Cleary strike condemns rock-bottom Cobblers to yet another Sixfields defeat
Cobblers are guaranteed to finish bottom of League One after extending their club record losing run to 11 games with defeat to Barnsley on Tuesday.
There was a very end of season feel to the night at a flat and subdued Sixfields, and it was more of the same on the pitch where Reyes Cleary produced the only bit of quality throughout a poor game to give Barnsley all three points.
Having lost all of their last 10 league games, Cobblers have one last chance to give their supporters something to cheer when they host Plymouth Argyle on the final day of the season this weekend.
Jake Evans and Kyle McAdam were back in the starting line-up but Barnsley made all the early running with an unmarked Tom Bradshaw heading just wide at a corner and David McGoldrick firing off target from distance.
The visitors had the wind with them in the first half but Cobblers came through the first 20 minutes unscathed, which was something of an achievement in itself given their recent tendency to fall behind early in games.
Town did have one or two promising moments in attack but familiar failings meant they did not come to anything, and soon enough they fell behind as Cleary picked out the far corner with an excellent finish after breezing past Conor McCarthy.
The home side’s best moment of the first half came in stoppage-time when Evans did well to flick a pass onto McAdam, whose well-struck first-time strike whizzed past the wrong side of the post.
Cobblers started the second half with better intent and Dean Campbell curled an effort narrowly wide of the far post, but more poor decisions saw several attacks fizzle out.
Barnsley looked more and more comfortable as time ticked by and they would have extended their lead with 20 minutes to play had Adam Phillips not spooned over from a few yards out.
The away side’s clean sheet was only threatened once when goalkeeper Kieren Flavell clawed away McCarthy’s header, with Cobblers now guaranteed to finish at the very foot of the table.
Match facts
Cobblers: Burge, Dyche, Guthrie © (List 71), McCarthy, Guinness-Walker, McAdam, Campbell (Eaves 80), McGeehan, Fornah, Hoskins, Evans. Subs not used: Fitzsimons, Taylor, Jacobs, Swyer, Vale
Barnsley: Flavell, De Gevigney, O’Keeffe (Nwakau 83), O’Connell, Cleary (Banks 72), Kelly (Farrell 72), Bland, Earl, Connell ©, McGoldrick, Bradshaw (Phillips 45). Subs not used: Goodman, Shepherd, Gent
Referee: Jamie O’Connor
Attendance: 5,143
Barnsley fans: 260