Birmingham City 2-1 Barnsley: Onel Hernandez scores first Blues goal in home win
- Published
- comments
Onel Hernandez's only previous goal this season came during a loan spell at Middlesbrough
Onel Hernandez scored his first goal for Birmingham as they ended a run of six Championship games without a win by beating bottom club Barnsley at St Andrew's.
After an even opening half hour, Lukas Jutkiewicz won the ball in the air, kept possession, then turned to measure a left-foot pass through to the Cuban loan signing from Norwich, who ran on to slot a low right-foot shot past keeper Brad Collins.
Blues doubled their lead after the break when Ryan Woods' left-wing corner eluded Collins, came back off the chest of Carlton Morris and Scott Hogan reacted sharpest, taking a touch before poking in the loose ball from close range.
The visitors, whose two previous games had been postponed because of Covid, went close when Michael Helik hit the post.
They finally pulled one back through Victor Adeboyejo, but it was not enough as they slumped to their 15th defeat of the season.
Some Blues supporters staged a protest against owners Birmingham Sports Holdings before kick-off and later during the game but their first victory of 2022 gave the club something to celebrate and, although Lee Bowyer's side remain 18th, they are 12 points clear of the bottom three.
A group of Birmingham supporters protested about a supposed lack of investment by the club's owners before kick-off
Barnsley - who have yet to bring in any new faces during the transfer window - have still only won two games this season. They failed to capitalise on Derby's earlier defeat at Nottingham Forest which meant a draw would have been enough to lift them off the foot of the table.
They made a bright start after an early alarm when Jutkiewicz hit the bar before being ruled offside, and all three efforts before half-time were on target, with Callum Styles in his 100th game for the club, Adeboyejo and Carlton Morris all forcing good saves from Neil Etheridge.
Birmingham, though, carried an even greater threat and the Tykes were left facing an uphill struggle after Hernandez and Hogan had given the home side breathing space.
Tykes boss Poya Asbaghi - who has yet to see his team win in the league - sent on Devante Cole to try and pep up his attack, but it was Poland centre-back Helik who almost reduced the arrears with an overhead kick against the upright.
Barnsley finally found the net for only the 15th time in 25 league games when the home side failed to clear a free-kick and Adeboyejo fired into the net, but they could not rescue a point in seven minutes of added time and have still not won away from home in 2021-22.
Birmingham City boss Lee Bowyer told BBC Radio WM:
"We deserved it. If I'm being ultra critical we should have put it to bed way beforehand once we got the second goal.
"We just rushed that last pass at times or we could have scored a few more goals.
"Onel's goal was a bit of quality and that's what he's brought to us. On the turnover, can we get him on the ball and ask questions? And that's what we did.
"We had to dig deep a little bit at the end, giving a silly goal away and inviting pressure on to ourselves, but I don't think it [the protest] affected us in any way. It just frustrates me that we conceded a goal."
Barnsley head coach Poya Asbaghi told BBC Radio Sheffield:
"A disappointing result. We felt we had as much to say as Birmingham, maybe even more in terms of creating chances.
"First half we had a big say in the game and could definitely turn it around, but unfortunately they got a 2-0 goal on a corner.
"After that it was just about us. We created more chances than we have in a lot of previous games and that's definitely something we can take with us in the future.
"Winning games automatically gives you confidence within the squad. We have to gain confidence some other way. We will do it by analysing and knowing it was a game we were good in."