Millwall 1-1 Barnsley: Lions held at home by winless Tykes
- Published
Jake Cooper's goal was his first of the season for Millwall
Barnsley are still searching for their first Championship win of the season after a draw with Millwall at The Den.
Watched from the stands by new boss Valerien Ismael, the Tykes took the lead just before half-time through Alex Mowatt's unstoppable 25-yard strike.
But Millwall, who had won their two previous games, soon levelled as defender Jake Cooper headed home.
Scott Malone struck the Barnsley bar after the break and goalkeeper Jack Walton denied the Lions a winner by saving smartly from Mason Bennett and Kenneth Zohore.
A point was enough to keep Barnsley above the bottom three on goal difference, while Millwall slipped a couple of places to seventh.
Both sides had plenty to concern them off the field with Millwall boss Gary Rowett absent after testing positive for Covid-19 and Barnsley - with caretaker boss Adam Murray in charge for the final time - forced to make two late changes as striker Cauley Woodrow and defender Jordan Williams dropped out less than 10 minutes before kick-off.
They were replaced by Conor Chaplin and Clarke Oduor and the Tykes also gave loan signing Matty James his first senior start since turning out for parent club Leicester against Newport in the FA Cup in January 2019.
The first 44 minutes, though, were largely forgettable, with what few goal attempts there were from outside the box and off target until Mowatt struck out of the blue by chesting down Cooper's headed clearance and beating Bartosz Bialkowski with a fabulous dipping left-foot effort.
Cooper rose to head home ex-Barnsley loanee Connor Mahoney's cross for the equaliser and the Lions were much improved after the break with Bennett denied from point-blank range by Walton, who atoned for a midweek error which cost his side a win against Stoke.
Substitute Herbie Kane's free-kick forced a good save from Bialkowski, but it was one of only two shots on target in the game by Barnsley, leaving Ismael with plenty of work to do to lift them up the table and avoid a repeat of last season's relegation scrap.
Barnsley caretaker manager Adam Murray:
"I thought, for us, it was a real good away performance.
"I think when you come to a place like this, with a team that's in the play-off places before the game, there are times where you're going to be stressed out but I thought our game plan worked well.
"I think we caught them a few times on the counter-attack, but again our final pass needs to be a little bit better for us to take the opportunities that we do have."
Millwall assistant manager Adam Barrett:
"Obviously, it's not ideal. Your manager goes down with Covid, so it's been an unusual 24 hours, but the good thing with modern technology now is you can keep in contact and the gaffer was still able to do his meeting by video.
"Firstly, he's feeling okay, so we wish him a speedy recovery and hopefully he's back in the dugout soon.
"They were very aggressive on the press and I thought we turned the ball over too cheaply, so we were disappointed with that, but the second half was a much better performance."