A very impressive and dominating performance saw Barnsley win the South Yorkshire derby and secure only their second home league win of the season and their first League One home clean sheet of 2024-2025.
This was Barnsley's seventh home league game of the season, the longest they have waited for a home league shutout from the start of a campaign for 10 years - in 2014-2015 they had to wait until the 11th.
This was Barnsley's first victory on a Friday in six such matches, they had drawn two and lost three of the previous five since defeating Bolton 1-0 in the League One Play-Offs on Friday 19th May 2023.
This was only Barnsley's second home win in 14 league games (including play-offs) W2 D8 L4.
Excluding play-offs Barnsley have scored exactly two goals in 12 of their last 20 home league games including each of the last three and five of the last six. Indeed they have only failed to score exactly two goals in two of their seven home league games this season (2-1 defeat to Mansfield and 1-1 draw with Stockport)
Barnsley have won back to back games in all competitions for only the second time this season and only the fourth time in 2024 (the previous three have all ended up being three successive wins)
However the Reds have now won four of their last six games in all competitions after winning only one of the previous seven.
The four they have won in their last six is only one more than they had managed in the previous 15 this season.
They are unbeaten in four league outings, their joint best run of 2024-2025 and have lost only one of the last eight - 2-0 at Huddersfield on the 5th October.
Jon Russell opened the scoring with his sixth goal for the club, all six have come in separate games and Barnsley have gone on to win them all.
The clincher from Stephen Humphrys was assisted by a long kick from goalkeeper Ben Killip, the first goal assisted by a Barnsley keeper since Liam Roberts at Stevenage in April.
Humphrys now has three goals for the club, two of which have come in the 86th minute or later and all have come as a substitute.
This was the first time Barnsley have won a home league match by two clear goals in over a year – it last occurred against Shrewsbury in October 2023 (3-0)
Remarkably this result ended a run of 2-1 home wins – each of Barnsley’s last six home league wins had been by that scoreline.
This was Barnsley’s 14th league game of the season and the ninth time they have scored exactly two goals and the 11th time at least one side has.
Despite this being only their second home win they have still lost only once at Oakwell in the league this season (on opening night against Mansfield) the first time they have reached seven home league games with as little as one defeat since 2018-2019 when they went the entire season unbeaten at Oakwell in League One.
They have of course drawn four home games this season which is the most in the division.
Barnsley continued their remarkable record against their neighbours from less than half an hour down the road with this extending the unbeaten run to 12 matches, nine of which have been wins including each of the last five.
Indeed they have lost only one of the last 17 meetings, winning 13.
Barnsley have kept a clean sheet against Rotherham in four of the last five meetings and have conceded only two goals in the last seven clashes.
Barnsley have won the last three Oakwell meetings, keeping clean sheets in all three, part of a run of 15 successive games unbeaten against the Millers at Oakwell.
Rotherham have not tasted victory at Oakwell since a 1-0 League Cup triumph in August 1970 and are without a league win there since March 1969.
Barnsley Team:
23. Ben Killip
6. Mael de Gevigney
4. Marc Roberts
32. Josh Earl
7. Corey O’Keeffe
8. Adam Phillips
48. Luca Connell
3. Jon Russell
17. Georgie Gent
40. Davis Keillor-Dunn
36. Max Watters
Substitutes:
44. Stephen Humphrys (for Watters 77)
18. Matthew Craig (for Connell 90+2)
Unused Substitutes:
12. Jackson Smith, 5. Donovan Pines, 15. Kyran Lofthouse, 50. Kelechi Nwakali, 11. Fabio Jalo.
Rotherham Team:
1. Cameron Dawson
2. Joe Rafferty
5. Sean Raggett
16. Zak Jules
6. Reece James
4. Liam Kelly
22. Hakeem Odoffin
7. Joe Powell
8. Sam Nombe
10. Jordan Hugill
34. Ciaran McGuckin
Substitutions:
21. Joseph Hungbo (for McGuckin 45)
27. Christ Tiehi (for Powell 52)
23. Jack Holmes (for Hugill 60)
Unused Substitutes:
20. Dillon Phillips, 3. Cohen Bramall, 24. Cameron Humphreys, 14. Alex MacDonald.
Sky Bet League One Results:
Friday 8th November 2024:
BARNSLEY (4th) 2-0 Rotherham United (15th)
Russell 32
Humphrys 86
Saturday 9th November 2024:
Burton Albion (23rd) 2-0 Shrewsbury Town (24th)
Kalinauskas 20
Orsi 51
Wrexham (3rd) 1-0 Mansfield Town (7th)
Barnett 6
Birmingham City (2nd) 1-1 Northampton Town (17th)
Stansfield 58
Pinnock 90+6
Bristol Rovers (16th) 1-1 Lincoln City (5th)
Forde 35
Moylan 64
Crawley Town (21st) 2-2 Huddersfield Town (8th)
Hepburn-Murphy 42
Healey 59
Anderson 65
Kane 68
Exeter City (11th) 1-0 Charlton Athletic (13th)
Crama 59
Leyton Orient (20th) 3-0 Blackpool (18th)
Perkins 34
Kelman 71
James 76
Peterborough United (12th) 6-1 Cambridge United (22nd)
Jones 25
Poku 32
Poku 39
Mothersille pen 44
De Havilland 50
Kaikai 84
Poku 90
Stevenage (14th) 1-1 Reading (9th)
Kemp 29
Knibbs 82
Stockport County (6th) 5-0 Bolton Wanderers (10th)
Collar 30
Wootton 47
Horsfall 55
Barry 62
Bailey 90
Wigan Athletic (19th) 0-1 Wycombe Wanderers (1st)
Low 11
Barnsley lie in 4th place in Sky Bet League One with 25 points from 14 games. We are 1 point inside the Play-Offs, 5 points off the Automatic Promotion Places, 7 points off First Place and 13 points above the Relegation Zone.
Up to 10/11/24
Next Up:
On The Road:
Sky Bet League One Matchday Fifteen: Cambridge United v Barnsley, Saturday 16th November 2024. Kick Off: 3pm
At Oakwell:
Sky Bet League One Matchday Sixteen: Barnsley v Wigan Athletic, Saturday 23rd November 2024. Kick Off: 3pm