FAN’S VIEW  2026/27  – BARNSLEY AWAY

I had this down as a massive banana skin of a game. So what if the Tykes started the day in bottom place having lost each of their last four league games? Three of those were by the narrowest of margins to Cambridge, Reading and Luton, all decent sides near the top of the table. Stockport – and we saw how good they were in the week – beat them by two goals. They scored in each of these games.

Some might have thought it would be all so easy anyway and when Barnsley were reduced to ten men with less than 10 minutes on the clock victory would inevitably be ours.

That wasn’t the way I looked at it. I’m of the thinking that 10 men are very hard to beat. They roll up their sleeves and dig in, they feel aggrieved, they play more defensively.

This doesn’t suit us at all. We’re more effective when the opposition come out to play football and there’s space to operate in with our pacey wide men able to do damage. We’re quite comfortable letting the opposition have the ball because our defence is so good. I’m not going to say we’ve got the best in the division because I’ve not seen them all play but we must surely be current contenders for that title.

With everyone we’re facing behind the ball those wide men have not got space to run into.

Also, with us playing almost all of the game in the opposition half our back line is obviously much further away from our goal than it would be if the other team had a fair share of possession. I’m not saying our defence is slow but I wouldn’t pick any of them out as being particularly quick. We’re therefore quite vulnerable to the counter attack if the other side has forwards who can move a bit quick once in a while.

In this game we had 75.8% possession. We made 568 passes to Barnsley’s 180. Our passing accuracy was 89.1%. Barnsley’s was 57.8%. We had 61 touches in their box. Yet the game was drawn.

In beating Stockport our possession stats were 37.4% and we only had 14 touches in their box. They had way more in ours. Also their passing was more accurate than ours but we won the game and deservedly so.

At Oakwell on Saturday I thought Barnsley did an absolutely superb job on us , playing the game just right. A neutral could not begrudge them a point.

That said, on another day in similar circumstances we could have won. 35 shots, ten of which were on target. Tyler Goodrham hit the bar with a cracking shot from distance.     

But we also could have lost. Jamie Cumming made a top save not long before he was given his marching orders and a Sam Long tackle was also required to save us.

For all I’ve said earlier though we really should not have looked so vulnerable and open as the game reached its very final stages.

Did we miss Cameron Brannagan and Ciaron Brown? Of course we did. Their replacements didn’t let us down but those two are nailed on starters in our best XI. With a fit Brannagan in midfield I believe Barnsley would have had fewer opportunities to get at us than they did. And Brown has been outstanding this season.

With Brannagan suffering from a minor knock and Brown a slight illness plus the data showing their workload needed careful management, leaving them out was obviously a sensible decision particularly with Reading coming to town on Wednesday night.

We started the game well, confidently keeping the ball. When we knock it about at the back now, I don’t panic as I used to. I’ve got much more faith. We look better at doing it than we have done over the last season or so. Is that down to Aaron Ramsey or that we’re back in L1? Probably a combination of both.

With the first sending off the dynamic of the encounter changed. A very harsh red card. Just a mis-timed challenge with Louie Sibley being too quick for Jack Shepherd. Nothing malicious, no studs up, no deliberately aiming for the man. Perhaps a bit reckless but only a bit.

It was only evened up with two minutes of the 90 remaining. Barnsley had got through us again without it looking like it was a dark shirt that was one light. Their quick passing and movement was not that of a bottom of the table outfit. When Cumming set off, I thought he was always second favourite. It was a crazy decision but the ball was coming towards him with the forward chasing. The result was a crunching tackle. Replays clearly show that our keeper won the ball. Rylan Brownlie went flying through the air. Referee Oliver Mackie without the benefit of VAR decided DOGSO. I wasn’t surprised given the first dismissal. That’s the fourth red card he’s shown this season, the other two also came in the same game, one for each team with the second coming in the 90^th minute. Perhaps the way he operates, possibly subconsciously.   

Post match the Barnsley manager said he didn’t think it was a red card.

Thankfully we had a sub slot left and Simon Eastwood came on for a few minutes with Siriki Dembele sacrificed.

When Welshman Vimal Yoganathan scored just after the half an hour mark it was the first we’d conceded in 233 minutes (excluding added time) of football. Speaks volumes of how solid we’ve become – but we weren’t when we went behind.

