Fleetwood Town were narrowly beaten at Highbury by Barnsley in their latest Sky Bet League One outing.
Visitors Barnsley came out of the traps the stronger side and were on top in the opening exchanges of the game. A couple of flash attempts on goal, most noticeably from Herbie Kane, and an effort off the post by Josh Benson.
It took some good defending by Town to keep the South Yorkshire side out, though there was a penalty shout for Barnsley just shy of the quarter-hour mark, claims were waived away by the referee.
After being condemned to defend for the first ten or so minutes of the game, Town broke and Dan Batty worked hard to win a corner in the 18th minute, but it wasn’t rewarded. Although Fleetwood seemed to be growing into the game as it hit the midway point of the first forty-five.
The Tykes were making Town work extremely hard at the back and on more than one occasion, striker James Norwood broke loose down the right and tried to link fellow attackers Devante Cole and Benson into play.
Town might have thought they were unfortunate not to have had a penalty when Shaun Rooney’s effort looked to have struck the hand of a Barnsley defender.
However, as the game entered the 25th minute, the Cods looked to skipper Josh Vela for some reassurance in the middle and after his challenge on Robbie Cundy, Town seemed to have weathered the Barnsley storm and got some control of proceedings.
As the game slowly crept towards the interval, Barnsley would have been rueing missed opportunities but for Town, nearly the same could be said as Rooney missed an opportunity from a Danny Andrew corner, with his attempt being cleared off the line.
The first real action of the second half came when Luke Thomas took the ball from the path of Cole and struck an effort, but it was a comfortable save for Andy Lynch in the Town goal.
As the second half minutes ticked away, Town were defending their lines well as Barnsley started the second half, quite like they started the first. The Cods’ first sniff at goal nearly came from Admiral Muskwe but he couldn’t quite get his head onto a cross by Batty.
After the first half, it looked like Barnsley were the unlucky ones not to have won but the more Town grew into the game, it was quite an even contest.
Town boss Scott Brown bought Joe Garner, Paddy Lane, and Carlos Mendes-Gomes all on, to liven things up in the attack.
Mendes Gomes looked to spark the Cods into life but his attempt at troubling Barnsley’s backline came unstuck as the Tykes remained compact as they realised the chances, they’d missed in the first half were going to cost them.
There was some heroic defending all round by Town and led by Toto Nsiala, the Cods looked to have shown their steel once more. However, in the final knockings of the game, Barnsley edged the game and took the lead through Jack Aitchinson. Town unfortunate not to have come away with a point, in what was a battling performance.
Town XI: Lynch (GK), Andrew, Devlin, Vela (C), Muskwe (J. Garner 70’), Morton (Mendes-Gomes 76’), Warrington, Nsiala, Batty (Lane 76’), Rooney, Macadam (Hayes 89’).
Unused subs: Stolarczyk (GK), Johnston, Baker.
Tykes XI: Collins (GK), Williams, Kitching, Anderson (C), Cadden (Larkeche 80’), Kane (Martin 69’), Norwood, Benson, Thomas (Phillips 69’), Cundy, Cole (Aitchinson 85’).
Unused subs: Walton (GK), Edwards, Connell.