Oldham Athletic 1 Barnsley 2: Tykes and Johnson pick ideal place to net elusive win

Almost two months and eight consecutive defeats later the Tykes took three – all in one go.

Manager Lee Johnson may have had to bide his time for a victory, but Kevin Long, brought into the club on loan from Burnley on Thursday, had undergone a longer wait of his own. After suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury on the first day of 2015, 324 days later he finally had an opportunity to step back out onto a football pitch for a competitive game.

His debut came alongside Aidan White, who also joined on loan earlier this week. The two replaced George Smith and Lewin Nyatanga in defence, making the solid display of the back-line even more impressive.

Long admitted after the match that he had been eagerly waiting for his return.

He said: “I was buzzing, to be honest, even walking out and doing the warm-up. Hearing the roar from the fans again, it was great to be a part of it.

“It’s been too long without proper league football and playing games.”

Maybe waiting that long explained why he was anticipating ahead of anyone else when a cross fell to his feet in the Oldham area in the 89th minute. While Long was joking when he said, “I’m just a clinical finisher”, he did show the instinct of a striker, firing the ball past Joel Coleman to send the 584 travelling Barnsley fans into raptures.

When asked about his goal, he said: “The ball was just bobbling around the box, luckily I reacted quickest and got the finish on to it.”

It was no less than the Oakwell side had deserved. Admittedly, after Mark Yeates’s equaliser the Latics caused a bit of panic, but Barnsley had dominated proceedings. In fact, Yeates’s close-range finish after cutting in from the left-hand side was only Oldham’s second shot of the match at that point. Johnson’s team had had 10.

Even prior to Conor Hourihane’s opener, the visitors were comfortably on top.

Adam Hammill was the best player on the pitch, unlucky not to open the scoring himself after an effort from the edge of the area was tipped onto the post by Coleman.

Long said: “I thought we dominated the first half. We had a lot of chances, I thought we could have had two or three maybe.”

They only got one, and it was no surprise that it was Hammill who provided it. Floating over to the right side from his berth on the left, Hammill dribbled his way past Joseph Mills before laying the ball off to Hourihane, who was about 20 yards out.

It was no more than a mere glimmer of a chance, but Hourihane opened up his body before rifling the ball into the top corner.

There was no real surprise that the the home side were slightly stronger after the break, not least for Long, who had anticipated that and warned his team-mates.

He said: “I said to the lads in the dressing room at half-time we are going to get a reaction, expect it, and no matter what happens, keep going to the end.

“We got camped in a little bit in our box. It was a bit hectic, they were knocking balls in long, getting on to bits and trying to turn us.

“I thought we showed good character once they scored to carry on playing.”

Barnsley’s character was clear on a cold day in Greater Manchester, even prior to the equaliser.

Given the fact they were on a run of eight straight defeats in the league, when one more would have equalled the club’s own record, there would have been no surprise to hear Long had joined a downtrodden camp. According to the centre-back, that simply was not the case.

He said: “Everyone is still really positive.

“I’ve spoken to a few of the lads now, and they think they could have easily won a few of those games.

“I think they did not get down on themselves, you could see from the way they trained that they were still up for it, still fighting away, training really hard, and thankfully we got the victory today.”

Long may have been a recent arrival, but he was well aware of the “bit of history for the gaffer” that the visit to Boundary Park brought back.

That history? An acrimonious departure from Oldham last season, one that Johnson believed had been handled well. Johnson was jeered when he walked out, jeered when he flicked the ball to a player to take a throw-in, and jeered whenever he protested a decision by the referee. There would not have been many worse places to have lost a ninth on the bounce, and not many better to have avoided it.

In the end, it was the new addition that made the difference and helped shore up the backline.

Long admitted: “We’ve only had a few days of training, but it’s been good.

“I’d rather have had a clean sheet today, but I think we did really well.”

They did exactly that as Oldham pressed for a winner, and that proved to be important. A draw would probably have been good enough and seemed on the cards, but when the ball flew into the net with a minute left, there was no taking this result away from Barnsley.

Oldham: Coleman; Dummigan, B. Wilson, J. Wilson, Mills; Philliskirk, Kelly, Dieng (Fulton, 45), Rasulo (Higdon, 65), Yeates; Poleon. Unused substitutes: Cornell, Eckersley, Brown, Winchester, Fuller.

Barnsley: Davies; Bree, Mawson, Long, White (Smith, 73); Hammill, Hourihane, Pearson, Isgrove (Winnall, 68); Watkins, Toney (Jackson, 84). Unused substitutes: Townsend, Roberts, Nyatanga, Wabara.

Referee: G Salisbury (Lancashire).