The pride of South Yorkshire

YORKSHIRE'S pride, top Tykes, county champs; get used to it, Barnsley's quality football revival continues.

The club that two seasons ago couldn't beat Doncaster looks down the length of almost a division and a half on Leeds.

And Sheffield who? Bring that pair on, the sooner the better, or so the Oakwell tribesmen might now say.

A high-risk acid test for manager Simon Davey's men came at Charlton. Flying colours trailed the team bus as it nosed out of South London.

Three points might well have been on board too.

Still, if at last you can't succeed, get a late equaliser ...

Barnsley did and would have climbed to new heights in the Championship table but for a horrible miss following a super hit.

Kim Christensen came off the bench and smashed in sub Martin Daveney's centre.

That made it 1-1 after Zheng Zhui's headed Charlton opener. With time beyond 90 minutes, Grant McCann, similarly on the end of a Devaney delivery, whacked it well wide.

Still, no complaints from this end or that.

Christensen was well pleased to come off the bench and get his first goal.

"It was a good cross from Devaney into the box and I think three or four players went up for the ball," he said.

"Kayode (Odejayi) was one of them. I was waiting for the ball to come back and fortunately for me it did.

"I just took a chance and hit it as hard as I could and it was good for me and the team that it went in.

"The manager told me to go and make a goal and I always try and do what the manager says!"

Boss Davey wasn't making a big deal of a goal made by his double substitution.

"Martin has done that in the last three game, come on and put crosses in the box," he said.

"Kim's come on and taken his chance but it's not about substitutions. All the players have got great spirit at the moment.

"The players on the bench are desperate to get on the pitch and I've got players in the stand who are desperate to get on the bench. We've got healthy competition in the group at the moment.

"Players who come on the pitch want to prove a point to the staff. Two players have come on today and have done that."

Charlton boss Alan Pardew couldn't have been much nicer about Barnsley either. "I thought Barnsley were a good side with some good players and a good manager and we were slightly fortunate to get the point," he said.

"But having said that, although they missed a good chance at the end, we hit the bar twice."

"I don't want to criticise them in any way, shape or form. They were excellent.

"So many teams come here and shut up shop. It was nice to see a team come out and show their wares."

The fact was that before Charlton scored they hit the bar twice and saw Brian Howard clear a Jerome Thomas header off the line.

Barnsley keeper Heinz Muller had saves to make too, the pick of which was from an Andy Reid 30-yard free-kick which saw him fly full-length across his line to glove a low one around the post.

That came bang in the middle of Charlton's best spell. Darren Ambrose missed a sitter after the otherside excellent Dennis Souza and Dominik Werling collided in the box and took each other out.

Werling wore a turban for the rest of the game to stem the blood flow.

Moments before their goal, Reid supplied the corner which sub Thomas nodded hard on target from eight yards out.

Howard, on the far post, watched it like a hawk before heading up and over.

Something was bound to give and it did with less than 10 minutes left. Again Reid delivered ball to box.

The otherwise unimpressive Chris Iwelumo smartly headed it back in the box to Zheng and his header from 12 yards was textbook, to the bottom right corner of Muller’s goal.

It was fair enough for Zheng. He ran Reid close for Charlton’s man of the match and had been unlucky to clip the bar just after the break at a corner.

Charlton had slightly the better of an untidy first half and wasted two good chances.

Reid was looking the best player on the pitch but he could do no better than shake the crossbar in the ninth minute with a drive from edge of the area range when Barnsley only half-cleared a corner.

Reid was in the thick of good Charlton things again as his centre in the 29th minute found Zheng, unmarked on the edge of the six-yard box. His header was just high.

Barnsley had the tidiest footballing move before the break when Jamal Campbell-Ryce, back at the ground where his career began, crossed from the right, Odejayi intelligently nodded it back for McCann to hammer a shot in from 23 yards out. The Northern Ireland international snatched at it and the ball drifted wide.