Barnsley 3 Bury 0: Tykes players praised as life after Lee Johnson begins with Oakwell win

The Reds celebrated reaching the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final on Thursday after their penalty heroics against Fleetwood and followed that up with a comfortable win over Bury at Oakwell.

But pre-match talk was dominated by Johnson’s departure to Bristol City. The 34-year-old officially joined City on Saturday, bringing to an end his Oakwell tenure which was three weeks shy of a year.

Johnson spent six years at Ashton Gate during his playing career and penned a three-and-a-half year contract with the Championship strugglers.

Caretaker duo Tommy Wright and Paul Heckingbottom were in charge for the visit of the Shakers and goals from Marley Watkins, Sam Winnall and Adam Hammill ensured a comfortable Sunday afternoon for the hosts. Heckingbottom refused to be drawn into speculation about taking up the reins on a full-time basis.

He said: “I don’t know if the job is available and I’m just carrying on as normal. A lot has been crammed in to the last few days.

“We were told on Friday we needed to prepare the team for training. We had roles within the set-up so it’s not been a big adjustment for the players.

“Me and Tommy are just doing the same roles. It’s just a case of keeping this run going. It was a tremendous performance today.

“We emphasised before the game that application had to be spot-on and it was.”

Hammill saw a couple of chances go begging in the early exchanges before the Reds went 1-0 up on 19 minutes.

Watkins scored it when he chased the ball down forcing Bury stopper Ian Lawlor to retreat into his net before coolly slotting the ball in off the left-hand post.

The Reds were comfortable all afternoon but had to wait until the 56th minute to double their lead. Winnall slotted home inside the box for his 17th goal of what is becoming a prolific campaign for the former Scunthorpe striker.

Not long after there were more celebrations when the third arrived and it came after a lovely team move.

Half the side were involved as they worked the ball from back to front before Hammill finished in style inside the box.

Barnsley are now tenth in the League One table – five points shy of sixth-placed Millwall.

Barnsley: Davies, Bree, Long, Mawson, White, Brownhill, Isgrove (Fletcher 65) , Hammill (Tuton 85), Hourihane, Watkins, Winnall (Scowen 77). Unused substitutes: Townsend, Roberts, McCourt, Williams

Bury: Lawlor, P Clarke, Mayor, O’Sullivan (Jones 49), Brown (Miller 60), Cameron, Soares, L Clarke, Pope, Pugh (Mellis 60), Hussey. Unused substitutes: Burgess, Riley, Tutte, Sedgwick

Ref: A Haines.

Man of the match: Adam Hammill.