Nathan Jones hailed the way Elijah Adebayo coped with Barnsley’s “disrespectful” shenanigans as they delayed his match-winning penalty but didn’t put the striker off.
Town’s top scorer had to wait two-and-a-half minutes between substitute Fred Onyedinma getting tripped by keeper Bradley Collins and getting to take his spot-kick.
That was chiefly because the stopper led ridiculous protests, with Carlton Morris, who netted a first half equaliser, claiming there was a handball in the build-up, despite no claims at the time.
Adebayo, however, was not fazed and he rocketed the penalty into the top corner for his 13th of the season to claim all three points and end a 29-year hoodoo that the Tykes had over Town at Kenilworth Road in the league.
“I’m delighted for him,” said manager Jones. He should’ve had one in the first half. It was a stonewall penalty. It’s clear and I don’t know how it’s not given, but for Elijah to have to keep his cool, go through that process and then to put it away with such quality shows a lot about the kid.”
Collins was eventually booked after Adebayo scored, but he should’ve been cautioned sooner as he stood on his six-yard line, preventing the taking of the kick.
Jones said: “I thought they were really disrespectful on the penalty and the way they went about it. I thought, right from the start, they slowed the game. They took ages and I thought they got away with quite a lot.
“We’re trying to generate a pace and a tempo, because that’s what we like, and I thought they tried to kill that.
“The goalkeeper, especially on the penalty, was really, really disrespectful. But, Elijah kept his cool and I’m delighted to see him back with a bang.”
Collins wasn’t the only Tyke protesting the penalty and Jones said: “As a referee you have to control that. You have to say go, ‘it’s a penalty’. Is it a booking? No. Don’t worry about it, get everyone going, get everyone on the line. ‘If you come off I’m going to give you a booking and if you come off again I’m going to give you another one,’ and off you go.
“Be stern and get it going, because that’s what they tried to do, delay the taking of it. Penalty takers think about what they want to do and that’s what unsettles teams.
“Yeah, it’s gamesmanship, but the referee has to control that I thought they were really disrespectful.”
But it wasn’t just Barnsley’s antics around the penalty as Jones added: “The keeper took an age with everything. (Mads) Anderson, in the second half, must’ve taken about eight minutes for one throw-in. It was ridiculous.
“But that’s sometimes what happens and we’re just happy with the win, so we can’t complain about anything.”
The winner on the hour and the pantomime around it at least injected some fire into the night which, despite a goal apiece in the first half – with Allan Campbell bundling in his third of the season before a calamity of errors saw Morris level – was not an opening period that will live long in the memory.
But Barnsley’s protests livened up a subdued Kenilworth Road and from there there never looked any doubt that Town would win, as they moved up to seventh in the Championship, level on points with West Brom in the play-offs.
Jones said: “It was a classic win, I’m happy with that. It wasn’t one for the purist, but sometimes you’ve got to dig them out, especially at this level and there’s been teams that do fantastically well year in year out in the Championship, that learn how to just win games and that’s what we’re doing at the minute.
“They’re very difficult to play against, they pack the midfield, they’ve got a lot of young, technical players that can cause you problems, but we needed to cause them more problems, going that way.
“If we showed more composure than we should have. We mess about before half time, try a backheel when it’s not on, and let them back into the game.
“We should have had a penalties, so we should have been two up at half time, and if we’re just professional in what we do, we haven’t played the best, but we see that game out.
“Once we made the tactical change I thought we were much, much better, and they went gung-ho late on, and I thought we saw the game out real well, so even though it wasn’t a classic, I thought it was a wonderful, wonderful win.”
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