Barnsley 2 Huddersfield Town 1: Reds in safe hands as Pollitt pedals to the rescue

For it is pedal power which has kept him in trim ever since he joined Wigan Athletic from Rotherham United for £200,000 eight years ago.

At 41, he had become the oldest player in Barnsley’s history in midweek but five goals conceded against Premier League Southampton in the League Cup had made it an inauspicious start.

However, Pollitt showed all his qualities in Saturday’s Championship bow against Huddersfield when, ironically, he was on the same pitch as a player who had been the club’s youngest in history, Reuben Noble-Lazarus.

“I don’t feel any different, I keep myself fit,” said Pollitt, whose only taste of action this year had been in the FA Cup in January when the Latics required a replay against Bournemouth on their route to an historic final victory at Wembley.

“At Wigan, I’m travelling 30 miles a day on my bike. That’s what I do and even when I haven’t been playing I keep myself ticking over because you never know when you are going to be needed.

“The call came this week so all that training has helped me. I’m probaly the first in and last out and when you’ve done a tough session in training and then have to jump on your bike from Wigan to Bolton it’s a bit of a tough old trek uphill but it has helped me ensure that when the opportunity has come around, I’m ready.”

Pollitt’s calm handling and decisiveness at coming to collect crosses obviously had a galvanising effect on a defence which has been disrupted by injuries but has also been well below par.

Porous displays had cost captain Luke Steele his place and manager David Flitcroft had also decided he needed someone with more experience than Ben Alnwick, hence his decision to bring in Pollitt, who made over 250 appearances for the Millers, on an initial 28-day loan.

However, the Barnsley chief has been delighted with the response of Steele and, speaking after Saturday’s deserved opening win of the season, he said: “I only make decisions which are best for the group.

“It was a hard decision but one made for football reasons. Steeley’s response has been incredible. He came in my office saying his mum had been asking why he had been dropped and said he had told her ‘because I’ve been poor, not been good enough.’

“He has been honest with himself and that is going to go a long way to getting him to the top of his game and his optimums because I want Luke Steele to become the best in this league and he will be, learning off Mike Pollitt, who will teach him and will be around to support him.

“The fight in Luke Steele is the best I have seen since I have been at this club.”

It was perhaps asking too much of the Reds to keep their first clean sheet of the season, especially as they came up against James Vaughan, who is in top form for Huddersfield.

The striker struck for the eighth time this season, latching on to a delightful through ball from Adam Clayton to make it 2-1 just past the hour mark and record his eighth strike of the season.

The pair had combined shortly before but, although Vaughan showed strength to hold off the imposing Jean-Yves M’voto, he crucially dragged his shot wide.

Apart from a volley from Vaughan at Pollitt, that was as good as it got for the visitors, who had been aiming to break into the top six.

It could even have been worse as goalkeeper Alex Smithies raced up for a stoppage-time corner from Adam Hammill, which landed conveniently for M’voto to produce a lung-bursting charge upfield only to hit a yard wide of an empty goal with the last kick of the match.

The Frenchman promptly stomped off down the tunnel in a huff, leaving Pollittt to state: “I was laughing actually because it was like the Benny Hill Show. I thought what’s going on here and then he got the open goal only for the ball to dribble wide. I didn’t want to say anything because he has that stern face on him all the time but it was quite funny.”

Flitcroft added: “That was one of the maddest things I have ever seen. At one point, I thought he was going to come charging into the dugout and I took cover because when you see M’voto racing toward you, you start panicking. I think he put that much energy into the burst and the sprint he just couldn’t finish it. It was one of the funniest things I have seen. He went mad in the changing room.”

Fortunately for Barnsley, Flitcroft had two deadly marksmen in Chris O’Grady and Marcus Pedersen to reward the first half midfield dominance of Kelvin Etuhu, Stephen Dawson and David Perkins.

They floored Huddersfield after right and left crosses, O’Grady rifling home after the ball bounced off Anthony Gerrard and Pedersen, a recent season-long loan signing from Dutch side Vitesse Arnhem, celebrated his first league start by expertly manoeuvring space away from Joel Lynch to drive home the second in the 32nd minute.

Former Reds chief Mark Robins rang the changes in Town’s personnel and formation and they had the better of the second half without giving their 3,888 following too much to cheer about.

Captain Peter Clarke, who twice took knocks to his already battered nose and was moved to right-back at one stage, reflected: “We got better as the first half went on but had given ourselves too much to do. I think we probably deserved a second goal, though.

“There is no need to panic but we would have liked to have gone into the international break on the back of a positive result.”

Barnsley: Pollitt, Wiseman, M’Voto, Kennedy; O’Brien, Dawson, Etuhu, Perkins, Noble-Lazarus (Mellis 73); O’Grady, Pedersen (Dagnall 75). Unused substitutes: Steele, Jennings, McNulty, Scotland, Cwyka.

Huddersfield Town: Smithies, Clarke, Gerrard, Lynch; Hammill, Norwood, Hogg (Stead 88), Carroll (Paterson 76); Clayton; Scannell (Ward 53), Vaughan. Unused substitutes: Gobern, Smith, Bennett, Wallace.

Referee: L Mason (Lancs).