WE APOLOGISE FOR THE DELAY IN UPLOADING THIS MATCH REPORT AND THE DISRUPTED BLOG SERVICE TODAY.
WE EXPERIENCED SOME TECHNICAL PROBLEMS AT OAKWELL AND APOLOGISE FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE CAUSED.
Barnsley 3
Ferenczi 12, Werling 44, Howard 57
Argyle 2
Hayles 61, Chadwick 67
By Tim Herbert at Oakwell
A DRAMATIC fight-back from Argyle was thwarted at the final hurdle by a stubborn, determined and, at times, desperate Barnsley team.
Poor defending allowed Istvan Ferenczi to open the scoring for the Tykes and Dominic Werling's superb free-kick made it 2-0 at the interval. A Brian Howard header on 57 minutes looked to have sealed the win for the home team.
Argyle had other ideas, however, and three substitutions and a change in formation brought a change of luck in front of goal.
Barry Hayles poked home the first and Nick Chadwick tapped in a second to set up a grandstand finish at Oakwell. Argyle threw everything and more at their hosts but the equaliser would not come.
Manager Ian Holloway named an unchanged team from last weekend's 1-1 draw with Ipswich Town at Home Park, a game Ollie missed after being taken ill with a kidney stone just two hours before kick-off.
Dutchman Marcel Seip had been considered a major doubt earlier in the week with an ankle problem. Krisztian Timar looked set to make his first Championship start of the season, but Marcel had clearly recovered sufficiently to play.
New signing Nadjim Abdou was awarded a place on the bench with goalkeeper Luke McCormick omitted. The versatile Abdou, Jim to his mates, primarily operates as a defensive midfielder but he can also play at right-back.
Barnsley boss Simon Davey included his two most recent signings in the starting line-up. Defender Stephen Foster came straight in for suspended skipper Paul Reid following a midweek move from Crewe Alexandra.
Brazilian midfielder Anderson De Silva, on loan from Everton, replaced Rohan Ricketts on the right wing. His partner in midfield was Brian Howard, who has already netted three times this season with each of his goals coming from the penalty spot.
German 'keeper Heinz Muller had an uncomfortable opening when he misjudged a routine corner from Peter Halmosi and was forced to punch the ball away from under his crossbar. Fortunately for the Tykes, he did a far better job then England stopper Paul Robinson managed in midweek.
Argyle wore their new away strip for the first time and the opening ten minutes was a yellow tide sweeping towards a nervy looking home defence. Understandable for Barnsley I suppose, when you consider they were trounced 4-1 by Coventry in their opening home game of the season.
Last week's battling 2-2 draw at Colchester was a return to the tenacity we expect from the Tykes, and they rediscovered that form on 12 minutes by taking the lead through Ferenczi.
Ollie will be disgusted by the manner of the opener - it all came from an innocuous punt forward by Muller. Odejayi ran away from left-back Gary Sawyer and squared the ball for Hungarian Ferenczi to tap home with ease.
One end of the pitch to the other and not one Argyle player had come anywhere close to making a meaningful challenge.
As if the goal had never happened, the Pilgrims continued to play the better football and look more of an attacking threat. There is definitely no problem going forward but Ollie will have to eradicate our defensive frailties if we are going to improve on last season's 11th place finish.
On 18 minutes, Sawyer looked to atone for his earlier indiscretion with a rasping shot from 25 yards that had Muller looking anxious for a moment.
The goal had given Barnsley, and Ferenczi in particular, a confidence boost, and Romain Larrieu had to be alert to deny the Hungarian's powerful header with a fine saving following Brian Howard's floated free-kick.
Referee Barry Knight decided the heat was getting to him on the half-hour mark and he trotted to the sidelines to receive treatment to an apparent shin injury, prompting a mass intake of funny-coloured fluids from both sets of players. How did they cope before the emergence of isotonic drinks?
Our best chance to score arrived on 36 minutes. Lord Barrington of Hayles picked out Akos Buzsaky on the left and the Hungarian's driven cross flew across the face of goal to be met by the studs of the onrushing David Norris - he just needed the longer studs of a rugby boot for the ball to sneak inside the post.
It would soon prove to be a crucial miss as Barnsley doubled their lead a minute before the break. Young winger Werling looked to be living in a fantasy world when he lined up to shoot from a 30 yard free-kick.
