Ruthless Barnsley punish red card as Valerien Ismael starts Oakwell career with their first win of the season

The Frenchman put his stamp on the Reds with a switch to 3-4-3 but it was Queens Park Rangers' shift from 4-3-3 to 4-4-1 he had to thank for his debut win.

The Reds were just starting to grow in confidence but as soon as Rob Dickie was sent off for a penalty-area foul they ruthlessly exploited their one-man advantage to run out comfortable 3-0 winners. It was actually far easier than the final scoreline looked.

It had all looked very different in an opening 20 minutes when they struggled to get out of their own half but what better way to show your new boss what you can do than with a one-man advantage for three quarters of a game? The men in red certainly did that.

Queens park Rangers flew out of the blocks, former Middlesbrough winger Albert Adomah flying down the right wing inside the first 30 seconds. Jack Walton could only help his cross on but Illias Chair's shot was blocked, Macauley Bonne's off target.

After that early encouragement they continued to probe down Barnsley's left.

It took 20 minutes for the hosts to find their passing range and the overhit balls to find their targets, releasing diagonal balls and getting Clark Odour into the game, providing the width at left wing-back whilst Conor Chaplin and Dominic Frieser stayed close to Cauley Woodrow.

Undetered by the fact English is not first first language – though he is still pretty fluent in it – Ismael was vocal in the technical area, constantly waving players into position and moving Frieser, who played for him at LASK last season, to the left.

Callum Styles was the first to pierce QPR with a probing pass, picking out Callum Brittain. Although the wing-back ran into trouble, it was the encouragement his side needed. The ball came out and when Brittain was able to put it in, Woodrow's shot was blocked.

Mads Andersen dinked a pass to Odour for a move which ended with a Styles shot blocked, and the latter's threaded past made it through to Woodrow, who was brought down.

The striker picked himself up and scored his third league goal of the season – all in the last four matches, all from the penalty spot.

From there it was a different game, the self-belief visibly draining out of QPR.

Seconds after former Doncaster Rovers loanee Seny Dieng saved from Woodrow he was picking the ball out of the net, Frieser laying the ball on for Chaplin to take a touch and score his first goal since June.

Styles' half-time move to left wing-back only changed where he was brilliant from and did nothing to diminish his side's threat down that flank. Chaplin dived at a cross from there but could only touch it off his body to Dieng.

When QPR had a couple of chances, Dominic Ball heading over at a corner and Tom Carroll shooting wide from distance, Styles carried the ball down the left to put them in their place.

Alex Mowatt released Frieser on the right with a lovely outside-of-the-boot pass. When the Austrian played the ball in, Woodrow's heavy touch let him down. He need not have worried, Yoann Barbet putting the ball in for him for a feeble own goal which summed up the sorriness of the visitors but as a centre-forward, Woodrow was probably angry with himself for giving the defender the chance. Within two minutes he was substituted, his chances of a first goal in open play since the season started with the League Cup gone.

By now Ismael was using the game to see what his players could do and they were more than happy to show him, half-time substitute Matty James replicating Mowatt's pass and Chaplin forcing his shot past the covering defender, but not the goalkeeper.

Dieng saved low from Mowatt, and got his feet in the way of a Patrick Schmidt effort after Chaplin threaded the substitute through. Elliot Simoes was the third substitute because Ismael already knows what Frieser can do, but had a cross blocked with players lining up to score an 86th-minute fourth.

Schmidt headed a Simoes cross at Dieng when anything either side would have got him on the scoresheet and the Angolan international hit a shot at the goalkeeper in the dying minutes.

Schmidt seemed to punch the air after a brilliant pass to pcik out Schmidt who again allowed Dieng to butt in, Chaplin curled wide and having waited an eternity for his team-mates to catch him up, Schmidt fluffed his cross to Simoes.

Barnsley fans have been waiting a long time to get upset at their team not scoring a fourth.

It might never be this straight-forward again for Ismael but the importance of a confidence-boosting first win of the season is not to be underestimated. The Reds are on the march again.

Barnsley: Walton; Sollbauer, Helik, Andersen; Brittain, Styles, Mowatt, Oduor (James 46); Chaplin, Woodrow (Schmidt 67), Frieser (Simoes 75).

Unused substitutes: Kane, Halme, Miller, Collins.

Queens Park Rangers: Dieng; Kakay, Barbet, Hamalainen, Dickie; Adomah (Kane 54), Ball, Chair (Masterson 31); Carroll, Dykes, Bonne (Willock 63).

Unused substitutes: Cameron, Bettache, Kelman, Kelly.

Referee: D Webb (County Durham).

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