We ended up with five players chasing Jubril Okedina, who showed good skill on the ball, with no-one covering the right flank. Jack Currie was one of those five. He was almost out on the right wing. Dembele chased Okedina but in vain. Even then we had the numbers in the area to prevent the goal but we didn’t. Most un-Oxford United like. Why Currie wasn’t where I’d expect a left back to be I have no idea.

It took us about another 30 minutes to get ourselves level.

Barnsley had come out and were not camped in their final third. We had space and room out wide. Long from the edge of our area hit a very long ball to Aidomo Emakhu who had replaced Luka Lynch at half time. Our million-pound man’s first touch was not far outside the opposition area. He teased his marker before getting the ball back to Mark Harris who had cleverly found room with the two Barnsley defenders near him ball watching. It was a proper strikers’ side foot finish. That’s six for the season. Tier three suits Sparky. He played well.

Others weren’t quite at the standard we need if we are to be winning games like this.

Gaitlin O’Donkor missed yet another chance that he really should be scoring with or at least hitting the target.

After a good start when he came on at the break, I thought Peter Kioso dropped off a bit.

We were all hoping that Mo Missanga would provide that extra spark when he came on with about a quarter of an hour left. That didn’t happen. He’ll be carefully managed having burst onto the scene so brightly. A drop off is bound to happen. He’s a very young kid.

I don’t think I’ve been too generous to Barnsley but if we’d been on a poor run, I might have taken a different view.

Despite dropping two points I enjoyed the day out. I quite liked the place. None of this disrespectful “Barnsley’s a shit hole, I wanna go home”. I know, I know, it’s just a chant that football fans sing without any real thought. Time and time again though I feel the need to call it disrespectful. Is it just me?

We had a trouble-free journey to Yorkshire and were outside the Ale and Hearty waiting for it to open at 12:00. There were already locals and Oxford fans outside waiting to be let in. Those running it turned up just before noon. No looking at watches before being allowed over the threshold. We were immediately up and away.

We could not have been made more welcome. The little lady doing the pies commented that she remembered big Mark from three years ago. We remembered her. It was one of those micro pubs that when I’m supping away in them really wish we had something similar within walking distance of our home ground. A couple of pints of Bakewell Best Bitter from Peak Ales went down a treat sat in this community focused establishment.

As on the previous visit our next stopping point was the Jolly Tap on the Arcade. Jolly Boys beer. Blonde for me. Nice.

Bang opposite the Jolly Tap there’s another GBG listed pub, the Spiral City. We’ve not been in there before. It sounded interesting, as did the owners Dean Ormston and Fiona Stephenson. Apparently, it’s done out in Art Deco style. The walls are covered in Dean and Fiona’s artwork. Dean is a renowned comic book artist. Fiona specialises in work based around American pin-up art of the 40s/50s. The sort of people one likes to meet on our travels and have a chat with. But I think I’ve got them wrong.

By the time we were ready to take the ten steps from one bar to the next a bouncer had appeared. “Are you Oxford fans?” he asked. I thought he was just going to have a friendly chat. I’m no good at telling lies nor would I want to. So I said “yes”.  You can’t come in he said, “home fans only”. That had not been the case earlier as some Oxford fans testified. I said “but look at our ages, we won’t be a problem”. He was having none of it and will only have been working to orders which will have come from the owners. There had been no hint of aggravation or that the place was packed out. We keep hearing that the hospitality sector is having a hard time of it. Turning away customers for what seems to be no logical reason is madness. But if they don’t want our money then “sod ‘em”. That was a black mark on Barnsley’s otherwise burgeoning real ale scene.

Never mind, a two-minute walk away was Nailmaker Tap 1. It only became a Nailmaker pub two years ago. Funnily enough I had a Nailmaker beer.  CAMRA describe the interior as a single L-shaped drinking space designed to a very high standard. “Drinking space” really hits the nail on the head. (I wrote that forgetting what the pub was called).

So that’s Barnsley done with for whatever length of time before we re-visit. We travelled back still in 3^rd place with one or two games in hand on every other team in the top 11 places.

Now onto Reading at the Kassam on Wednesday night. Another potential “hardest game of the season”.  They’re 6^th but just one point behind us. It’s very tight and tense at the summit. The bookies have the Royals as marginal favourites to win. Best odds them 6/4, us 13/8.