Barnsley 2-3 Sheffield United: Lys Mousset double leads Blades to win at Oakwell
- Published
Lys Mousset scored twice in two minutes as Sheffield United held off a Barnsley fightback at Oakwell to inflict the Tykes' sixth successive Championship defeat.
Following a dreary opening half, the Frenchman broke the deadlock by curling a right-footed shot beyond Brad Collins and then doubled the lead by converting Ben Osborn's low cross.
Jasper Moon hit the post for the Tykes, without a win in their 11 previous games, before Osborn seemingly put the match out of their reach by adding United's third.
Substitute Devante Cole scored Barnsley's first second-half goal since the opening day of the season and Aaron Leya Iseka pulled another back with eight minutes remaining, but they could not find an equaliser and head coach Markus Schopp's position looks precarious with his team next to bottom of the table.
United, meanwhile, climbed four places to 14th, holding their position after Nottingham Forest lost at home to Fulham in Sunday's later game.
Both sides made several changes, five for the hosts and four for United, with Oli McBurnie starting up front for the Blades - having scored against them in Barnsley's 3-2 home win in April 2018, the most recent meeting between the south Yorkshire clubs.
However, there was little quality shown by either side in the opening 45 minutes which saw just one effort on target each and neither keeper seriously tested.
Cauley Woodrow forced a low save from United goalkeeper Robin Olsen soon after the re-start, but the home side were stunned by Mousset's quickfire double.
He was replaced just after the hour mark as Slavisa Jokanovic sent on Billy Sharp and David McGoldrick as substitutes, with 194 Championship goals between them.
Sharp headed too high with his first opportunity, but Osborn found the bottom corner to extend the lead, leaving Barnsley with no option but to throw caution to the wind.
Cole - whose previous goal for Barnsley came during a 2014 loan spell - volleyed home after missing an easier chance when the score was 2-0 and Leya Iseka grabbed his first goal in English football with a left-footed shot after powering between two defenders.
It was, though, not quite enough for the Tykes and they are only above Wayne Rooney's Derby, who had 12 points deducted in September for going into administration.
Sheffield United midfielder Ben Osborn told BBC Radio Sheffield:
"It was a pretty mad game. The first half was tight - we knew it was going to be like that, I've seen a couple of their games this season and the first halves haven't had much in it.
"We knew it would open up in the second half and it did - it was a brilliant bit of play by Mouss to get us off the mark, and then we looked really dangerous for 15 minutes.
"We could have scored four or five and ended up with three, but after that we struggled to keep the ball, they scored and we kind of went to pieces, to be honest.
"We got the three points in the end but there's still a bit of learning from that."
Barnsley head coach Markus Schopp told BBC Radio Sheffield:
"I saw two teams at the beginning, in the first half, that were a bit scared because of the results of the last weeks.
"In such games, it's always who makes the first mistake and again it was us - two stupid mistakes.
"After the three zero, we had a great reaction. Being three zero down against a team like Sheffield United was totally unnecessary.
"There are still a couple of guys to recover (from injuries), they are really close. When we have these players, it will be a different Barnsley. I don't have any different information (about my position) right now so I am preparing everything as I did it in the last couple of weeks."