Barnsley FC 5 Luton Town 0: Rampant Reds leave Ponty End dreaming of glory days to come
"Conor Hourihane, he's going to bring the glory days again," sang the Ponty End as they watched their rookie manager claim the biggest win of his fledgling managerial career, 5-0 over Luton Town.
Hourihane took on the job of Barnsley coach with a big cushion of popularity thanks to his playing career but after an indifferent late September/October, this was a performance to fill even the coldest Tyke heart with optimism on a brass monkeys afternoon in South Yorkshire.
Jack Wilshere, even newer in the job, had lost his first game as Luton coach, but none since until running into a Barnsley side in rampant form.
When you consider their victory included two Vimil Yoganathan shots against the woodwork and a first-half effort a player in the goalscoring form Davis Keillor-Dunn is really ought to have buried, it was some performance by the rampant Reds.
The Hatters had far more of the ball but when a poor backpass by Josh Earl – into the side at left-back – sold Murphy Cooper brilliantly, Josh Shepherd and Marc Roberts descended on Nakhi Wells to make sure he could not score.
The visitors only managed one shot on target all afternoon.
It summed up the energy and vibrancy of a Barnsley side who have come back from November's international break playing catch-up after postponements and poor results, needing to build some momentum now. What a start to that quest.
They certainly looked well rested, playing with an energy and hitting the crossbar in the fourth minute when Yoganathan ran onto a Patrick Kelly pass.
Luton quickly responded when a great pass by midfielder George Saville released another former Middlesbrough player, Isaiah Jones, who forced Cooper's only save of the first half.
The Reds led in the ninth minute, Reyes Cleary intercepting a Zach Nelson pass, playing a one-two with Keillor-Dunn and knocking the ball past Josh Keeley.
Wells might have equalised but for the centre-backs, and the clattering his ankle took in the process ended his afternoon.
Barnsley passed the ball around in tight areas at the back but often Cooper played it safe and long, and one such punt found Clearly to make a chance Keillor-Dunn ought to have buried after half an hour, hitting the pass first-time but wide.
When Yoganathan hit a post from a tight angle minutes later, you wondered if Barnsley might come to rue it.
But Cleary, as so often the dangerman, made the second goal for Kelly.
He might have done it a quarter of an hour in, only for the new Northern Ireland international to hit a bouncing ball over.
Fed by am excellent Luca Connell pass in the 35th minute, Cleary played this ball in along the ground and gave Kelly a tap-in he gleefully accepted.
Barnsley made it three in first-half stoppage time after a lovely Jonathan Bland touch started a move which ended with Keillor-Dunn being brought down in the D.
After a long build up which saw a couple of players pulled out of the defensive wall for a ticking off from referee Thomas Parsons, Connell curled a beautiful finish into the side netting from the inside.
Booed by the away fans as they headed down the tunnel – there was more of the same at full-time, obviously – Luton responded with three half-time substitutions and carried a bit more threat going forward, but nowhere near enough to trouble the hosts.
Sometimes after a first-half and a scoreline like that, the front-runners can ease up but Barnsey did not, Adam Phillips very nearly catching fellow substitute dwelling on a Yoganathan cross. Roberts headed the resulting corner over.
Yoganathan had moved more centrally since Phillips' introduction which meant he was closer to Cleary. He was knocked off the ball in the 57th minute bit rather than waving his arms around appealing for a free-kick he just recovered his footing and picked out the winger, whose shot lacked the curl to creep inside the far post.
No matter, Barnsley soon got the fourth with Cleary and Yoganathan in cahoots again.
The latter forced a save from the former's cross and as Geideon Kodua and Nathaniel Ogbeta raced onto the loose ball, it seemed to be the defender who put it into the net.
Keillor-Dunn got his overdue goal in the 76th minute when Cleary won the ball around the halfway line and rather than try a repeat of his wondergoal at Bradford City, threaded a ball to the striker, who shook off Kai Naismith to find the net for his fourth goal in as many game.
Phillips night well have had a sixth but racing through, he shot just wide.
This was far from a day when everything Barnsley hit found the net. That only made it even more exciting.
Barnsley: Cooper; Watson, Roberts, Shepherd (de Gevigney 78), Earl (Ogbeta 60); Connell, Bland; Yoganathan, Kelly (Phillips 49), Cleary (Vickers 78); Keillor-Dunn (McGoldrick 78).
Unused substitutes: Farrugia, Flavell.
Luton Town: Keeley; Jones (Odoffin HT), Mengi, Andersen, Naismith; Saville (Fanne 71); Kodua, Walsh, Nelson (Richards HT), Bramall (Alli HT); Wells (Yates 20).
Unused substitutes: Shea, Brown.
Referee: T Parsons (Rochdale).