What a performance. We are a team this year.

Jaap spot on with the first half tactics, second half we defended with pride and passion and Im oxf*rd buzzing after that win.

More to come from us this year!

.....so what were the pies like lwj?

Goals + Sending Off

Harsh red IMO

Really, McCleary acted like an idiot. He deserved to go. What a Pratt doing that at 2-0 up. Just let the foul go

Given the other player was leaning over an injured player shouting at him and McCLeary only pushed not punched him im surprised it wasnt just a yellow.

A) it was provocated
B) It wasnt actually a punch just a push....

I think it's very harsh. Hourihane goes in nastily on Danny, then comes over quite aggressively to give him a load of abuse, and GMc just shoves him away. See plenty of similar actions in scuffles that go unpunished. It was just the exaggerated fall that made it look worse than it was.

I suspect it wasn't the foul that was the issue for McCleary it was the fact that the Cnut was bending down over Williams in an aggressive manner shouting obscenities at him when in a prone position that he reacted to.

Still daft of course.

Oh ok, point already made.

Looking at that it could have ended in 3 sending offs, two for us and one for them.

Just looked at the Sky highlights-Swift looks as if he played for the Pen-sending off very harsh , not helped by the Barnsley player making a meal of it .A lot of Pros have very little respect for their fellow professionals.

Listened to the game on Radio Berks-Deller's commentary still awful.

Everyone played well today and i include the subs and McCleary in that. The latter's moment of stupidity is a shame as he has been showing his best form in 2 years.

Al Habsi was excellent. Swift is a match winner. Gunter, Moore and McShane look excellent and there are no problems at left back either.

Goalie should've done better for Swift's goal but still a good strike.

Loving the cheer for penalty save and the ooooohhhh when rebound went in. Well taken follow up by Gareth.

Fantastic win, something is building here.

You can't push someone like that but I'm glad McCleary did. It's disgusting when players stand screaming over an injured player. It reminds me of Roy Keane standing over Alf- Inge Haland.

You cannot raise hands to any player or official in an aggressive manner if you do it will be perceived as violent conduct whether you punch, push or formulate a theory for quantum mechanics.

Terrific performance. Evans played in the back three in a very fluid 3-4-3 system. Attacking intent paid off.

Benefit of having a back three is that it's easier to play out, a triangle of defenders not including the keeper, normally Al Habsi would be part of it but not in this new shape. Very positive signs.

There was a Barnsley player who literally pushed Gunter in the same manner right after the McCleary shove, the only difference was the Barnsley player was a pansy and barely made Gunter lose his balance.

Wait.. there's someone softer than Gunter?

Shouldn't Gunter have been sent off also at the same time as GMac then?

Well exactly. If every push resulted in a sending off there'd be 7 men left on the pitch by the end, 3 of which would be officials.

Back home, after a stop for a meal in Sheffield. A superb performance today, really enjoyed it! Happy to admit Stam is proving me wrong and is clearly building a very decent team. I haven't seen us defend as well as we did today for about 4/5 years! Superb for 50 odd mins with 10 men!

GMac was amazing until his (sadly) deserved red. I know the Barnsley captain got Williams with a nasty tackle and then got in his face.....but you can't run over and push someone like that without getting a red. It may have been harsh, but as soon as GMac raised his arms, he was off. Agree that Gunter had the same thing happen to him 3 mins later, but he didn't roll round like a pig in ox***d. Suspect it looked less obvious to the ref so he didn't react. He wasn't great today....far too card happy and certainly influenced by the home fans (see Blackett's yellow for 'time wasting').

In terms of the team, thought Obita did an excellent job when came on and really helped close off their main threats. Evans is looking better with each game and Al-Habsi had one of his outstanding days. Overall a very enjoyable day out!

Sounded like Williams had a very good game, too.

Not my favourite midfielder, but fair play to him.

Just one point behind 3rd place and we've played

3rd Away
4th Away
5th Home
7th Home
10th Away
11th Home

That is a tough start, so maybe we have the makings of a real side here.

(and 19th H and 24th A)

That was in retaliation to what looked like Gunter running over and elbowing him in the head.

Look at the pictures on the OS and the way Kermy celebrates the final whistle .... got to give it to him, he looks like he's celebrating promotion!

Love seeing our players actually giving a shit.

Stam starting to make his mark early on....top performance sort of performance we've seen in the good years , true spirit and dying for the shirt , very ecouraging

Love seeing our players actually giving a shit.
Plus he ran his socks off and won 90% of the battle in the air with the Barnsley CBs. Especially impressed with his work after half time!

One of the best first halfs I've seen a reading team play in a good few years.

McCleary was stupid, good of him to hang about after the game for pictures with the fans though after the game.

Most positive I've felt in a while about reading fc

Good times are coming back I reckon

Hands down the best performance of the season, especially considering we were playing with 10 men for 60 minutes against the league's highest scorers who previously had a 100% home record.

We looked sharp, bright, and hungry. We defended astutely and attacked with purpose. Don't really remember us passing around the back four. Our passes were quicker and more accurate, there were overlapping runs, people coming in short, running behind... Everything was at a much higher tempo and there seemed to be a greater understanding.

I thought the referee was dire and that the red was harsh (didn't they stamp on someone?). He pushed him over.. big deal. How many times have we seen that and it has been a yellow? His hands didn't touch his face, he didn't punch him, slap him, spit at him...etc He oxf*rd pushed him. Big deal. Unfortunately this is probably going to mean McCleary out for the next 3 games as it falls under the category of "violent conduct". I'm just so glad it didn't fully spoil the game. In fact such, was our dominance and level of performance, even after the sending off we still looked like we had more players on the pitch and were the only team likely to get a goal.

Half time came and it was always going to be a different encounter second half, but it was far from being one sided imo. Barnsley put us under the cosh at times and did have their chances, but through a combination of poor finishing and excellent defending we prevailed.

I can't be bothered to do ratings as everyone was terrific but special shout out to Williams who I thought was excellent.
Not many negatives from the game bar we still don't create a huge amount of really clear cut chances, a long range effort and another (still counts) penalty, obviously we may have created more had we not been down to 10 men for most of the game. BUT please don't think I'm criticizing the performance, I said if I had to find a negative. After seeing that I am far more confident in the direction we are going and that in time we will start scoring more goals and creating more clear cut chances. The play in the middle of the park was fantastic today and coupled with our more resolute defending as of late there are certainly grounds for optimism (if we continue to improve now we have demonstrated that we can actually play). Every successful team needs to build from the back and that's exactly what we have done.

Happy days.

Just to add well done to those that travelled and i thought the fans were pretty good. I also really like Oakwell, nice ground and the stewards were class.