Barnsley won on Boxing Day for the first time in eight years, they had lost each of the last five and did not play in 2009 and 2015. This is the first time they have even scored on the festive day since 2012.
Ironically the last time Barnsley won on Boxing Day- 2008- was against Burnley who at the time were managed by current Blackburn manager Owen Coyle.
The Reds kept a clean sheet on Boxing Day for the first time in 10 years when they defeated Burnley 1-0 in 2006.
Barnsley have now reached the half way stage of the season (23 out of 46 games played) and have picked up 10 wins and 34 points- their most at this stage since the League One promotion season of 2005-2006 when they had also won 10 of their first 23 games and had 37 points. It is the first time at this level however since 1999-2000 when they had won 13 and had 42 points- they reached the play-off final that season.
Sam Winnall put Barnsley in front with a header from a Conor Hourihane cross, it is the 13th headed goal The Reds have scored this season – the most in the Championship and six have come from Winnall- a joint league high.
It was the 10th assist from Hourihane this campaign, three more than any other Championship player has contributed.
Winnall now has 42 league goals from 78 starts, putting him level with Cecil McCormack- who scored 33 of his in ONE season, 1950-51, a club record.
Overall the striker has 47 goals from 93 starts in all competitions which puts him joint 29th on the all-time list at the club, level with George Robledo and Beau Asquith.
It moves Winnall into double figures for league goals for the second successive season, however it took him until the 16th January to get there in 2015-2016- he had eight at this stage.
Since arriving at Oakwell in the summer of 2014, Winnall has netted in 36 matches in all competitions and Barnsley have gone on to win 24 of them.
This was the 19th league clean sheet under Paul Heckingbottom, which gives him the best clean sheet ratio (42%) of any permanent Barnsley manager.
After going seven home matches without a win, Barnsley have now won two in a row at Oakwell (their first back to back home wins since winning their first three of the season) and they have now won four of their five matches so far in December with the defeat at Sheffield Wednesday the only blip. Prior to this Barnsley had won only one out of 11, through mid September to the end of November.
Darragh Lenihan was shown his marching orders for Blackburn, the seventh red card to be shown in a Barnsley match this season.
Barnsley failed to win a single corner, the first time this has happened since the 2-0 defeat at Newcastle and it only the second time in 83 matches it has occurred!
On the other hand Blackburn had nine corners, the most an opponent have won at Oakwell since Sheffield United won 10 in November 2015.
There were 14,192 in attendance at Oakwell, the fifth highest of the season.
Marley Watkins 93rd minute clincher was the sixth goal Barnsley have scored in the 90th minute or later this season and the second game in a row. They have now scored 13 times in the final ten minutes of games this season.
It is the NINETH goal scored by a Barnsley substitute this season and the second game in a row a Reds sub has netted.
Barnsley defeated Blackburn for the first time in 10 meetings (D3, L5) and kept a clean sheet against them for the first time in eight clashes.
It is the first home clean sheet against Rovers in 10 Oakwell clashes, the last shut-out coming back in 1990.
Barnsley have now scored 40 goals in their 23 league matches – the joint second most in the division along with Fulham, only Newcastle (45) have scored more.