Barnsley miss influential trio and are left with rebuilding job

By the banks of the Thames, Barnsley were under the pump from the first whistle.

Their rearguard was broken by Chris Martin’s penalty in first-half stoppage-time, with Scott Malone adding the second after the break.

Heckingbottom said his side’s sluggish start set the tone. “I thought we were second-best. Fulham were really good but I was disappointed with how we started.

“We kept turning over possession in the first 15 minutes and giving the ball back, which you don’t want to do against this Fulham side. I think they had five shots on our goal in the first 15 minutes, which is disappointing.

“The killer blow was the penalty just before half-time.”

Sone Aluko and Lucas Piazon both fired narrowly over in the opening stages, with Aidy White’s left flank under siege from fluent Fulham attacking.

The Tykes enjoyed their best spell in the middle of the first half. Adam Hammill came within a hair’s breadth of scoring when his drive clipped the bar and Tom Bradshaw headed narrowly wide.

In the final moments of the half, Angus MacDonald was punished for a grapple with Kevin McDonald and the referee gave a penalty, which Martin converted.

Malone made it two with a fine, low drive on the angle 10 minutes after the interval at which point it looked like Barnsley could be on the end of a hiding.

However, goalkeeper Adam Davies sprawled to save goalbound efforts from Martin, Tom Cairney and Aluko late on.

Barnsley toiled without Andy Yiadom, at the Africa Cup of Nations with Ghana, Sam Morsy, back at Wigan, and Sheffield Wednesday signing Sam Winnall.

“We’d got a really strong way of playing and been on a good run. That’s been changed with three key players missing,” said Heckingbottom. “We have to try and get that back somehow.”

Fulham: Button; Fredericks, Kalas, Ream, Malone; Johansen (Parker 88), McDonald, Cairney; Aluko (Odoi 90), Martin, Piazon (Sessegnon 89). Unused substitutes: Bettinelli, Smith, Madl, Sigurdsson.

Barnsley: Davies; Bree, MacDonald, Roberts, White; Watkins, Scowen, Hourihane, Hammill (Kent 70); Williams (Moncur 70), Bradshaw (Armstrong 70). Unused substitutes: Townsend, Evans, Jackson, Payne.

Referee: A Davies (Hampshire).