ON a lovely Oakwell day bathed in sunshine to mark the start of spring, it was impossible to get away from winter.

Two of Doncaster Rovers’ headline signings at the start of 2026 proved the difference, while Conor Hourihane was entitled to reflect on what Barnsley lost in the winter transfer window by contrast.

This was the sort of result and performance that he will have inwardly feared when Davis Keillor-Dunn left, more especially with deadline-day loan recruit Tom Bradshaw unavailable and strikers in very short supply.

Speaking of missing players, Rovers were without their most creative force in Luke Molyneux, while Billy Sharp was also conspicuous by his absence.

Doncaster Rovers' match-winner and one-time Barnsley player Elliot Lee celebrates with team-mates Jack Senior and Robbie Gotts after scoring from the penalty spot at Oakwell. Photo: Tony Johnson.

placeholder image — Doncaster Rovers' match-winner and one-time Barnsley player Elliot Lee celebrates with team-mates Jack Senior and Robbie Gotts after scoring from the penalty spot at Oakwell. Photo: Tony Johnson.

On the day, it was assuaged by the presence of window arrivals Elliot Lee and Hakeeb Adelakun.

The former, an ex-Barnsley player, converted the match-winning penalty just before the midway point of the second half, with the spot-kick won by the latter just five minutes after he came on as a substitute.

After the highs at Rotherham United exactly a month earlier, this was another sweet occasion for Doncaster, who won for the first time in the league at Oakwell since March 2010.

A ‘really good away performance’ opined Grant McCann and while it was hardly free-flowing, you got his drift.

Barnsley defender Corey O'Keeffe fouls Doncaster Rovers' rival Hakeeb Adelakun to concede a penalty in the game-breaking moment on derby day. Photo: Tony Johnson.

There was history for Rovers, who had never previously won league games at Barnsley and Rotherham in the same season. They are now just three points behind the Reds and have a realistic chance of finishing above them in the final table for the first time since 2013-14.

The issues belong to Barnsley on this evidence.

Hourihane was on the defensive afterwards, with his frustration being understandable.

Some brassed-off home supporters turned on not just his players, but also him at the end of a painful afternoon from a Reds perspective which saw their admittedly faint hopes of gatecrashing the play-off scene finally disintegrate.

After the Cardiff game 11 days earlier, the Reds chief had said that his club’s next three games would decide if they had a genuine top-six sniff come the business end.

He now emphatically has his answer, with Barnsley marooned in the mid-table morass.

Hourihane spoke with candour - and a certain amount of exasperation - following Saturday’s game. Barnsley are what they are; ‘a mid-table side’ he replied after being asked if this was where he feels the club will end up in May.

In a separate radio interview, he went further and suggested that, as it stands, Barnsley won’t be a side pushing for the top six next year either.

Speaking to the written press, Hourihane said: "We've got to be really realistic about where we are.

"We want to achieve top six, but where we are as a football club right now with the size of squad, a lot of youngsters, and Davo (Keillor-Dunn) leaving in January, did you think we'd really make the top six..?

"Everyone needs to know where we are. And I think everyone does.

"I know the frustration is there and I completely understand it. I'm frustrated more than anyone. But we're asking a lot of these lads; young lads and a lot of the squad in general."

At a time when the world has been plunged into an energy crisis, Barnsley were running on fumes in their seventh game in 21 days, with a 38-year-old in David McGoldrick having started all of them. Hourihane admitted that particular situation was 'obscene', but needs must. What else could he do?

On a dire derby day, the Reds had no forward on their bench. In a bid to try and generate a spark, Hourihane started with Reyes Cleary at centre-forward.

The failed experiment lasted 45 minutes, but with minimal options, the Barnsley boss clearly felt compelled to do something different, even if it was left-field.

On this showing, the international break is well-timed for Barnsley. A run of eight games in April - including six away trips - is rather more sobering.

Both sides traded one effort on target - and pretty tame ones at that - in a dreadful first half.

After pushing Cleary back out wide and moving Patrick Kelly to number 10, Barnsley were incrementally better on the restart. But Rovers took the big moment after Corey O'Keeffe's silly tug on Adelakun, with referee David Rock right in the vicinity.

Before that, it was a 0-0 game, all the way.

Barnsley's best chance came at the death when Thimothee Lo-Tutala made a sharp save to deny Kelly. There wasn't much else in truth.

Barnsley: Goodman; O’Keeffe, O’Connell, Shepherd, Watson (Ogbeta 81); Connell, Kelly; Banks (Bland HT), Phillips (Yoganathan 71), Cleary (Lennon 71); McGoldrick. Substitutes unused: Flavell, Roberts, de Gevigney.

Doncaster Rovers: Lo-Tutala; Sterry, Byrne, Pearson, Senior; Gotts; Middleton (Adelakun 60), Lee (Clifton 79), Bailey, Gibson (Broadbent 90); Hanlan. Substitutes unused: Clark, Maxwell, McGrath, Close.

Referee: D Rock (Herts).