Cardiff City vs Barnsley. Sky Bet Championship.
Cardiff City Stadium.
Report and highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Cardiff City and Barnsley at the Cardiff City Stadium as the Bluebirds cruised to victory with goals from Junior Hoilett, Joe Ralls and Harry Wilson.
Tuesday 3 November 2020 23:25, UK
Cardiff earned three points at home for the first time this season after they cruised to a 3-0 victory over Barnsley.
An early strike from Junior Hoilett and a Joe Ralls penalty put Barnsley boss Valerien Ismael on course for his first defeat in the job before Harry Wilson's powerful strike secured the elusive win in the Welsh capital.
Cardiff can now focus their attention on closing the four-point gap on the Sky Bet Championship play-off places and the visit of rivals Bristol City on Friday night, while Barnsley will be looking over their shoulders again after opening the door to their relegation rivals.
Last season's play-off semi-finalists were yet to register their first home victory of the campaign and faced a Barnsley side unbeaten in their last five matches.
Cardiff manager Neil Harris took drastic action in a bid to break down a Tykes defence that had kept clean sheets in their latest victories over QPR and Watford under new manager Ismael.
The physical forward duo of Robert Glatzel and Kieffer Moore started up front with Wilson in support after the Wales playmaker recovered from a hip issue in time for the clash.
Elliot Simoes was the only enforced change for Barnsley after Callum Brittain suffered a hamstring injury last time out.
The hosts piled on the pressure from the kick-off and had their reward after just four minutes as Junior Hoilett broke the deadlock.
The winger had been denied moments earlier by Barnsley goalkeeper Jack Walton, who had rushed off his line to deny him a sight at goal.
But Hoilett did not waste his second chance when Michal Helik failed to clear Joe Bennett's cross moments later as he fired a left-footed shot into the bottom corner.
Cardiff's attacking ploy was proving fruitful as the visitors continued to be overwhelmed by the aerial threat of Moore and Glatzel.
The German forward glanced a Wilson cross just wide less than 60 seconds after the opener, and he wasted another chance in the 25th minute when he prodded a weak shot into Walton's hands from Bennett's inch-perfect early cross.
Ismael had seen enough and hauled Eliot Simoes off five minutes before half-time but the change made little difference as Cardiff doubled their lead in the 45th minute.
Wilson played a neat one-two with Moore inside the Barnsley area before he was tripped by the outstretched leg of Helik as he attempted a last-ditch challenge.
Referee Oliver Langford took an age to point to the spot before Ralls calmly slotted the ball into the corner for his third goal in two games to make it 2-0 at the interval.
And Wilson arrowed a shot into the corner from 20 yards out with 13 minutes remaining to turn their home fortunes around before the visit of Severnside rivals Bristol City.
Cardiff's Neil Harris: "I can talk a lot about the goals we scored, the chances we created, the clean sheet, but I am most impressed with the reaction of my players. Obviously I was honest in my opinion after the game on the performance in the first half at QPR. I was honest with my players at half-time and after the game.
"When you do that you want a positive reaction from the group and tonight I got that. I thought the performance level tonight individually and collectively was outstanding. The only frustration is that we didn't score more."
Barnsley's Valerien Ismael: "I was disappointed with the defending for the goals today. In the first half we could have had a penalty with Patrick Schmidt and then on the counter-attack we conceded a penalty, which was also a penalty, and that changed the game. We didn't do enough after 90 minutes.
"A lot of things went wrong today, tiredness was an issue and we had injuries which forced us to change the formation. Today it was very difficult because we weren't dangerous enough in the opponent's box and we didn't create enough opportunities in their box to score. We have to analyse why it was like this today and put it right for the game against Derby on Saturday."
