Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Birmingham and Barnsley at St Andrew's as the Blues sealed their first win since the end of November amid fan protests against the owners
Saturday 22 January 2022 21:35, UK
Birmingham put breathing room between themselves and the relegation zone with a 2-1 victory over Barnsley amid fan protests against the owners.
Fans marched with banners before the game outside St Andrew's, and protested in front of the club directors despite enjoying their first win in the Championship since the end of November.
Onel Hernandez broke the deadlock on his home debut after signing on loan from Norwich with a low strike into the bottom corner in the first half.
Scott Hogan's second goal in three games doubled Blues' lead and secured their first win since the end of November and first of 2022.
Hogan, who rescued a point at Preston last weekend, was the matchwinner when he was in the right place at the right time to stab the ball home and earn three valuable points for Birmingham.
Victor Adeboyejo pulled a goal back for the Tykes with his third goal of the season with a low drive into the back of the net after the ball fell to the striker in a busy penalty area with three minutes remaining, but they could not rescue a point.
The home side had countless chances to add to their lead, with Hernandez a catalyst in everything Lee Bowyer's side produced against the league's bottom side - now winless in the league for nine games.
Teenager Jordan James was presented with two opportunities immediately after each other in the first half. After failing to direct his header from six yards out on target, the 17-year-old curled the ball just over after goalkeeper Bradley Collins gave the ball away.
Despite scoring the league's fewest goals this season, Barnsley managed to test Neil Etheridge throughout the first half, with Callum Styles, Adeboyejo and Carlton Morris all forcing the goalkeeper into smart saves.
But Bowyer's side took the lead for the first time in five games when Hernandez calmly slotted the ball past Collins after Lukas Jutkiewicz played the winger behind the Barnsley defence in the 34th minute.
Their lead was doubled five minutes into the second half thanks to Hogan's eighth goal of the season. Ryan Woods' corner from the left was not dealt with by Collins and the visiting defence and Hogan poked the ball into the empty net from close range.
Poya Asbaghi's team almost halved the deficit after falling two goals behind when Styles' effort skipped past Etheridge's post after Marc Roberts did enough to pressure the midfielder in the box.
Former Norwich striker Morris came close also, with his attempted overhead kick beating everyone apart from the post before Etheridge collected the ball.
With four minutes remaining, Barnsley gave themselves a chance of salvaging a point when Adeboyejo smashed low and hard past Etheridge following Mads Andersen's flick-on.
However, the visitors failed to muster a final chance in seven minutes of stoppage time.
Birmingham's Lee Bowyer: "He [Hernandez] is a good player. He has brought us something we didn't have with that pace on the break. Once we lost [Tahith] Chong through injury, we lost that. He is going to get better once he gets match fit. He needs to work on his confidence so today will hopefully help that.
"I said to him all week that I was going to play him out wide and we needed him to be positive. We needed him to try and make something happen because he's a good player because, if he wasn't, he wouldn't be here. He did that today and he asked questions of the defenders. He took his goal really well, again something we worked on."
Barnsley's Poya Asbaghi: "It's a disappointing result, not the one we were hoping for. You can lose in different ways. You can come here and have nothing to say or you can lose like we did today. Today was a game in which our overall performance was pretty good. We created a lot of chances today and more chances than we have done in other games combined. Birmingham created chances, especially in the first half, but overall I think we created more than them. But it's the result that counts and, of course, Birmingham take the points.
"We have to keep believing and keep doing what we're doing out on the pitch. In one way, if we had lost this game without having nothing to say then you have to rethink and ask what we're doing. Losing this way is a bigger disappointment because we felt like we could turn this game round. But for the future process, it gives us more confidence that we came here and create that number of chances."
