Burton Albion 3 Barnsley 1: Reds’ top two hopes dealt major blow

The Reds’ League One automatic-promotion hopes were dealt a major blow as their 20-match unbeaten run was halted at the Pirelli Stadium.

The Tykes are now level on points with third-placed Sunderland, who have the luxury of two games in hand.

Goals from Jamie Allen and Liam Boyce put Burton 2-0 up after 81 minutes, although Barnsley gave themselves hope of a late comeback.

Cauley Woodrow netted an 85th-minute penalty, the striker’s 16th goal of the campaign, but the Brewers grabbed a late third through Marcus Harness.

Barnsley have built their promotion drive on a strong defence, conceding just 30 goals in 40 games heading into this clash.

But having let three in, Stendel pinpointed their troubles at the back as the main reason behind the defeat.

“It’s a disappointing result,” the German said.

“But also the performance. I think that we fight for 90 or 95 minutes but it was not enough to win today.

“The goals were too easy for Burton. I don’t think they were much better than us but they were more effective.

“They scored and we created less chances to score. All of the pressure that we had we could not get in the chances to score and when we were defending as we did for the last two goal then you win no games.”

Allen fired Burton ahead in the fifth minute, leaving Barnsley with an uphill task to secure a positive result.

Stendel felt his side responded well but did not do enough to secure anything from the clash.

“It is good for Burton getting the goal after five minutes,” Stendel said.

“After 10 minutes we control the game and, in my opinion, Burton were so much under pressure, we have a lot of situations and in the moment we didn’t score. “