Barnsley are now on their longest wait for a league win at the start of a season for 29 years. A 1-1 draw at the New Den means they have failed to win any of their first seven league matches for the first time since 1991-1992 when they failed to get off the mark until the eighth game. They picked up two points from the first seven on that occasion however compared to four currently in 2020-2021. This also equals a run from 1986-1987 (D1 L6) and 1968-1969 (D3 L4)
Adam Murray (in his final game before handing over to Valérien Ismaël) has now taken charge of eight Barnsley matches, over two spells and is still to taste victory (D6 L2)
35% of Barnsley’s draws since returning to the Championship in 2019 have come under Murray (6/17)
Prior to last Saturday Barnsley had won 13 successive matches (all comps) in which they had opened the scoring but have now failed to win three games in a row when scoring first for the first time since April 2017 when it happened in four successive matches (2-3 v Wigan, 1-1 v Brentford, 2-3 v Bristol City, 1-1 v Burton)
This is the first time Barnsley have drawn three successive league games since October/November 2016
This is the second successive game in which one team has scored on 44 minutes and then the other in first half stoppage time.
There has been eight goals scored between the 40th and 50th minutes in the last four Barnsley matches.
This is the first time both teams have scored in the first half in successive Barnsley games since October 2019 (v Derby and Preston)
It’s the first time a Barnsley game has been 1-1 at half time since the South Yorkshire derby with Sheffield Wednesday in February.
Barnsley have opened the scoring in three successive games for the first time since February (v Fulham, Middlesbrough, Hull – games which were all won)
Captain Alex Mowatt was substituted in the second half, the first time he has been brought off in a game since December 2019 at Swansea. In 33 appearances since, only once has he not played a full game – coming on as a half time substitute in an FA Cup Fourth Round tie at Portsmouth.
Barnsley are now unbeaten in their last four league visits to the Den but this stalemate ended a run of three successive victories there. It is their eighth draw at Millwall
Barnsley have gone back to back away Championship games without defeat for the first time since February (at Fulham and Hull)
Barnsley Team:
1. Jack Walton
6. Mads Andersen
30. Michal Helik
26. Michael Sollbauer
22. Clarke Oduor
27. Alex Mowatt
32. Matty James
7. Callum Brittain
23. Elliot Simoes
28. Dominik Frieser
11. Conor Chaplin
Substitutes:
8. Herbie Kane (for Simoes 58)
16. Luke Thomas (for James 67)
21. Romal Palmer (for Mowatt 73)
Unused Substitutes:
40. Brad Collins, 19. Patrick Schmidt.
Millwall Team:
33. Bartosz Bialkowski
4. Shaun Hutchinson
15. Alex Pearce
5. Jake Cooper
12. Mahlon Romeo
18. Ryan Leonard
6. Shaun Williams
14. Scott Malone
7. Jed Wallace
21. Connor Mahoney
20. Mason Bennett
Substitutions:
13. Kenneth Zohore (for Mahoney 67)
19. Ryan Woods (for Williams 76)
8. Ben Thompson (for Bennett 83)
Unused Substitutes:
9. Tom Bradshaw, 1. Frank Fielding, 10. Matt Smith, 3. Murray Wallace
Millwall assistant manager Adam Barrettsaid:
"Obviously, it's not ideal. Your manager goes down with Covid, so it's been an unusual 24 hours, but the good thing with modern technology now is you can keep in contact and the gaffer was still able to do his meeting by video.
"Firstly, he's feeling okay, so we wish him a speedy recovery and hopefully he's back in the dugout soon.
"They were very aggressive on the press and I thought we turned the ball over too cheaply, so we were disappointed with that, but the second half was a much better performance."
Sky Bet Championship results
FRIDAY 23RD OCTOBER 2020
Nottingham Forest (19th) 1-1 Derby County (22nd)
Waghorn 30
Taylor 64
SATURDAY 24TH OCTOBER 2020
Watford (3rd) 1-1 AFC Bournemouth (4th)
Perica 12
Mepham 90+5
Bristol City (2nd) 1-1 Swansea City (6th)
Lowe 51
Wells pen 83
Cardiff City (15th) 1-1 Middlesbrough (13th)
Saville 36
Ojo 70
Coventry City (20th) 0-4 Blackburn Rovers (10th)
Armstrong pen 15
Armstrong 49
Elliott 62
Gallagher 88
Huddersfield Town (14th) 1-2 Preston North End (12th)
Campbell 8
Browne 51
Browne 53
Millwall (7th) 1-1 BARNSLEY (21st)
Mowatt 44
Cooper 45+2
Norwich City (5th) 2-1 Wycombe Wanderers (23rd)
Pukki 3
Kashket 12
Vrancic 90+1
Queens Park Rangers (16th) 0-0 Birmingham City (17th)
Reading (1st) 3-0 Rotherham United (18th)
Meite 41
Meite 79
Lucas Joao pen 90+3
Sheffield Wednesday (24th) 0-1 Luton Town (9th)
Mpanzu 74
Stoke City (8th) 3-2 Brentford (11th)
Fletcher 9
McClean 35
Campbell 59
Forss 70
Forss 90+1
Barnsley lie in 21st place in the Sky Bet Championship with 4 points from 7 games. We are 8 points off the Play-Offs, 10 points off the Automatic Promotion Places, 15 points off First Place and Goal Difference above inside the Relegation Zone.
Up to 25/10/20
Next Up:
At Oakwell:
Sky Bet Championship Matchday Eight: Barnsley v Queens Park Rangers, Tuesday 27th October 2020. Kick-Off: 7:00pm
On The Road:
Sky Bet Championship Matchday Ten: Cardiff City v Barnsley, Tuesday 3rd November 2020. Kick-Off: 7:45pm.