A magnificent away performance by Barnsley saw them end Brentford’s 21 match Championship unbeaten record.
Prior to yesterday the Bees (who would have gone top with a draw) had won 13 and drawn eight since a 3-2 defeat at Stoke on the 24th October 2020.
Barnsley are the first team in 12 outings to stop Brentford from scoring – they had netted 31 times in the previous 11 matches.
Barnsley are now unbeaten in their last four trips to Brentford, winning three and are only the second ever team to win at the Brentford Community Stadium in a league match after Preston who won 4-2 on the 4th October 2020.
It also means two of Brentford’s last three home league defeats including play-offs have come against Barnsley with the Reds winning their on the final day of 2019-2020 to secure Championship survival.
They have also scored twice in three of the last four trips, winning 2-0 on two occasions and keeping clean sheets on three trips.
Barnsley are unbeaten in their last five games played on a Sunday (all comps) and have won each of the last four. Their last Sunday defeat came against Brentford, 3-1 at Oakwell in September 2019.
This was Barnsley’s second successive win on Valentine’s Day after winning 3-1 at Aston Villa in 2017.
Conor Chaplin opened the scoring with his first goal in 17 games. Barnsley have won all three games in which he has scored this season (QPR, Derby, Brentford) Indeed they have won 10 of the 13 games in which he has netted since joining the club.
Barnsley have now opened the scoring in four of their last eight games at Brentford.
Barnsley have had to wait until February for their first league win of a calendar year for the first time since 2009.
Cauley Woodrow was used as a substitute this season for the first time in the league (all his other 23 Championship appearances in 2020-2021 has been as a starter). Ironically the last time he came off the bench in the Championship was also at Brentford in the final game of last season.
He is the first Barnsley substitute to be booked since Luke Thomas against Preston in December, 12 games ago.
Since winning promotion from League One in 2019 Barnsley have won five of their seven league matches in London (W5 D1 L1)
Barnsley defeated a second tier side away from home who sat in the top two of the division prior to the match for the first time since the 12th December 1999 when they won 2-0 at Ipswich.
Barnsley have kept back to back clean sheets for the third time in the Championship this season.
Prior to this they had gone 14 league games without a shut-out.
Barnsley have kept 11 clean sheets this season (from 34 games), the same amount they kept in 2019-2020 from 49 games.
Brad Collins has made nine starts in 2020-2021 and has kept five clean sheets.
Barnsley’s last 14 league matches have seen them either score two goals or none at all. (2-0, 0-0, 2-2, 0-1, 0-2, 0-1, 2-1, 2-1, 0-2, 2-1, 2-1, 2-1, 0-4, 2-1)
Indeed 23 of their 28 Championship games this season has seen Barnsley either score two goals or none at all.
Callum Brittain crossed for Chaplin’s goal, his third assist of the season, only Woodrow (4) has directly set up more goals for Barnsley this season.
Barnsley committed 24 fouls, their most in a game since 13th April 2017 at Wigan (also 24)
Barnsley are now unbeaten in their last 27 games (all comps) when opening the scoring (W23 D4) last losing when breaking the deadlock at Cardiff in December 2019.
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
10. Daryl Dike
14. Carlton Morris
11. Conor Chaplin
Substitutes:
9. Cauley Woodrow (for Dike 56)
28. Dominik Frieser (for Chaplin 56)
29. Victor Adeboyejo (for Morris 56)
20. Toby Sibbick (for Sollbauer 67)
2. Jordan Williams (for Palmer 77)
Unused Substitutes:
1. Jack Walton, 8. Herbie Kane, 22. Clarke Oduor, 34. Jasper Moon.
Brentford Team:
1. David Raya
22. Henrik Dalsgaard
5. Ethan Pinnock
29. Mads Bech Sørensen
3. Rico Henry
14. Josh Dasilva
27. Vitaly Janelt
20. Saman Ghoddos
19. Bryan Mbeumo
17. Ivan Toney
7. Sergi Canós
Substitutions:
24. Tarique Fosu-Henry (for Mbeumo 64)
15. Marcus Forss (for Ghoddos 74)
30. Mads Rasmussen (for Dalsgaard 74)
8. Mathias Jensen (for Dasilva 74)
Unused Substitutes:
4. Charlie Goode, 23. Winston Reid, 28. Luke Daniels, 31. Jan Zamburek.
Brentford manager Thomas Frank said:
"It was inevitable that we would not go the rest of the season unbeaten, but I think we have been so consistent and so good.
"Today there was no lack of effort and they put everything out there. There was big determination and we lost a game to a team that were at their very top level.
"This is going to go to the end of the season, I have no doubt about that, so everyone speaking about promotion must know the only thing we speak about is the next game."
Sky Bet Championship results
FRIDAY 12TH FEBRUARY 2021
Blackburn Rovers (9th) 1-2 Preston North End (11th)
Cunningham 19
Lindsay 43
Armstrong pen 45+1
SATURDAY 13TH FEBRUARY 2021
Nottingham Forest (16th) 0-0 AFC Bournemouth 6th)
Birmingham City ( 0-1 Luton Town
Potts 31
Cardiff City 3-1 Coventry City
Moore 31
Moore 38
Murphy 46
Hyam 81
Derby County 2-1 Middlesbrough
Gregory 15
Kazim-Richards 32
Kebano 38
Huddersfield Town 2-3 Wycombe Wanderers
Bacuna 18
Mbenza 41
Mehmeti 45+3
Jacobson pen 63
Knight 87
Norwich City 4-1 Stoke City
Cantwell 15
Pukki 44
Powell 61
Buendia 64
Pukki pen 80
Reading 1-2 Millwall
Semedo 17
Smith 76
Bennett 85
Watford 6-0 Bristol City
Sema 2
Sarr 15
Hughes 30
Sema 35
Zinckernagel 90
SUNDAY 14TH FEBRUARY 2021
Brentford (2nd) 0-2 Barnsley (12th)
Chaplin 13
Morris 47
Barnsley lie in 12th place in the Sky Bet Championship with 39 points from 28 games. We are 7 points off the Play-Offs, 18 points off the Automatic Promotion Places, 19 points off First Place and 11 points above the Relegation Zone.
Up to 15/2/21
Next Up:
At Oakwell:
Sky Bet Championship Matchday Twenty Nine: Barnsley v Blackburn Rovers, Wednesday 17th February 2021. Kick-Off: 7:45pm
On The Road:
Sky Bet Championship Matchday Thirty: Bristol City v Barnsley, Saturday 20th February 2021. Kick-Off: 3pm