Tykes swiftly sent crashing to earth

MORE than 25,000 fans enjoyed their day out as Barnsley won their Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final against Oxford last week.

And after winning 3-2 in the Wembley sunshine, caretaker boss Paul Heckingbottom was then named as manager of the month. For a club chasing the league play-offs, that barren eight-game losing streak prior to their visit to SportsDirect.com Park earlier this season must seem an awful long time ago.

At least, that was the case before Chesterfield put a pin-prick in the bubble of elation.

The Spireites won 2-1 at Oakwell on Saturday to leave Heckingbottom’s side six points adrift of sixth-placed Walsall, having played a game more.

Ollie Banks netted a late winner for Chesterfield, who had Jamal Campbell-Ryce sent off just before that goal after picking up two yellow cards in as many minutes.

Heckingbottom felt his side didn’t do too much wrong in front of the 10,645 crowd: “We’re obviously disappointed, but I can’t be too disappointed with the performance,” said the Barnsley boss.

“We played well and we created chances; we’ve won games playing nowhere near as well. The energy was there and so was the willingness to get up the pitch. It was just the non-negotiable bits that we’ve done so well recently, that we didn’t get right in this game.”