Thompson disappointed after Daggers draw

Thompson disappointed after Daggers draw

Division 3 promotion favourites Barnsley have started season 9 in disappointing fashion after they were held to a 2-2 draw by 10 man Dagenham & Redbridge at Oakwell. Most Bookmakers had Steve Thompson's men as clear winners against Warren Liveseys Southerners but Dagenham showed great spirit and determination to hang on and claim what could be a vital point come the end of the season. 

Barnsley handed league debuts to new signings Vedran Corluka and Manuel Pasqual whilst fellow new boy Adelino Vieirinha had to be content with a place on the bench.

The 1st half was an end to end affair with both keepers coming out on top early on but just past the half hour mark the visitors received a major blow when Turkish defender Bekir Irtegun received his marching orders for two bookable offences the second of which was for dissent which will have angered manager Warren Livesey. Despite the numerical disadvantage Dagenham rallied and took a shock lead 5 minutes before the break courtesy of Nigerian forward Chinedu Obasi who placed a powerful header past Ochoa 0-1.

Dagenham took the lead into half time but right from the restart they were under from the Tykes and it didn't take long for the home side to level that match as with 56 minutes on the clock Marko Arnautovic was away celebrating for Barnsley after his outside of the foot effort found it's way past Veteran Brad Friedel  1-1.

The home sides tail was truly up following that goal and it got better just 10 minutes later when it was 2-1 thanks to a wonderful looping header from Barnsley captain William Kvist.

Thompson introduced 3 substitutes on 75 minutes Aogo,Vieirinha and Arshavin replaced Kvist,Hamouma and Arnautovic but the new faces seem to disrupt the Tykes and they payed the ultimate price with Dagenham drawing the game level through Argentine striker Marco Ruben who fired home first time past the despairing Ochoa 2-2.

That goal seem to knock the stuffing out of the home side who failed to recover allowing Dagenham to claim an unlikely but well earned point. FULL TIME.

A clearly disappointed Steve Thompson spoke after the game.

"It's 2 points dropped that is for sure both the performance and result are unacceptable and the players have been left in no uncertain terms about that. Dagenham must be praised they have played an hour with 10 men and still got something. Warren will be delighted with his boys and rightly so but we made it far too easy for them and it shows that a lot of work is still needed for us to be challenging for the title this season.

We now look ahead to Wolves on Wednesday in what is one of the toughest away games of the season. Aidan and his lads are one of the favourites and rightly so. We cannot afford to play like we have tonight against them or we will be turned over convincingly. We have the ability to get a result but we need to show some ruthlessness in attack and defence"