Barnsley 4 Rotherham United 0: Reds make light of Alfie Mawson's exit as miserable Millers are blitzed

On a day when their star defender was putting the finishing touches to his move to Premier League Swansea City, Barnsley showed that there is plenty of life without Alfie Mawson – with Paul Heckingbottom’s side in the rudest of health.

A third win and clean sheet in the league at Oakwell was ticked off in resounding fashion, with Angus McDonald – who took Mawson’s place – afforded a pretty seamless debut.

But it was the Reds’ barnstorming four-goal second-half attacking show which overwhelmed their neighbours that proved the main focal point, as the Millers’ season lurched into a mini-crisis.

The rain was unrelenting as manager Alan Stubbs delivered his post-mortem on the Millers’ meek second-half capitulation and it seemed like an apt metaphor; an early watershed moment in the club’s embryonic season.

By contrast, Heckingbottom is walking on water, with the acclaim that he and his Reds side were afforded at the final whistle differing markedly from the torrent of scorn meted down upon Stubbs and his players from sections of irate fans in the well-populated away end.

Heckingbottom – who saw the derby pendulum swing inexorably in Barnsley’s direction after the late blow at Huddersfield on the previous Saturday – said: “We have turned a steady start to the season into a very good one and we would have been delighted with nine points from five games at the start of the season.

“The style of this win at the end put the icing on the cake.

“Adam (Hammill) has had his new baby; Sam Winnall is back from injury and Angus was handed a debut and we have had four first-time scorers this season; it was just one of those days where it happened for us.”

The chain of events that transpired for Heckingbottom’s rival Stubbs were far more abject and he refused to gloss over them, which was probably just as well.

There are acceptable ways of losing a match – a derby match at that. This was not one of them.

The loss was bad enough from a Millers perspective with a clearly dismayed Tony Stewart showing what he thought of it all by leaving his seat before the end.

You could hardly blame the Millers chairman.

But while the full-time scoreline was painful, it was the manner of the visitors’ disintegration that was far more disturbing – especially in a derby. Stubbs, who claimed the display had crystallised his desire to sign more players before Wednesday, with exits also likely, said: “As a player, when the chips are down you stick your chest out.

“The players are not soft. They have a responsibility to represent the club. No one goes out there to lose. But we have to be resilient when we go 1-0 down and we cannot concede the goals we did.

“It is now about how we deal with it. If the players want to accept it, they are at the wrong place.

“If they want to do something about it, then great. There has to be a response.”

To describe the Millers’ second-half performance as being devoid of ideas is probably being charitable. Clueless is perhaps the more appropriate word.

Barnsley sensed blood and went for the jugular in a second half that was as one-sided as it gets.

It showcased a vibrant side who have a clear game plan, purpose and drive. At the heart of it all was Conor Hourihane, who ran the game on the restart, with wingers Ryan Kent and Adam Hammill also having a field day.

The Millers, sound enough in the first half, could not cope as their deep-seated woe at Oakwell, where they have not won since August 1970, intensified.

Encouragement had been provided in the first half, which was keenly fought, with Winnall and Roberts off target for the Reds and Hammill testing Camp.

But after the restart was a different story, from the moment that Hourihane went within inches of firing the hosts in front, with Camp turning away his strike.

Roberts soon prodded home from close range after the Millers failed to deal with Hammill’s free-kick and within three minutes, Hammill’s low shot doubled the tally – albeit after a significant deflection off Kelvin Wilson.

When the Millers needed their players to front up, the response was pitiful, with the Reds turning on the style.

Kent and Hourihane went close before salt was rubbed into the Millers’ wounds when substitute Tom Bradshaw, a player who chose Barnsley ahead of them earlier this summer, deftly headed home Andy Yiadom’s centre.

The coup de grace came when Hourihane teed up Kent to smash the ball home to complete the visitors’ humiliation. Alfie who?

Barnsley: Davies, Yiadom, Roberts, MacDonald, White, Kent, Scowen, Hourihane, Hammill (Lee 88), Winnall (Payne 69 (Bradshaw 72), Watkins. Unused substitutes: Townsend, Moncur, Evans, Tuton.

Rotherham United: Camp; Fisher, Ball, Wilson, Kelly; Forster-Caskey (Yates 65), Vaulks; Taylor (Newell 80), Allan, Brown (Forde 83); Ward. Unused substitutes: Price, Mattock, Wood, Smallwood.

Referee: G Scott (Oxon).