Tykes done by Kights

Last updated : 08 December 2013 By Tony Scholes

It was a superb finish from the former Wolves man, who is currently on loan from Stoke, after the ball had been played into him from Kieran Trippier. It came during our best spell of a match in which we were again some way from our best, and it clinched the three points.

It was a miserable and cold afternoon yesterday and there was precious little enthusiasm around for some of our supporters. Despite still being third in the table all some wanted to talk about was our drop down the league, we'd slipped from first to third in the previous seven days, how the bubble had burst and that by the New Year we'd be out of the top six and sliding down the league.

Who knows what will happen but we did have some good news ahead of the game. Michael Duff, as expected, returned from suspension at Kevin Long's expense. Danny Ings was fit again and he returned, as did Kightly who was a substitute for Tuesday's 0-0 draw against Watford. Stanislas dropped to the bench which saw the return from injury of young striker Ryan Noble.

Kieran Trippier played the ball inside to Michael Kightly in the build up to the winning goal

On the negative side, Dean Marney was still unfit and an injury picked up early in Tuesday's game ruled out Keith Treacy.

It's December; we're third in the league, but I even heard suggestions yesterday that this was a must win game. It was a game I think we all thought was needed just to end this little run of games since that last win against QPR when we were in outstanding form.

We might have got ourselves an early lead. Sam Vokes didn't make the best of an early opportunity when he broke clear down the left and then he fired in a shot from some distance after a poor clearance from Barnsley goalkeeper Jack Butland.

But in truth there was little to enthuse us for much of the first half. I've read a comment somewhere that suggested we dominated but that couldn't be much further from the truth. For much of the half Barnsley were better than us and they gave us some real problems as time after time they got through our midfield as if it wasn't there.

The best chance of the half fell to Tomasz Cywka and but for Tom Heaton we would certainly have fallen behind. Needless to say the architect of the goal was Paddy McCourt. He played Cywka in and the former Derby man should really have done better but Heaton was excellent in getting out to block the shot.

McCourt's had what could be described an up and down career. The Northern Ireland international started at Rochdale but drifted away and back into football in Ireland, first with Shamrock Rovers and then Derry City.

It was during his time at Derry that Burnley's newly appointed Irish scout Billy Bingham was tipped off about him. Bingham admitted he'd never heard of him and McCourt went to Celtic before joining Barnsley in the summer of this year.

He really did look impressive yesterday and was far and away the best player on the pitch during the first half, a first half that ended 0-0 and us very fortunate to be level. No side has played better against us this season at Turf Moor than Barnsley did in that first half.

Manager Sean Dyche confirmed he'd given the players a bit of a war cry at half time, and in fairness we did improve immediately once we'd emerged from the dressing room several minutes after the Barnsley players had returned to the pitch.

We looked much more positive and Barnsley were no longer getting the better of us in the midfield. Now we were getting forward and our two front men were finally beginning to get some service.

Kightly came close to setting us up. He found himself coming into the box unmarked from the right. He played a superb ball across but none of Vokes, Ings or Scott Arfield were able to get on the end of it.

The game was shifting and it well and truly shifted when the goal came. Trippier looked to have got himself blocked down the right hand touchline but he got the better of Cywka and played the ball inside for Kightly.

The wide man expertly moved into the box, sending David Perkins the wrong way, and placed his shot into the far corner with Butland not even able to move to it.

It was just what we needed. Cywka had a free kick tipped over by Heaton but they didn't seriously threaten to get back into the game and we should have had a second when Vokes scuffed his shot but saw it bobble into the bottom corner.

Arfield, who was having more and more of an influence on the game, played the ball inside for Ings, but it was Barnsley's Jacob Mellis, a player who played for our reserves two seasons ago on trial, who got the touch to play the ball to Vokes.

The assistant's flag went up for offside but any decent communication between him and the referee, who otherwise had an excellent game, would have seen the goal count.

Barnsley won a couple of late corners and then we had a lung bursting run from Arfield down the left in stoppage time that brought the Longside to its feet.

By the final whistle we were worthy winners, and you wouldn't have thought that at half time.

The three points was just what the doctor ordered and there was better news to come. We all knew that Leicester were losing at Brighton and then it was confirmed that Blackburn had held QPR to a 0-0 draw at Loftus Road.

Having lost it seven days earlier Burnley were back on top of the league.

It's a big one next week at Leicester in front of the Sky cameras. It looks as though Dean Marney, who scored in the corresponding fixture last season, could finally be fit to return. He's been badly missed.

The crowd were better than they'd been four days earlier but there were still rumblings of discontent that Dyche again picked up on. We really need to get this sorted and get behind the players no matter what, and before Blackpool arrive a week next Saturday.

The teams yesterday were;

Burnley: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, Scott Arfield, Brian Stock (David Edgar 76), David Jones, Michael Kightly (Junior Stanislas 86), Danny Ings, Sam Vokes. Subs not used: Alex Cisak, Kevin Long, Danny Lafferty, Steven Hewitt, Ryan Noble.
Yellow Card: Junior Stanislas.

Barnsley: Jack Butland, Scott Wiseman, Peter Ramage, Martin Cranie, Tom Kennedy, Paddy McCourt (Marcus Pedersen 83), David Perkins, Tomasz Cywka (Jim O'Brien 76), Kelvin Etuhu (Jason Scotland 69), Jacob Mellis, Marcus Tudgay. Subs not used: Bobby Hassell, Stephen Dawson, Jean-Yves M'voto, David Fox.
Yellow Card: Marcus Tudgay.

Referee: James Adcock (Nottinghamshire).

Attendance: 11,462.