Barnsley 1 Nottingham Forest 1: Barnsley overcome ‘fearful’ first-half display to earn point

Gareth McCleary put Forest ahead 12 minutes before half-time with a deflected drive from the edge of the area and Marcus Tudgay almost made it two with a looping header that came back off the Barnsley crossbar four minutes later.

But the Tykes improved after the restart and Craig Davies, a free summer signing from Chesterfield, rescued a point 11 minutes from time, cutting inside to smash a left-footed shot into the bottom left-hand corner from 25 yards.

Hill said: “It was a point gained definitely. We were probably fortunate to be in it at half-time.

“There was a lot of fear in that first-half performance; lack of confidence, lack of self-belief.

“You can reach a point when you come to half-time in the changing rooms where you’ve got to look the players in the eyes and say ‘go out their and express yourselves, play with no fear, play with courage and enthusiasm’ and I think that’s what we did in the second half.

“We probably could have nicked it but it would have been harsh on Forest given the way they played in the first half and the way we didn’t play.”

Forest manager Steve Cotterill credited Barnsley for their second-half performance but felt the game turned on a penalty decision on the stroke of half-time when Barnsley striker Davies appeared to handle in the area.

He said: “It’s a good point for us, let’s make no bones about it. Barnsley played very well in the second half and I thought they threw caution to the wind and it was 4-2-4 at times in the second half so you’ve got to give credit to them for that.

“I thought our first-half performance was very good. I thought the turning point was the penalty; it’s a cast-iron penalty. I’ve just looked at it, it’s absolutely cast iron.

“He moves his hand up to the ball and at 2-0 I think we win the game then.

“I could tell our lads were a little bit disappointed about it at half-time and we had to get that out of our system

“Goals change games and they change mindsets. If we go in at 2-0 I think we know we’re going to win the game then.

“I spoke to the referee at half-time and he said he didn’t see it. I don’t know what he was looking at then if he didn’t see that.

“If that had been us losing and we had gone in the bottom three, I’d probably be sat here raging.

“We’ve looked pretty solid and we’ve restricted them to that shot at the end so I thought it was a good shift from our lads.”

Teenager Paul Digby made his second start for Barnsley and fellow midfielder Matty Done was also recalled. The latter was the architect of Barnsley’s 79th-minute equaliser. The winger made space down the left and cut the ball back to the edge of the area into the path of Davies, who crashed home a low, left-footed shot into the bottom corner.

Forest almost snatched victory in the third minute of stoppage time, but Steele thwarted substitute Cunningham with a superb save.

Barnsley: Steele, Wiseman, Foster, McNulty, McEveley (Gray 56), Smith (Dawson 75), Tonge (Dagnall 65), Digby, Golbourne, Done, Davies. Unused substitutes: Preece, Cotterill.

Nottm Forest: Camp, Gunter, Wootton, Lynch, Elokobi, McCleary (McGugan 90), Greening, Guedioura, Reid (Anderson 80), Blackstock (Cunningham 87), Tudgay. Unused substitutes: Smith, Lascelles.

Referee: Darren Deadman (Cambridgeshire).