Barnsley 2 Coventry City 1: Doyle screamer sets Tykes on road to Oakwell triumph

The Tykes made a flying start and went ahead after four minutes through a stunning 30-yard strike from Nathan Doyle. before Freddy Eastwood drew Coventry level in the 35th minute with his second goal in as many games.

The visitors looked more likely to go in front at the end of the first half but their defence let them down once again when Goran Lovre was left all alone to put Barnsley in front just before the hour mark.

Coventry had a good chance to equalise at the end but Aron Gunnarsson fired over when clean through as Barnsley held out for the win which moved them eight points clear of the bottom three.

The defeat extended Coventry's winless run to six matches and they slipped down to 11th place.

Barnsley boss Mark Robins was pleased to see his men register their first win in four games and finally beat Coventry for the first time of asking since 1997.

He said: "It was a great three points for us. The result was all important, because people say we don't get anything against Coventry.

"I thought we dealt with their physical threat and we scored two good goals.

"We got the ball down when we could. The first goal was a great strike from Nathan and it gave him the confidence to have a couple more attempts later.

"We've had two good results in the last two games and they say we don't get points in January, but this year we've got four points more than we normally do.

"We take it one game at a time, if we drop our levels we know we will become unstuck and it would be nice if we could get another run going. I didn't know that if we won (yesterday) that we would become the first team to win 1,000 games in the second tier. It's a nice achievement."

"I am very disappointed," said Coventry manager Aidy Boothroyd.

"You can't start a game the way we did. The goals we conceded were very poor. We didn't create enough to win the game.

"For where we are that was very poor. We didn't attack them enough, we had periods where we dominated them but we didn't get the ball behind them.

"For their winning goal we defended the first cross and everyone ran out but we didn't defend the second cross. We allowed them to have two very poor goals and we didn't take the chances when we had the opportunities.

"I am annoyed that we are not going away from here with anything. This is a game we should be going away with a result."

Barnsley: Steele, Hassell, Shackell, Foster, Trippier, Hill, Doyle, Lovre (Gray 76), Hammill, Arismendi, O'Connor (Butterfield 83). Unused substitutes: Preece, O'Brien, Colace, Neumann, Bennett.

Coventry City: Westwood, Keogh, McPake (Cranie 11), Wood, Cameron, Carsley, Doyle, Gunnarsson, Eastwood, McSheffrey, Platt. Unused substitutes: Ireland, Bell, Baker, Thomas, Jutkiewicz, O'Donovan.