Barnsley vs Bolton Wanderers. Sky Bet Championship.
Oakwell StadiumAttendance14,138.
Saturday 14 April 2018 21:01, UK
Oliver McBurnie's last-gasp header earned Barnsley a point in a dramatic 2-2 draw with relegation rivals Bolton at Oakwell.
Gary Gardner opened the scoring in the first half before goals from Adam Le Fondre and Craig Noone looked to have won it for the Trotters in the final 10 minutes.
However, McBurnie popped up deep in stoppage time to score a header from point-blank range to salvage a point for the hosts.
The result meant Barnsley remained in 22nd spot in the Sky Bet Championship, but remained just one place and two points behind their opponents.
Barnsley found themselves in front on 22 minutes, Gardner pouncing to power a thunderous effort into the back of the net from a corner.
Ben Alnwick was unable to claim the ball into the box and McBurnie almost scored. He turned his man, only to see his shot blocked on the line. The follow-up was blocked again, but the loose ball was claimed by Gardner and he lashed home.
The Bolton defence were struggling to deal with corners and almost fell further behind from another. They failed to clear again on 39 minutes and allowed McBurnie to create an opening for himself, but he curled his shot wide after showing good close control.
Minutes before that, Bolton had their first meaningful attempt of the game, as Sammy Ameobi tricked his way past a defender but saw Adam Davies beat his shot away.
Bolton went close after the restart through David Wheater as his header was cleared off the line by Andy Yiadom.
In the run-up to the corner there had been strong appeals for a Trotters penalty. Yiadom was again at the centre of the action, with the Bolton players claiming he had handled the ball in blocking a shot from Ameobi.
Barnsley were then denied a penalty themselves, as Kieffer Moore was brought down inside the area but nothing was given.
Justice was perhaps served for Bolton on 79 minutes when they were awarded a spot-kick. Substitute Will Buckley tangled with George Moncur and Le Fondre despatched the resulting penalty to set up what would be a frantic closing period.
The visitors looked to have won it five minutes from time. Yiadom and Davies had a coming-together and, from a loose ball, Noone was able to find the net to send the travelling fans wild.
However, McBurnie popped up at the back post deep into stoppage time for Barnsley to head home from close range to make it 2-2 and leave both teams to contemplate what could have been as they left with a point apiece.
Jose Morais: "I have very mixed feelings. We are delaying big decisions in our favour. The delay is that this game we could have won, and for some reason we didn't.
"We can find some reasons and we can blame someone. The referee saw a penalty that was a key moment in terms of the season.
"In English football so many times we see situations like this which is not a penalty.
Phil Parkinson: "We got a penalty in the end. We got the second goal and we had other chances. All in all we've got to make sure this was an important point in our quest for survival.
"It's all to play for and it's difficult to tell what we'll need. We've some massive games left.
"We haven't spent one single penny and it's tough. We've got real resilience in this group and we'll keep fighting to the end."
