Huddersfield Town 0-1 Barnsley: Daryl Dike's winner boosts Tykes' play-off hopes

Daryl Dike (right) has now scored nine goals in 17 games for Barnsley

Barnsley edged to a narrow victory against Huddersfield Town to bolster their hopes of a Championship play-off spot.

Cauley Woodrow's wayward shot and a succession of Alex Mowatt chances were the closest either side came to opening the scoring in the first half.

Daryl Dike put Barnsley ahead with an overhead kick when Huddersfield failed to clear Carlton Morris' low deflected cross into the box.

Barnsley almost added a second when Morris' header was cleared off the line by Naby Sarr and Michal Helik hit the bar straight after.

The win, combined with seventh-placed Reading's goalless draw at Luton, put Barnsley six points clear in the play-off places in sixth spot with three games remaining.

Huddersfield have now won just once in their past seven matches and are eight points off the relegation places, but third-bottom Rotherham have two games in hand on the Terriers.

The visitors sent talismanic striker Dike on from the bench after the break and he gave the visitors the lead in audacious fashion when he was given the time to find the net with an acrobatic finish.

The American, on loan from MLS side Orlando City, has now scored nine goals for the club with this his most important yet as they stand on the brink of a top-six spot.

Huddersfield boss Carlos Corberan told BBC Radio Leeds:

"We knew how important it would be today to get the three points. We knew today that to compete we needed a lot of fight mentality, and a brave mentality.

"The game was for me equal in the first half, but in the first minutes of the second half they were better than us. They statred to play more balls in our half and we had problems in making our transition.

"The game was too open in some moments and they used one of those fast transitions to score the goal and that made them more comfortable in defending the result.

"In the last minutes the team reacted in a way they have to react, we tried to play better, we started to play more close to their goal with some options, but in the end we couldn't get the result that we wanted to."

Barnsley manager Valerien Ismael told BBC Radio Sheffield:

"It's a great feeling, especially the performance from the guys - it was exactly what we wanted to see after the Coventry game.

"We had to start strong and finish strong because this is us, and we saw a great Barnsley performance tonight.

"We have to score more goals maybe, we dominate the party, but we didn't concede a big chance, we controlled the situation and the guys gave us everything today.

"Luton play 0-0 against Reading and it's a great feeling to have two more points on the table now, but we focus on the next game. It will be a tough game against Rotherham. It may be their last chance against us to rescue (their Championship status) so it will be a big fight."