Barnsley end 11-year wait against desperate Sheffield Wednesday

The contrast with the clear-minded approach behind Barnsley’s first win over Sheffield Wednesday in 11 years was stark.

The bottom-of-the-table Owls acquitted themselves quite well in their 2-1 defeat all things considered, but one moment summed so much up.

For starters, Dominic Iorfa, not long back from injury, ruptured his Achilles. If it was not for all their bad luck, Wednesday – who hit the woodwork twice from Joey Pelupessy’s shot which bounced off the crossbar, onto goalkeeper Jack Walton and back onto the post, then to safety – would not have any luck at all.

Izzy Brown and Jordan Rhodes were ready to come on as Iorfa was treated, but held back as he tried to play on. When the ball next went out, he trudged off. Still the substitutions were delayed. Rather than throw one on and then scratch his head, Pulis left his team a man down and had Barnsley found a more precise pass on the counter-attack, might have paid a high price. The pair went on at the next stoppage.

The fug extended beyond that.

The derby started with another change of formation, Iorfa anchoring midfield in a 4-1-4-1, then another at half-time as they went 3-5-2, then again late on as the kitchen sink was ripped from its fittings in search of an equaliser.

Seven winless matches in, Pulis has no idea what his best formation is for this disparate and desperate group of players. “We’re a football club that hasn’t got an identity,” he admitted.

Valerien Ismael also inherited a down-in-the-dumps team, but before he took charge of a game we knew how Barnsley would play. He tweaked formation from 3-5-2 to 3-4-3 and won seven of his 11 matches, including the first. The Reds get the ball quickly to No 9 Cauley Woodrow, and his fellow forwards play off him.

Barnsley played the better football but the Owls are not too concerned about entertaining, just results. They had the stronger second half and overall there was little between the side beyond the visitors’ clearer purpose.

“We can lose, we can win, but we play our way,” said Ismael.

Conceding early when Walton, who seemed worried about handling outside his area and a professional foul on Josh Windass, jumped over the ball to give the striker a free shot did not sidetrack the Reds. Ismael admits they lack the quality to win every game – eight days earlier was an error-strewn 4-0 defeat – but they stick to what they believe in.

“After the game, it’s easy to say but when I saw the goal I thought it was perfect for us because the guys knew we had to do something,” he said.

“We stayed focussed on our principles and the game-plan.”

For all that Barnsley played well in the first half, they needed poor defending at a corner – “comical in some respects,” Pulis called it – to create a header Woodrow could not miss and a beautiful flowing move Dominik Frieser kept calm to round off.

Pulis’s changes improved the Owls but you felt for him.

“We need a couple of players and a bit of time to work with them on the training pitch,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve stepped into a situation like this before.

“If you want to play this way, that will let you down, to play that way, that will let you down. It’s probably as disjointed a group as I’ve managed. There’s six centre-halves and I don’t think we’ve got a left-back, we’ve got five 10s and really not a centre-forward.

“We’ve never had everyone fit and ready to go. We even played Dominic and Chey (Dunkley) a little bit ahead of their time.

“I don’t think I’ve put a coaching session on for two days running. It’ll be the same before Forest (tomorrow’s hosts) and Coventry (on Saturday).”

There were at least positives. Centre-back Dunkley made his debut after February’s double leg break as a Wigan Athletic player. He won a header inside 20 seconds and looked a Pulis defender and a leader – something the manager was literally crying out for after losing in Huddersfield.

“Chey was absolutely magnificent,” said Pulis. “He didn’t even play a practice match on Wednesday but when we found out (Julian) Borner couldn’t play because of injury, Chey put himself up straight away.”

Kadeem Harris looks an option at centre-forward after switching to the formation this squad was rebuilt for. He played in Pelupessy and forced a good save.

The Barnsley way is far from flawless. Like the Owls, they have changed manager twice since the sides last met at Hillsborough, pushing good coaches to the end of their tether with the transfer policy. Ismael also spoke at full-time of needing to rebalance his squad in January – when was the last time a new manager said he thought his squad was balanced?

For all the personnel instability at Oakwell, there is a constant thread in their choice of coaches.

Without scarce training-ground time to learn about the fringe players he is lukewarm about – Rhodes, to name one, is being paid a lot for very little playing time when Pulis is looking for centre-forwards – it is a big task for a new manager to take a team in a different direction but Pulis’s methods are well known and he did sign up to this.

The day belonged to Barnsley.

“I felt the emotion from the guys, the meaning from the game,” said Ismael. “It’s a win for the club, for the fans. It’s our Christmas present to them. I hope they’re not waiting another 11 years. The next game will be at Oakwell (in March), so maybe we can win in front of our fans.”