Barnsley and Victor Adeboyejo prove they are no pushovers

Four days earlier the Reds beat Norwich City, a cultured side who spent last season in the Premier League.

Cardiff had a new manager in charge in Barnsley-born former Reds centre-back Mick McCarthy but the approach was the same physical, direct one which has brought them success in recent years. An unchanged home side dealt with it and looked by far the better team until a comeback in the final half-hour saw the points shared.

Even though Barnsley are still looking for their first Championship win of 2021, forward Adeboyejo felt the way they acquitted themselves showed a team which has come on considerably after a poor start to the season.

“You’ve got to set up for Cardiff in a different way because you know what they’re going to do and what their strengths are,” he said. “It is a different sort of mindset but the boys dug in well from the first minute.

“The gaffer has drilled it into us in training in terms of understanding the challenge ahead and the boys rose to it. We’re not pushovers either. Like Cardiff, we don’t want to be pushed around by anyone.

“You’re not going to get a load of games where you play really well. There are some games where you’ve just got to dig in and fight.

“To get a point against a very strong Cardiff team, even though I felt we deserved three, is a step in the right direction.”

After the game Ismael pointed to the contrast to when the sides met in November, and the Bluebirds were 3-0 winners of his first away game as Barnsley manager. When he replaced Gerhard Struber, the team had won none of its first seven league games of the campaign.

“The first game (between the clubs), it felt like a very, very strong Cardiff team came in and did what they had to do against us but on Wednesday we made it difficult for them and on another day we could have got three points,” argued Adeboyejo. “We battled from the first minute to the last and we were unfortunate with decisions and stuff like that.

“That shows the development of the squad that we can adapt against a team that play a bit longer and try to play a bit more.”

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