Big-match verdict: Surprise package Reds have their eyes on Owls after win over Millers

But do not let it be said that Barnsley’s Championship play-off drive is any false alarm.

Reds players and officials congregated in the freezing cold in the outer concourse of the West Stand while police investigated reports of a suspicious item, although the winter chill will have been felt rather more by their Rotherham United counterparts standing nearby.

The temperature will have also dropped a degree or two a few miles down the road at Hillsborough when news broke of Barnsley’s victory with the Reds’ icy breath being felt on the necks of sixth-placed Sheffield Wednesday.

All the pre-match talk from a Barnsley perspective focused on how they would cope with life without Conor Hourihane, with the Reds having not won a league game without him since April 15, 2014 – a total of 1,019 days.

The sell-out away contingent need not have worried. Barnsley have been here before, after all.

Like in the reverse fixture with the Millers on August 27, when the club carried on regardless, and in some style, while another star turn in Alfie Mawson was putting the finishing touches to a big-money move to Swansea City.

Mawson’s replacement that day was Angus MacDonald, who stepped out of the shadows to grasp his chance with a resounding debut performance – and his display in the return was pretty eye-catching, too.

As was the classy winner 20 minutes from time from Adam Armstrong, with the young Geordie being the beneficiary of a wonderful defence-splitting pass from Ryan Kent before coolly steering the ball low past Richard O’Donnell.

It was lapped up by the Reds faithful, whose number included new signing from Leeds United Alex Mowatt, and when it comes to finishing in the Championship’s top six, they are entitled to dare to dream.

Why not, given the events of the past year or so?

MacDonald said: “It is still tight up there and we are still pushing to get in that play-off spot.

“You see in our past two results in back-to-back derbies when we have picked up six points, that that is massive for us. You can see the hunger from the lads, fans and the coaching staff and the whole club.

“It was a massive three points for us, especially after beating Leeds and backing it up with another great result.”

As for his future, the centre-half, who is pledging to keep firmly focused despite recently being linked with Championship rivals Norwich City, added: “It is nice to be credited for the job you do. But you have to continue to do your work on the pitch and see what happens.

“As a club and as a player, you have to ignore the speculation off the pitch and do it on the pitch and it speaks for itself.”

A player in the home ranks in Danny Ward is another well versed with January speculation and he was at the heart – as he invariably is – of the Millers’ best moments.

Do not let it be said that the Millers are not willing workers and in many ways they are the embodiment of their interim manager, Paul Warne, with lost causes chased and their work ethic being pronounced.

Warne spoke about the lack of a single individual highlight when he showed his players’ video footage of the reverse fixture at Oakwell when the visitors were, in his words, annihilated in an embarrassing second half that led to an eventual 4-0 loss, which could have been far more grievous.

The Millers’ offering on Saturday was nowhere near X-rated and eminently more watchable. But the game’s outcome, if not the margin of the scoreline, was the same.

Home pressure, particularly at the start of the second half, was concerted, but they lacked the wherewithal to conjure a breakthrough and it cost them.

Barnsley bit like a viper when their chance arrived.

It was a sweet moment for Armstrong, tentatively linked with the Millers last summer, with the talented forward having spurned a golden first-half chance when his chip clipped the top of the crossbar after he had been sent clear by a raking long pass from new Barnsley captain and central defender Marc Roberts.

The hosts, seeking to reprise their home form under Warne which has seen them overcome Norwich, QPR and Wigan, knocked on the door on occasions and went close through Ward, whose goalbound volley was diverted in the nick of time by MacDonald, who also made an outstanding early challenge to deny Jon Taylor.

A rasping low drive from an unlikely source in Joe Mattock grazed the post later on in the half, with Adam Davies having to be alert earlier in the second period to turn away Ward’s curler.

But, as confident sides invariably do, Barnsley waited for the killer moment, which ultimately arrived courtesy of Armstrong with O’Donnell denying Marley Watkins – another transfer target – a late second with a fine finger-tip save.

Victory for Barnsley extended their unbeaten sequence against Rotherham to nine matches.

You have to go back to October, 1982 for the Millers’ last home success over the Reds – when a goal from John Seasman gave the hosts a 1-0 triumph.

The result also extended the Millers’ wretched derby form this season, with the club having been beaten in all six Championship matches against Yorkshire rivals so far in 2016-17.