Analysis from Barnsley's 3-2 loss at Bolton. The Reds were 3-0 down at half-time then Luca Connell and Adam Phillips pulled goals back.

A GAME THAT SUMS UP BARNSLEY’S SEASON

The awful defensive performance in the first half and the much better attacking display in the second summed up Barnsley’s season as did the fact that the negative, in the end, outweighed the positive.

The Reds’ first half performance was embarrassing and pathetic - with the only saving grace that there were not far more goals than three netted by a home side who were faster, stronger, more clever on the ball and more confident. It could easily have been 6-0 at the break.

Barnsley were awful defensively as they so often are but they also just seemed to fold as a team which was tough to watch.

They used to be equals with Bolton, meeting them in the play-offs in 2023 and 2024, but the gap after this game was 18 points and 12 places. During the first half, it was a chasm.

It was similar to the crushing at Cardiff in their previous away game which showed the Reds are nowhere near the top sides in the third tier.

In fact, they are five points clear of the relegation zone which they should have enough to stay clear of but, in the first half, you had to wonder if that was a certainty.

They have won two of 11 in all competitions and have 21 points from the last 20 league games.

Away from home, they are winless in seven in the league with one win in 12 since August.

They have conceded 72 in all competitions, half of which have been in the last 13 games. West Ham’s clean sheet at Burnley meant no side in English professional football have kept fewer league clean sheets this season than Barnsley with two.

Bolton were third and unbeaten in five with four wins while they had the joint best defensive record with Stevenage.

Barnsley had endured 90 minutes of chaos against Northampton on a very heavy and wet pitch on Tuesday whereas Bolton did not play in midweek. But that doesn’t explain why the Reds were so poor right at the start then better later on.

BARNSLEY AS BAD AS IT GETS IN FIRST HALF

Barnsley were good for 25 seconds of the first half, with Scott Banks collecting a fine Jack Shepherd pass and curling an 18-yard shot which was pushed out of the top left corner by the goalkeeper.

But, immediately after that, the Reds started to look very nervous and uncomfortable with the tactic of playing out from the back. Owen Goodman saw a clearance charged down, Eoghan O’Connell misplaced a pass then conceded the corner which led to the opener. It was the third time in four games they conceded in the first five minutes.

Barnsley could not cope with Bolton’s set pieces while they were so slow and flat-footed in tracking the home team’s slick passing and movement in open play. The forwards were isolated, midfielders outmanoeuvred and defenders totally exposed. Goodman made some decent saves but looked suspect from crosses or playing out from the back.

There is such a sloppiness about the team and so many regular errors by players who have been relatively solid elsewhere in their careers that you have to at least partly question the coaching and the overall approach to defending.

FIRST TWO GOALS CONTINUE POOR SET PIECE RECORD

Last time Barnsley visited Bolton, Hourihane was Darrell Clarke’s set piece man in the coaching staff and called Kelechi Nwakali over to him for instructions before a clever free-kick routine led to Adam Phillips’ winner.

Now, Hourihane is head coach and former analyst Ed Davies in charge of set pieces while Nwakali was last seen playing for the under 21s and they failed to move him on in January.

Barnsley have conceded 14 goals from set pieces this season - the third most in the division - which is twice as many as they have scored, with only two sides netting fewer.

Before Saturday, Bolton had scored the fewest set piece goals in the league with five - one of which was at Oakwell in August - but struck twice in the first 20 minutes from Kyle Dempsey’s left-wing corners.

For the first goal, Tennai Watson was marking Sam Dalby and slipped over, allowing him to head home six yards out.

For the second, Goodman missed the corner then David McGoldrick cleared against O’Connell’s legs and Dalby tapped in almost on the line.

For the third goal, Shepherd - who had a torrid first half - gave the ball to Rob Apter then was beaten by Dalby who set up John McAtee to fire in against his old club.

McAtee has scored twice in the league this season, both against Barnsley.

SECOND HALF MUCH BETTER

Hourihane said he thought about making changes before half-time but wanted his players ‘to suffer’ and to see if they could get themselves out of the hole they had dug.

He made four changes at the break but said he could have taken any of the outfielders off.

Watson, O’Connell and McGoldrick had all played their part in goals conceded while Reyes Cleary had a second poor game in a row and looked weary.

A combination of an impact from the substitutes, Barnsley looking more compact at the back and Bolton taking their foot off the gas let the Reds back in. They scored in the 57th and 60th minutes with their fans going from mutinous to supportive and the home crowd from celebratory to jittery.

Patrick Kelly, who was supposed to be having a rest in this gruelling schedule, came on at the break with Hourihane rightly saying they need him in the side. Rotation only works if the whole squad is reliable.

Kelly, as usual, added quality and the ability to drive the ball forward while fellow substitute Phillips scored and another Nathanael Ogbeta almost equalised.

Mael de Gevigney, although he nearly gifted McAtee a goal, improved the defence overall.

But eventually Bolton and their fans were united in seeing out a narrow win.

Barnsley had no strikers on the bench to bring on at 3-2, a problem that may haunt them all season after their deadline day failure. They can take some positives from the second half but overall it was another disappointing day.

PHILLIPS ONTO 40 REDS GOALS FROM MIDFIELD

The first Barnsley goal saw Luca Connell’s 20-yard shot hit Eoin Toal and trickle in past the wrong-footed goalkeeper.

It was a third goal of the season for the former Bolton youth product.

The Reds skipper has had a tough year with a red card, several mistakes for goals then an illness which kept him out of the previous game. That goal will at least give him a personal boost.

Phillips added a second and now has 40 goals for Barnsley, a huge number for a midfielder. Considering the Reds have an option to keep him until 2027, he could join Cauley Woodrow in being the only players to reach 50 in the last 25 years.

He has five in seven games in 2026, two in the last two despite coming off the bench as his minutes are being managed after a nasty illness.

He has scored four times at Bolton for Barnsley in four different seasons while he also has five assists against the Trotters in his career, facing no other side more often.

Phillips started the move for his goal with a fine crossfield pass to Ogbeta whose cross reached Banks who had a shot blocked then found Phillips to expertly smash into the top right corner.

Banks collected the assists for both goals, taking him to four for the Reds in three games. He made more passes into the Bolton half than any other player and had seven of Barnsley’s 16 touches in the home box.

New signing Tom Bradshaw played for Barnsley for the first time since August 2018 when he scored at Bradford City before being sold to Millwall. He played the full match and touched the ball 18 times. Only one of those touches was in the Bolton box but it saw him shoot straight at the goalkeeper ten yards out at 3-1 after a fine run and pass by Kelly. He should have scored but it is not surprising if he was slightly rusty on his first start for six months. Bradshaw won five of 17 aerial battles but two led to Connell’s goal then the aforementioned chance.