Barnsley 1 Coventry City 2: Players know that they let themselves down, says Mellon

Second-half goals from Franck Moussa and Leon Clarke gave Coventry victory after Jim O’Brien had put the hosts in front before the break.

Tykes’ assistant manager Micky Mellon said: “We were disappointed with the second half.

“We felt that we lost a lot of the individual battles that you need to win. We lost too many of them, certainly in the second half.

“We value the competition highly as a football club, but we never showed the fire in the second half to progress in the tournament and that was disappointing.

“We didn’t put the chances away and we were poor in the second half in the important moments.

“We’ll need to get going again. They know that they let themselves down. As professional people, we’ll get going again, there’s no doubt about that because that’s what we do.

“There were a lot of things said in the dressing room that needed to be said and we will get a reaction.”

O’Brien got on the end of a long ball from Jean-Yves M’voto and then lobbed goalkeeper Joe Murphy to put Barnsley in front on 19 minutes.

Barnsley’s Tomasz Cywka then twice went close to putting the home side further ahead, testing Murphy with a 30-yard free-kick and hitting the goalkeeper’s left-hand post with a curling effort.

Moussa equalised with 12 minutes to go after bursting through the middle before beating Luke Steele to set up a stirring finish.

Clarke struck the winner just a minute from the end of normal time after holding off a couple of defenders.

Coventry manager Steven Pressley heaped praise on his team.

Pressley said: “Both goals were outstanding finishes and I’m delighted for everybody connected with the club.

“I thought that Leon Clarke in particular was outstanding, leading the line.

“The most important thing for us was that we started believing in ourselves.

“In the opening 30 minutes, we never managed to pass the ball in the manner that people have come accustomed to with a Coventry side.”

Barnsley: Steele, Cranie, Ramage, Mvoto, Kennedy, O’Brien, Dawson, Perkins (Scotland 77), Cywka, Mellis, O’Grady (Pedersen 66). Unused substitutes: Nyatanga, Etuhu, Dibble, McCourt, Jennings.

Coventry City: Murphy, Christie, Webster, Willis, Adams, Baker, Fleck, Daniels, Moussa, Leon Clarke, Slager (Barton 57). Unused substitutes: Burge, Phillips, Urquhart, Garner, Haynes, Maund.

Referee: C Boyeson (E Yorkshire).

Man of the match: Jim O’Brien.