Clarke Oduor’s Barnsley ends Sheffield Wednesday’s 23-game unbeaten run

Barnsley inched closer to an automatic promotion place in the English Football League (EFL) League One following a 4-2 win over fellow promotion hopefuls Sheffield Wednesday. 

The emphatic victory ended Wednesday’s 23-game unbeaten run in League One which had them sit second on the log albeit having played two games less than log leaders Plymouth Argyle.

Wednesday’s loss saw them miss a chance to ascend to the summit of the log in their quest to earn promotion back to the Championship after suffering relegation in the 2020-2021 season. 

Oduor was however again frozen out of the squad with this being the ninth game that he has failed to appear on the matchday list. 

Barnsley had a dream start to the game as they opened the scoring in the 10th minute after Mads Andersen threaded in a neat through ball to Devante Cole who slotted the it through the legs of the onrushing keeper.

30 seconds later Barnsley doubled their lead after profiting from a loose pass that was intercepted by Cole onto the path of James Norwood who fired the ball into the bottom right corner. 

Wednesday recovered from their rocky start and pulled one back three minutes after the half-hour mark when Lee Gregory tapped home from close range following a pass across the face of goal by Michael Smith.

Lee grabbed his brace in the 74th minute after another close-range finish, this time Marvin Johnson supplied the assist. 

Barnsley however regained their lead with seven minutes left on the clock through Max Watters who had the ball fall kindly to him after a botched clearance from the Wednesday center-backs. 

Liam Kitching assured all three points for Barnsley in the sixth minute of stoppage time after a well-worked counter-attack which extended Barnsley’s unbeaten run to 12 games.