Barnsley ‘keeping our feet on the ground’ despite latest impressive win

Posted Sunday, March 14, 2021 by PA

Valerien Ismael is refusing to get carried away despite his Barnsley side’s brilliant come-from-behind victory over promotion rivals Bournemouth.

Substitute Carlton Morris headed home 10 minutes from time as the in-form Tykes battled from 2-1 down at half-time to claim an eighth win in nine Championship matches.

The victory extended Barnsley’s unbeaten run to to 11 matches and opened up a five-point cushion on seventh-placed Bournemouth in the battle for a play-off spot.

Barnsley have not played in the top flight since the 1997-98, but boss Ismael said: “We are not dreaming.

“We are keeping our feet on the ground. We know there are 10 games to go and a lot of points still to play for.

“We showed a big mentality. It was a big game, a difficult away game.

“We made two idiotic mistakes to concede two goals, especially the second one.

“We made some changes at half-time and the bench made a big difference today. It was a big fight, a big game and we made a big step forward.”

Michal Helik gave Barnsley a 16th-minute lead but Bournemouth led at half-time thanks to goals from Arnaut Danjuma and Dominic Solanke.

Barnsley dominated the second half and levelled through Dominik Frieser before Morris’ winner.

Bournemouth boss Jon Woodgate was highly critical of his side’s second-half display.

Woodgate said: “It was two different Bournemouth teams. One in the first half that wanted to fight and one in the second half that did not want to do it.

“That is not acceptable. Games are not for 45 minutes, they are for 90 minutes. They wanted it more than us.

“With 10 games to go, we need to start winning and the players need to lift themselves.

“Barnsley are on a good run but that won’t go on forever. There are plenty of twists and turns to come.

“What I would say is that we need to match Barnsley’s effort and intensity.”