Barnsley make club history as they win SEVEN successive second tier games for the first time in the club’s 134 year history.
Daryl Dike’s stunning second half effort beat the previous record of six successive second tier wins set 100 years ago in 1921.
Following Premier League leaders Manchester City’s defeat to Manchester United, Barnsley now have the joint longest current winning league run in the top five tiers of English football along with Championship leaders Norwich.
In any division it is Barnsley’s best winning run since also winning seven in a row in League One between December 2015 and January 2016.
Barnsley are now unbeaten in nine league matches (W7 D2) which is their best unbeaten second tier run since going 12 without defeat between December 2001 and February 2002 (W5 D7)
This was Barnsley’s 10th home league win of the season, their most at this level since 2010-2011 (11)
They have now won four successive second tier home games for the first time since a run of four between November and December 2007.
Barnsley are now unbeaten in their last 33 games (all comps) when opening the scoring (W29 D4) last losing when breaking the deadlock at Cardiff in December 2019.
They have won each of the last 14 Championship games in which they have opened the scoring.
This was their 10th Championship clean sheet of the season – only one less than they kept in the whole of 2019-2020.
Despite failing to win any of their first seven league matches of 2020-2021 only the division’s current top five have won more than Barnsley’s 17 so far this season.
Their current total of 17 is Barnsley’s most at this level since 1999-2000 (24)
This was the 11th Barnsley league game this season which has been goal-less at half time.
It is a year today (7th March) since fans were last in Oakwell. Since then Barnsley have played 43 Championship matches, winning 21, drawing nine and losing 13.
Dike’s winner was scored after 49 minutes, it is the 14th goal scored in a Barnsley match between the 45th and 50th minutes this season (all comps)
It was the 36th league goal scored under Valérien Ismaël, 20 of which have come in the second half (56%)
Since arriving in January Carlton Morris (who assisted Dike’s goal) and Dike have been involved in nine goals out of a total of 16 since Morris made his debut v Swansea.
Barnsley have now won four of their last six meetings with Birmingham (L2)
They have completed a league double over them in two of the last three seasons they have met with Birmingham completing a league double last season.
Each of Barnsley’s last three home wins against Birmingham (in 2007, 2017 and 2021) have been accompanied with clean sheets.
Each of the last three Oakwell meetings and four of the last five have seen only one team score.
Barnsley enjoyed the majority of ball possession at Oakwell for the first time in seven matches there (all comps)
There were only 15 shots in the game, the lowest in 17 Barnsley matches (all comps)
Only four of those shots were on target (all Barnsley) the lowest in eight Barnsley matches.
Birmingham are the fourth team to fail to have a shot on target against Barnsley this season (also Coventry, Watford, Norwich in the FA Cup)
Barnsley Team:
40. Brad Collins
26. Michael Sollbauer
30. Michal Helik
6. Mads Andersen
7. Callum Brittain
21. Romal Palmer
27. Alex Mowatt
4. Callum Styles
9. Cauley Woodrow
28. Dominik Frieser
10. Daryl Dike
Substitutes:
2. Jordan Williams (for Styles 45)
14. Carlton Morris (for Frieser 45)
24. Aapo Halme (for Palmer 58)
20. Toby Sibbick (for Sollbauer 71)
29. Victor Adeboyejo (for Woodrow 88)
Unused Substitutes:
1. Jack Walton, 8. Herbie Kane, 11. Conor Chaplin, 22. Clarke Oduor.
Birmingham Team:
30. Neil Etheridge
6. Yan Valery
12. Harlee Dean
4. Marc Roberts
3. Kristian Pedersen
34. Ivan Sunjic
5. George Friend
24. Rekeem Harper
20. Gary Gardner
10. Lukas Jutkiewicz
9. Scott Hogan
Substitutions:
17. Ivan Sánchez (for Friend 69)
11. Jeremie Bela (for Jutkiewicz 70)
16. Sam Cosgrove (for Hogan 84)
14. Jonathan Leko (for Harper 84)
Unused Substitutes:
1. Andres Prieto, 2. Maxime Colin, 8. Adam Clayton, 15. Jake Clarke-Salter, 35. Alen Halilovic.
Birmingham manager Aitor Karanka said:
"Once again we couldn't score. They scored and we were unable to score. It's impossible to score a goal when we don't shoot on target.
"We had 90 minutes to shoot and we were unable to have a shot on target. I don't know why that was. I encourage players to shoot.
"When you lose a game, something hasn't worked and as a coach I am responsible for the result. We are in this position because of the mistakes that we are making. We can't blame anybody but ourselves."
Sky Bet Championship results
FRIDAY 5TH MARCH 2021
Huddersfield Town (18th) 0-0 Cardiff City (8th)
SATURDAY 6TH MARCH 2021
Watford (2nd) 1-0 Nottingham Forest (17th)
Masina 17
BARNSLEY (6th) 1-0 Birmingham City
Dike 49
Bristol City (12th) 0-2 Queens Park Rangers (16th)
Chair 11
Dickie 22
Coventry City (20th) 1-0 Derby County (19th)
Biamou 11
Millwall (11th) 0-2 Blackburn Rovers (15th)
Dack 18
Gallagher 75
Norwich City (1st) 3-0 Luton Town (14th)
Pukki 12
Pukki 43
Cantwell 73
Preston North End (13th) 1-1 AFC Bournemouth (7th)
Danjuma Groeneveld 37
Johnson 70
Reading (5th) 3-0 Sheffield Wednesday (23rd)
Olise pen 30
Lucas Joao 65
Yiadom 88
Stoke City (10th) 2-0 Wycombe Wanderers (24th)
Norrington-Davies 64
Souttar 69
Swansea City (3rd) 2-1 Middlesbrough (9th)
Ayew 40
Morsy 90+1
Ayew pen 90+7
Barnsley lie in 6th place in the Sky Bet Championship with 57 points from 34 games. We are 1 point inside the Play-Offs, 9 points off the Automatic Promotion Places, 19 points off First Place and 25 points above the Relegation Zone.
Up to 7/3/21
Next Up:
At Oakwell:
Sky Bet Championship Matchday Thirty Five: Barnsley v Derby County, Wednesday 10th March 2021. Kick-Off: 7pm
On The Road:
Sky Bet Championship Matchday Thirty Six: Bournemouth v Barnsley, Saturday 13th March 2021. Kick-Off: 3pm