Preston North End 5-1 Barnsley: Daniel Johnson double inspires Deepdale rout
- Published
Daniel Johnson (top, with David Nugent) has now scored seven goals for Preston this season
Daniel Johnson scored twice as Preston moved up to third in the Championship with a convincing home win over struggling Barnsley.
Johnson headed Alex Neil's side in front as they dominated the opening half, only for Cameron McGeehan to grab an equaliser following a corner.
Tom Barkhuizen coolly restored the lead from Johnson's pass, and the latter made it three after Paul Gallagher's ball left him one-on-one with goalkeeper Brad Collins.
Barnsley's inexperienced defence was exposed again as Ben Pearson scored only his second goal in 126 Preston appearances and sub Josh Harrop lobbed the fifth to underline their superiority.
The Lilywhites are now unbeaten in eight league games, while Barnsley have still not won since the opening day of the season and drop to second bottom following Huddersfield's win over Hull.
McGeehan scored their first goal away from home this season after Preston's defence failed to clear Mike-Steven Bahre's corner, but it was little consolation as they were outplayed for most of the game.
Johnson had already tested Collins before he nodded home the loose ball after the keeper had parried Barkhuizen's initial effort.
And his second effectively ended the game as a contest, with Pearson forcing home in his first goal since October 2016 from close range, against the club where he was twice on loan, before Harrop wrapped it up with his fifth of the season.
Both sets of supporters stood in the 66th minute to applaud the memory of Barnsley fan Jeffrey Wroe, who died during their game against Derby in midweek, and a seat was left vacant in the away dugout except for a shirt on it bearing his name.
Preston manager Alex Neil:
"I've watched Barnsley four times this season and for the first 30 minutes they've been the better side but that wasn't the case today.
"We were the better side from the first minute to the last minute, the only frustration that I've got is after we scored the first goal we got a little bit sloppy taking our foot off the gas.
"The lads responded after half-time in the fashion that you'd hope they would, kept on playing trying to get the next goal.
"If our fans didn't enjoy that then you're never going to enjoy a game of football, we could have scored arguably 10 goals."
Barnsley manager Daniel Stendel:
"We played like a youth team in a lot of situations.
"At half-time I thought ok it was not our best half but at 1-1 with one chance is good but the second-half was the worst that I can remember at Barnsley.
"Preston played good and you can see the table but we played like a team that is not good enough to play in the Championship."