Analysis from Barnsley's 2-2 draw at home to Reading on Tuesday. Davis Keillor-Dunn put the hosts in front but, after a Sam Smith double, Josh Earl salvaged a point.

HOME FORM HOLDING BARNSLEY BACK BADLY

THESE two teams are due to play again in Berkshire on the final day of the League One season in May.

Based purely on the performance on Tuesday, any neutral would surely say the Reds look more likely to be in the top six at the end of the campaign.

But a familiar problem continues to haunt them and will stop them getting anywhere near the Championship if it is not correctly very quickly. They just cannot win consistently at home.

This season, their home league record reads two wins, five draws and two defeats, with 11 points from nine games the 16th best in the division.

Going further back, Barnsley have taken 15 points from 15 home third tier league games since February while, after Michael Duff’s side won 13 out of 14 two seasons ago, the club has won 11 of 34.

They cannot realistically challenge for promotion with a record like that.

It is more befitting a team heading towards League Two than the Championship.

They have only won five home league games in 2024, and three of them were in the first two months.

They have two league home games left in the calendar year, against big-spending title favourites Birmingham City next week then relegation-battling Leyton Orient just before Christmas.

The Reds – who lost to Wigan on Saturday – had bounced back from all three of their previous league defeats this season with victory in the next game. But all of those were away matches, in which they have an excellent record which is just about keeping them in the top six.

There appeared to be larger gaps than usual in the home stands, with fans potentially staying away due to the cold weather, the game being live on TV or Barnsley’s poor home record.

Many of those who attended seemed to want to back the team vocally and recognised a good performance. But there is understandable frustration that, in a division where they are expected at least to churn out fairly regular home wins, they are among the weakest teams on their own turf.

REDS EASILY THE BETTER SIDE

Barnsley played well and should have won the game comfortably.

Darrell Clarke kept faith with the players who had performed admirably for a month before a disappointing display at the weekend, challenging them to show a reaction and resisting the temptation to give Kelechi Nwakali a first start.

In general, the performance repaid that faith as they rattled Reading with their pressing and played some good football, while going a bit more direct than against Wigan.

The Royals coped with the pressing better in the second half, but the Reds were still on top for long spells.

Jon Russell, although he did lose possession a few times, regularly swept up loose balls to start attacks while his fellow midfielders Luca Connell and Adam Phillips provided moments of quality and were unlucky not to record at least one assist each. The wing-backs also created chances and were much more dangerous than in the previous game while, up front, Stephen Humphrys bullied the young defence and Davis Keillor-Dunn was a real goal threat.

But the Reds missed several big chances and conceded from Reading’s two dangerous attacks of the game – first through a lucky deflection then a poorly-defended set piece with Connell and Mael de Gevigney being beaten in the air.

In their two games this week, the Reds have conceded three goals from four shots on target with the other being a second before Reading made it 2-1.

This game can be filed alongside other 2-2 draws with Charlton and Northampton, which they also should have won easily.

It has been a bad week for the Reds, and two points from their last three games is very disappointing. There should not be too much panic, it was only a week ago that they were on a long unbeaten run and performing consistently well. They are still in the top six.

But their next two league games are against two of the top three – away at another bogey team in Wrexham, who are the best home side in the EFL, then at home to £30million Birmingham.

ANOTHER BOGEY TEAM HAVE JOY AT OAKWELL

Both Wigan and Reading have long unbeaten records at Oakwell which they continued this week.

Reading have not lost there in 12 visits since 1998 – with five wins and seven draws. This was a sixth successive draw for the Royals in Barnsley.

The concept of a ‘bogey team’ makes little logical sense but sequences like that suggest there may be something to it - even if it is a ‘we can’t beat this team’ insecurity buried in the subconscious of the players and fans.

The good news is that Saturday’s FA Cup visitors Bristol Rovers have lost their last six games at Oakwell.

Reading might be bogeys but they are not old fogeys. Seven of their 11 were 22 or younger as well as six of their seven substitutes, including full-backs aged 16 and 17 who came off the bench.

They arrived on the same points as Barnsley, behind them on goal difference, having won at Peterborough on Saturday.

They are in financial turmoil, and could only sign one player - Chem Campbell who set up both goals - in the summer due to an embargo.

They are doing remarkably well in the circumstances.

REDS NOT CLINICAL ENOUGH

The last time Reading lost at Oakwell – September 15, 1998 – it was Stephen Humphrys’ first birthday.

Now 27, the Barnsley striker should have ended that 12-game run without a home win over the Royals as he missed a series of chances.

Humphrys actually played very well, winning ten headers and outmuscling the Reading centre-backs – teenager Tyler Bindon and Louie Holzman, 21, who was making his EFL debut. He won an aerial battle up set up both Barnsley goals.

Humphrys – who has generally been a good signing for the Reds – looked very pumped up, leading the attack and winning a corner after about 15 seconds of the game.

But he admitted last week that being a ‘goal poacher’ does not come naturally to him. He is a scorer of great goals, like the individual run and finish at Cambridge, but not yet a great goal-scorer, having played much of his career in wide areas.

His big chance came on 65 minutes when, after Connell brilliantly beat a man and played a fine throughball, Phillips squared to Humphrys who was denied one-on-one by Joel Pereira. Two minutes later, it was Reading who made it 2-1.

Humphrys also hit the post from a Connell corner at 2-2 having earlier been one of several Barnsley players to send a good headed chance wide of goal. He took a heavy touch in the box after being set up perfectly by Corey O’Keeffe.

He was not the only profligate player on the home side, who also sometimes lacked quality from their crossing and passing when in promising positions.

Overall, the Reds were not clinical enough against the team with the worst defensive record on their travels in the division this season who looked there for the taking.

EARL UNLIKELY RESCUER

Barnsley deserve some credit for the way they responded to going 2-1 down – displaying character to equalise just as they did against Wycombe and Charlton in previous home games.

The leveller was from an unlikely source as defender Josh Earl got his first Barnsley goal on his 40th appearance for the club.

The last time he scored was in December for Fleetwood Town in a draw at Portsmouth.

He had netted fairly regularly for the Cod Army, but had barely had any chances this season – often being used as a ‘blocker’ at set pieces to allow others to meet the ball. But he had a header cleared off the line on Saturday, netted on Tuesday then could have won it but nodded over from a few yards out from an O’Keeffe corner.

Before Earl’s goal, Barnsley were about to bring on forwards Fabio Jalo and Sam Cosgrove but, when it went in, only Cosgrove came on and again struggled to make an impact – sending a decent headed chance well wide from a Georgie Gent cross.

Cosgrove replaced Keillor-Dunn, who had opened the scoring with a fine finish, for his fifth goal of the season.