talismanic captain to Aston Villa in 2017. Paul Dollery By Paul Dollery Sunday 16 May 2021, 10:00 AM 1 hour ago 8,675 Views 0 Comments
THE INEVITABILITY OF the break-up didn’t numb Barnsley’s pain. That they knew it was coming was a matter of little consolation.
Conor Hourihane was the most-wanted player in the Championship. The level of adoration the club’s supporters had for their captain was validated by what became of their Premier League promotion bid after he left.
When Aston Villa prised him away in January 2017, Barnsley were in eighth place, within four points of a play-off place. By the campaign’s end, they were 22 points adrift in 14th, having won just one of their
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A look at the likely 11 to start for Swansea City at Oakwell on Monday in the first leg of the Championship play-offs.
FREDDIE WOODMAN
Considered among the better goalkeepers in the Championship, the Newcastle United loanee is one of several players borrowed by Steve Cooper through his connections in the England youth setup. Woodman, 24, was outstanding at Oakwell at January, with several saves including a remarkable touch to deny Callum Brittain his first Barnsley goal.
BEN CABANGO
The 20-year-old Wales international came through the Swansea youth system and recently passed 50 games for the club. He scored at Oakwell in January but is not guaranteed to start there on Monday as he has missed games recently following a breach of Covid-19 rules. The other option is experienced defender Kyle Naughton.
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BARNSLEY finished three places and ten points behind Walsall in the 2015/16 League One table but crushed them 6-1 on aggregate to set a new play-off semi-final record.
After an own goal in first half injury-time, Sam Winnall’s brace within two minutes made it 3-0 at Oakwell in the first leg, then Adam Hammill, Ashley Fletcher and Josh Brownhill secured a 3-1 away win.
Aidy White arrived in November when Barnsley were in the bottom three on an eight-game losing streak in the league while they had just lost in the FA Cup at non-league Altrincham. The left-back, who played in the first leg against Walsall, said: “It was amazing. We just went on a winning streak and we felt unbeatable. We were very confident and took that momentum with us then had players who produced in the big moments.
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MOMENT OF THE SEASON
The appointment of Valerien Ismael
Ismael was in his kitchen in Munich in October with his wife, mulling over various job offers that they were not particularly convinced by.
Then he received a message to tell him that Barnsley were interested in making him their new head coach and the couple instantly agreed it would be the right move.
After wowing the Barnsley board over zoom, he flew to the UK on October 23, watched the Reds draw 1-1 at Millwall under caretaker Adam Murray the next day then, the day after, went to Oakwell for the first time to take training.
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Analysis of Barnsley s 2-2 draw with Norwich City on the last day of the Championship season.
REDS MUCH BETTER IN GOOD WARM-UP FOR PLAY-OFFS
This game was seen as a perfect warm-up for the play-offs, against a high-quality side who play the possession-based football often employed by the sides Barnsley will face in their battle to reach the Premier League throughout May.
Although they were without key players Teemu Pukki and Oliver Skipp and had already won the title, Norwich provided a stern final day test.
Their squad had been recruited for about £20million – much more than Barnsley s but far less than some of their play-off rivals – while ten of them were full internationals and nine of the starters had played in the Premier League.