‘He was close’ – Brentford head coach provides huge injury boost as six first-team players missed West Ham
Brentford were handed yet another injury concern during their 1-1 draw against West Ham, after Kevin Schade was knocked down early on in the second half before getting substituted in the 60th minute.
The end of the 2019/20 Championship season will forever be etched in Barnsley folklore despite being worldwide disruptions meaning supporters were unable to see the heroics of Gerhard Strubers’ side in person.
With two games remaining and wins needed against both promotion-chasing Nottingham Forest and Brentford, not once but twice, Barnsley scored last-minute winners in each game to achieve their goal and stave off relegation to League One. In the process, Brentford missed out on automatic promotion to the Premier League in their final-ever regular season game at Griffin Park.
2019/20 Championship resumed with Barnsley bottom of the Championship
The 2019/20 Championship season was halted in March 2020 due to the effects of the Covid pandemic sweeping the UK. Eventually, the EFL re-started the season in late June with Barnsley returning to action on 20th June 2020 sitting bottom of the league, seven points from safety.
Manager Gerhard Struber was appointed in November 2019, a month after Daniel Stendel had been relieved of his duties due to a poor start to life in the Championship.
The new Tykes boss had begun to turn the tide at Oakwell ahead of the enforced season break and once the second tier resumed, he breathed new life into their hopes of staying up – a 1-0 win away at QPR in the first game back the perfect way to get the survival push going again.
Barnsley’s hopes of a Championship future remained alive with two games left but the odds were still against them as those two games came against sides pushing for promotion to the Premier League. Nottingham Forest were in a play-off position with Brentford hoping for automatic promotion.
The Tykes would finish their home campaign at Oakwell against Forest, then travel to face the Bees at Griffin Park, which was hosting its last season before the West Londoners moved into their new home, the Brentford Community Stadium.
Barnsley went into their penultimate game of the season at home to Forest knowing only victory would give them any chance of survival and take their fate into the last game at Brentford three days later.
Meanwhile, the visitors knew a point would secure a play-off place, but their form had deserted them in recent games, drawing three and losing two of their five games prior to the visit to Oakwell. So much was on the line for both sides.
Barnsley dominated possession and created over 20 chances, hitting the post and bar, but could not find a breakthrough as the clock ticked towards 90 minutes. Struber had rolled the dice after halftime and introduced Austrian striker, Patrick Schmidt, along with top scorer Cauley Woodrow in the hope of finding a winner.
As the game went into the 93rd minute and with all hope almost lost, Schmidt became an instant hero, poking the ball home for his third goal of the season. The Barnsley bench erupted with Struber and the substitutes running onto the Oakwell turf to celebrate with Schmidt and the rest of the squad in jubilant scenes – the only negative from a Tykes perspective that the stadium wasn’t full to celebrate with the team.