Fantasy quickly turned to reality as his vicious strike found a way through the melee and past Larrieu, despite Le 'Keeper getting a big hand on the ball. Larrieu was beaten more by the extravagant swerve than the power of the shot.
Akos had an immediate chance to reduce the arrears with a free-kick on the edge of the Barnsley box. The original Magical Magyar did well to curl the ball around the wall and, on a better day, Muller's parried save would have landed on a Green foot, but this was not looking like one of our better days.
The only change at half-time was the man in black with Mr Knight deemed unable to continue. New referee Andy Haines took less than 60 seconds to bottle a big decision as he turned down strong penalty appeals following a clear trip on Norris by Lewin Nyatanga.
The Argyle fight-back was then further halted by another good save from Muller. This time the German did well to palm over a goal-bound header by Sawyer.
The Pilgrims continued to put forward and were almost rewarded with a deserved goal when Paul Connolly's superb cross found the head of Norris, but his effort flew inches wide of the far post.
There is a well-known cliché in football that says 'you must score when you're on top'. Unfortunately for us, we managed to do the opposite and concede when we were on top?three times.
Barnsley's third goal came from a curling right-wing cross by De Silva. Howard's bursting run into the box was unchecked and he made his tally for the season four with a well-directed header into the bottom corner.
Ollie responded by making three changes. Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, Nick Chadwick and Nadjim Abdou replaced Rory Fallon, Akos Buzsaky and Matty Doumbe. The Gaffer also changed the formation to 3-4-3.
The effect was immediate as we got the goal our attacking play had deserved. Connolly swung in a free-kick from the right and Hayles darted in front of his marker to turn the ball past Muller with an outstretched leg.
There is no way we should have been three goals down in the first place and Ollie had clearly decided we may as well go down fighting. I think the expression goes something like 'you may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb'.
The brave decision was further rewarded on 67 minutes when Sylv showed great strength to fend off Andy Johnson in the left channel. Chadwick was all alone in the middle and his fellow substitute managed to find him, via the legs of Muller, and Chadders tapped home from two yards.
It was definitely now game on. The Tykes looked rattled and we looked like doing to Barnsley what we famously managed against Cardiff last season - a three goal deficit means nothing to these boys.
The dream was then kept alive by a wonderful sliding tackle by Chuck to deny Ferenczi in the box, closely followed by an agile low save from Larrieu.
Argyle were throwing men forward with wild abandon and, inevitably, Barnsley had chances on the counter, the first of which fell to substitute Kim Christensen, who headed narrowly over from a De Silva cross.
Romain then did his best John Terry impression by flying out of his box to head clear a long ball forward and deny Christensen a certain goal. Back up the other end and Chadwick's volley was turned wide by an increasingly desperate Barnsley leg. Phew, what a game.
Larrieu pulled off another stunning save in injury time as the Pilgrims carried on the fight until the last second of this breathless encounter, but it was not meant to be. You can't give teams a 3-0 head-start, even if you play with the spirit of this Argyle team.
Barnsley (4-4-2): 22 Heinz Muller; 5 Rob Kozluk, 16 Stephen Foster, 18 Dennis Souza, 3 Lewin Nyatanga; 15 Anderson De Silva, 6 Andy Johnson, 10 Brian Howard, 55 Dominik Werling (17 Rohan Ricketss 69); 9 Kayode Odejayi (14 Kim Christensen 55), 13 Istvan Ferenczi. Substitutes (not used): 1 Nick Colgan (gk), 11 Grant McCann, 8 Miguel Mostto.
Booked: Ferenczi 86, Howard 90
Argyle (4-4-2): 1 Romain Larrieu, 2 Paul Connolly, 19 Marcel Seip, 13 Mathias Kouo-Doumbe (26 Nadjim Abdou 60), 18 Gary Sawyer; 8 Akos Buzsaky (11 Nick Chadwick 60), 7 David Norris, 4 Lilian Nalis, 16 Peter Halmosi; 10 Barry Hayles (capt), 14 Rory Fallon (9 Sylvan Ebanks-Blake).
Substitutes (not used): 5 Krisztian Timar, 17 Lee Hodges.
Booked: Seip 45, Hayles 88
Referee: Barry Knight (Kent)
Attendance: 9,240 (574 away)
