Preston North End 5-1 Barnsley

Barnsley feel close to crisis point as they were hammered at Preston - their eighth defeat in 12 games in all competitions this season, and their fourth defeat in five in the Championship.

The 5-1 hammering at Deepdale was their heaviest defeat since February 2015 when they were humbled 5-1 at Crawley in League One and the first team they have conceded five goals since November 2016 (5-2 home defeat to Nottingham Forest)

It is Barnsley's heaviest Championship defeat since March 2014 when they lost 5-0 at Huddersfield.

In their 12 games so far this season, Barnsley have conceded at least three times in four - their most at this stage of a season since

Conceding at least 3 goals in a game this many times this early since 2013-2014 when it occurred four times in their first eight games.

Barnsley conceded four goals in one half for the first time since the opening game of the 2016-2017 when they conceded four second half goals at Ipswich in a 4-2 defeat.

This means the Reds have now conceded the joint most goals in the Championship along with bottom side Stoke (22)

It is the most goals they have conceded after 11 league games since 2013-2014 (27)

They have gone five games without a clean sheet for the first time since September/October 2018.

Ben Pearson became the second ex Barnsley player to score against them this season following Jacob Butterfield's effort for Luton in August - the first time this has occurred since 2017-2018 (3 - Conor Hourihane, Josh Scowen, Josh Brownhill)

It is Barnsley's biggest defeat against Preston since a 4-0 defeat at Oakwell in 2001.

This was Barnsley first defeat against the Lillywhites in six meetings and only the second in the last ten.

Preston's have now collected 16 points from their first six home league matches (W5 D1 L0) - the best home return in the Championship so far this season.

Barnsley did manage to finally score their first away goal of the season courtesy of Cameron McGeehan, but they have the joint worst away record in the Championship - level with Wigan (1 point)

Since beating Fulham on the opening weekend, Barnsley are now winless in their past ten Championship games (D3 L7) - their worst league run since November/December 2017 (also 10 - D4 L6).

They have won only one of their first 12 games in all competitions for the first time since 2013-2014 when they won only one of the first 13.

The Reds have now won just four of their past 31 games at Championship level (D9 L18)

This is the first time Barnsley have won their first league game of the season but then failed to win any of the next ten since 1971-1972 when after opening a Division Three campaign with a 4-2 win over Walsall they failed to win any of their next 13 league matches - they were relegated at the end of that campaign.

Preston had 10 shots on target, the first Barnsley opponent to reach double figures in shots on target since Bristol City on the opening day of the 2017-2018 season (11)

Barnsley only managed the one shot on target (which they scored with), their lowest since Birmingham away in August.

Barnsley Team:
40. Bradley Collins
2. Jordan Williams
21. Toby Sibbick
24. Aapo Halme
3. Ben Williams
8. Cameron McGeehan
27. Alex Mowatt
7. Jacob Brown
11. Conor Chaplin
10. Mike Bahre (C)
9. Cauley Woodrow
Substitutes:
36. Mallik Wiks (for Brown 55)
20. Callum Styles (for Bahre 68)
15. Jordan Green (for J.Williams 82)
Unused Substitutes:
6. Mads Andersen, 13. Jack Walton, 16. Luke Thomas, 23. Dani Pinillos.

Preston Team
1. Declan Rudd
8. Alan Browne
21. Patrick Bauer
6. Ben Davies
15. Joe Rafferty
4. Ben Pearson
12. Paul Gallagher (C)
29. Tom Barkhuizen
11. Daniel Johnson
24. Sean Maguire
35. David Nugent
Substitutions:
10. Josh Harrop (for Nugent 73)
20. Jayden Stockley (for Maguire 74)
44. Brad Potts (for Barkhuizen 82)
Unused Substitutes:
14. Jordan Storey, 18. Ryan Ledson, 28. Matthew Hudson, 39. Billy Bodin.

Preston manager Alex Neil said:

"I've watched Barnsley four times this season and for the first 30 minutes they've been the better side but that wasn't the case today.

"We were the better side from the first minute to the last minute, the only frustration that I've got is after we scored the first goal we got a little bit sloppy taking our foot off the gas.

"The lads responded after half-time in the fashion that you'd hope they would, kept on playing trying to get the next goal.

"If our fans didn't enjoy that then you're never going to enjoy a game of football, we could have scored arguably 10 goals."

Match Reports:
Official Website
BBC
Sky Sports

Sky Bet Championship results:

FRIDAY 4TH OCTOBER 2019
Birmingham City (12th) 2-1 Middlesbrough (20th)
Rodrigo 33
Ayala 87
Bailey 89

SATURDAY 5TH OCTOBER 2019
Fulham (7th) 2-2 Charlton Athletic (10th)
Gallagher 41
Cavaleiro 55
Bonne 57
Mitrovic 63
Bristol City (6th) 1-0 Reading (22nd)
Diedhiou 12
Derby County (13th) 2-0 Luton Town (18th)
Pearson og 11
Lawrence 70
Huddersfield Town (21st) 3-0 Hull City (16th)
Grant 68
Bacuna 74
Kachunga 82
Millwall (15th) 2-1 Leeds United (5th)
Wallace pen 16
Bradshaw 45
Alioski 46
Nottingham Forest (2nd) 1-0 Brentford (17th)
Watson 56
Preston North End (3rd) 5-1 BARNSLEY (23rd)
Johnson 31
McGeehan 43
Barkhuizen 50
Johnson 61
Pearson 63
Harrop 77
Queens Park Rangers (9th) 4-2 Blackburn Rovers (14th)
Wells 30
Eze 49
Dack pen 57
Osayi-Samuel 60
Hugill 77
Armstrong 86
Sheffield Wednesday (8th) 1-0 Wigan Athletic (19th)
Luongo 57
Swansea City (4th) 1-2 Stoke City (24th)
Ayew 1
Clucas 22
Hogan 90
West Bromwich Albion (1st) 4-2 Cardiff City (11th)
Pereira 20
Diangana 42
Austin 71
Ward 75
Ward 86
Sawyers 90+3

Barnsley lie in 23rd place in the Sky Bet Championship with 6 points from 11 games. We are 14 points outside the Play-Offs, 16 points outside the Automatic Promotion Places, 16 points outside First Place and 2 points inside the Relegation Zone.

Up to 06/10/19

Next Up:

At Oakwell:
Sky Bet Championship Matchday Twelve: Barnsley v Swansea City, Saturday 19th October 2019. Kick-Off: 3pm

On The Road:
Sky Bet Championship Matchday Thirteen: West Bromwich Albion v Barnsley, Tuesday 22nd October 2019. Kick-Off: 8pm

Preston North End 5-1 Barnsley

Last updated : 06 October 2019 By Rob Miles