Barnsley 2 Coventry City 0: Barnsley forward Gray breaks ice and celebrates milestone strike

Barnsley chief Keith Hill admitted it was a “huge relief” as he celebrated his first victory at Oakwell after two goals from Andy Gray.

Gray struck his 100th career goal from the penalty spot in the 42nd minute after Coventry defender Chris Hussey was adjudged to have handled, and added a second with a close-range finish shortly after the interval.

Hill, who replaced Mark Robins as Tykes manager in June, said: “I hope people will stop asking me about getting the first win now.

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“I knew that it would eventually come. I was really pleased with the performance, 100 per cent.

“It’s just a huge relief for the football club. The players are now buying into the hard work which is needed and I can’t see them stopping developing.

“I will forgive anyone a mistake, even if they’re playing against better players, if they keep trying.”

Barnsley lost their first two home league games of the season to Southampton and Middlesbrough and have since drawn with Leicester and Watford. Hill added: “I think we deserved to win without question. I can understand their manager saying it wasn’t a penalty, but it was the ice-breaker and I will take it without any complaints.

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“The players can now see that they’re getting the rewards from the performances they’ve put in the last few matches.

“I think the second goal wouldn’t have looked out of place in any league of football. I would have loved to have seen that as a fan.

“We’ve got two weeks off now because of the internationals and in that time we’ll get players back from injury and on to the training pitch.

“For a manager it’s great to have all your players back from injury, but you know you’ll get a couple of injuries each match.”

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Coventry are still chasing their first league away win of the season and manager Andy Thorn insisted the Hussey hand-ball incident was called wrong by referee Geoff Eltringham.

Thorn said: “It was never a penalty and after that we had a mountain to climb.

“We were disappointing, it was our worst performance of the season so far, but I thought that Barnsley played well.

“We had a few chances in the second half, but they wouldn’t drop for us. We had to make a few changes at half-time which left us short. We’ll move on after this defeat. It’s disappointing not to get a point out of this game, but we’ll move on to the next game.”

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Barnsley: Steele, Hassell (Wiseman 33), Foster, McNulty, McEveley, O’Brien, Doyle, Drinkwater, Vaz Te (Park 82), Butterfield, Gray. Unused substitutes: Preece, Addison, Rose.

Coventry City: Murphy, Keogh, Cameron, Cranie (Bell 49), Hussey (Christie 46), Thomas, Clingan, Deegan, O’Donovan (Platt 46), Jutkiewicz, McSheffrey. Unused substitutes: Dunn, McDonald.

Referee: G Eltringham (Tyne & Wear).

Man of the match: Andy Gray.