Johnson has the last laugh

Photo: Alan Howarth

GENSERIC Kusunga rises high to clear danger.

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Athletc 1, Barnsley 3

IF the fate of the play-off hunt was not crystallised before, this did the job.

As pathetic goal after pathetic goal was shipped in here against villain of the moment Lee Johnson's new club, fury mounted in the stands. The new Tykes boss, flanked by security and apparently peppered by a handful of coins chucked in his direction, was a convenient target for vitriol after jumping ship to South Yorkshire.

Say what you like about Johnson – and plenty did – he is now at the helm of a confident club strident in its ambitions and with facilities Athletic can only dream about. Oh, and he also has a team that can defend.

But enough about that lot from over the Pennines. The main question to ask at times like these for Athletic is a simple one: what’s going on?

The list of injuries is absurd. Either it is the condition of the club's Chapel Road training facility or the conditioning of the squad that is to blame, but six players out at once with soft tissue issues says something is going horribly wrong - and it clearly isn't just bad luck.

Then there is, of course, the 19-day (and counting) wait for a new manager. Dean Holden, fans were told on the day Johnson left, is in charge for the “foreseeable future”. If only season ticket holders could see into the future, they might not have shelled out last summer had they known the club would assist in blowing its best chance in years of a top-six finish by dragging feet over an appointment.

Holden should either have been given the job until the end of the season or a new man brought in within a week of Johnson’s departure.

Instead, Athletic have been left in a familiar state of inertia. No wonder supporters are angry.

The players who managed to enter the fray on Saturday put in a strong shift for the caretaker boss.

Barnsley, who arrived with five straight clean-sheet wins, were forced to play mainly on the counter-attack.

The first of three set-piece goals for the visitors came in the 33rd minute, after a scrappy opening in which Holden's men more than held their own. Jake Kean could do nothing more than awkwardly paw out a free-kick from deep delivered by Conor Hourihane as players converged in front of him.

Centre-back Lewin Nyatanga converted the first of his two goals by getting to the rebound ahead of any defender. Hourihane then shaped a free-kick narrowly wide and after George Waring had climbed above Genseric Kusunga to head the ball against the defender and behind, the corner that came in fell at Carl Winchester's feet. As he tried to clear, Hourihane netted by blocking the ball into the goal.

It was a better piece of defending by the Barnsley skipper, in the opposition box, than Athletic's players managed in their own penalty area all afternoon.

At two goals down Mike Jones, an emblem of consistency and graft, brought brief cheer with the first strike the club has managed at home since that night of rich promise only five weeks ago, when Swindon Town were outplayed then kept at bay.

The pace of Jones' strike was anything but frustratingly slow as he exchanged passes with Conor Wilkinson and fired home smartly across Adam Davies.

Hourihane grazed the crossbar as the first half drew to the close with a flashing 30-yard drive.

With debutant Luke Woodland not looking out of place at the base of midfield, though, Athletic entered the second half with some hope. The key, of course, was not to chuck another goal in for Barnsley.

Athletic pressed with intent, and Jonathan Forte finally found a few yards in which to work against his excellent marker Mason Holgate. Wilkinson's turn and shot in the 66th minute from a Forte cross was only just diverted wide by a defender.

Five minutes later, the contest was over. Hourihane's long-range free-kick was hopeful rather than spiteful, but Kean made an awful mess of it, getting caught under the ball. As Martin Cranie headed back across an unguarded net, Nyatanga's desire to score again outstripped Athletic's desire to keep the ball out.

There was still time for Adam Lockwood to add to Holden's problems by collecting a second yellow card of the game in the fourth minute of added time. He won't feature tomorrow when MK Dons come to SportsDirect.com Park boasting a 7-0 first-leg lead.

As Johnson hurried down the tunnel at full-time to a barrage of abuse, this won't go down as a career highlight.

For Barnsley, it was simply a case of job done. For Athletic, it was another job not done at all properly, to add to the list.