<div class="headingMain" id="ViewArticle1_divHeadline">An exercise in fighting back</div> <div class="firstpara" id="ViewArticle1_divFirstPara">THEY celebrated Paul Hayes' equaliser with a few press-ups. Seconds after ball hit net for 2-2, the players went nose to turf like squaddies out of Bad Lads' Army.</div> <div class="bodytext" id="ViewArticle1_divPageText" style="FONT-SIZE: 11px">You see some sights at Oakwell these days, not least as Barnsley apparently chuck the game away and then come back and look a million quid. Weird. But push-ups on the pitch is taking the September biscuit. What was that all about, then? Hayes had the answer. "The celebration we'd practised during training. There was something in the paper saying that three of the lads were out drinking during the week and they were doing press-ups naked or something. "The players know who they were but we won't name names." On Saturday, they kept their kit on. Topless gets a yellow card, bare cheek has got to be worse. Anyway by then Stoke were looking the team who had had their pants pulled down. They came on like Robocop in the first half, scored two and for some reason thought it was a good idea to play the second half in their own half while Barnsley played catch-up. Credit Barnsley for pushing them back after you had feared the worst for manager Andy Ritchie's team. Stoke's front two, Mamady Sidibie and Vincent Pericard ,were awesome for 45 minutes: big, hard, fast, every centre-back's nightmare. They were bound to have a head, hand or foot in the Stoke goals and sure did. Luke Chadwick's corner was flicked on by Sidibie at the near post, leaving Clint Hill to stick it in with his head from close. Less than three minutes had gone by then. Barnsley fans fell more silent than they had been for the minute they were supposed to commemorate the late Charlie Williamson, an ex-director of the club. More hurt soon followed. Peter Sweeney swung one in from the left, Pericard set it up and Chadwick swept home from inside the area. Three-nil would have Barnsley dead and buried, Darel Russell had that third chance and let Barnsley off the butcher's hook. Typical, like they did as Norwich stuck in five goals, Barnsley kept going like it wasn't all stacked against them sky high. They took over in the second half but it took three subs to change the game after ref Colin webster came up with the daftest decision of many Saturday afternoons. Chadwick and Brian Howard crashed into each other well inside the area. Six to one, half a dozen to the other was the right call. The ref saw a foul but gave a free-kick. "We all thought it was inside the box and if he gives a foul then it's a penalty," Ritchie contended. "I was a bit confused as to the reaction of my players, they didn't seem to throw much consternation at it but I think everyone knew it was inside the box. I didn't think we got a lot of protection in the first half. They were all over us on a lot of occasions but if you are going to concede free-kicks you've got to be strong." Crunch time for Stoke came after Sweeny and Chadwick had told their boss they were knackered and were given a sit-down in the dugout. Jeff Whitley and Kevin Harper came on but Stoke looked like were left with nine - or less. Ritchie kept the third official busy. Tommy Wright followed Whitley and Harper into the game. Three minutes later it really was game on as Wright got his first goal for Barnsley. "I am absolutely delighted, it's about time I scored at home. It seems to have been forever, now the more I score the more confident I'm going to get," he beamed. "I didn't hear what was said at half-time, I was out warming up, but obviously the gaffer was geeing the players up. Although we were 2-0 down I didn't think we deserved to be. "The gaffer told me, like he always does, to give my all. "For the goal Hayesie managed to get it back to me and, to be honest, the minute I hit it I knew it was going in. For the next five minutes or so we absolutely battered them, it was just constant pressure. Hayesie scored and to be honest at the end we were unlucky not to win." Hayes' goal was his fourth of the season and a deft touch on Martin Devaney's right-wing cross. Delighted Hayes said: "The fans know that watch Barnsley and there'll be a lot of goals. It was the other way around last season, we kept loads of clean sheets but didn't score many. We're conceding them and scoring them, which is strange because we've still got the same players as last season. Confidence is all that it is. "Stepping up a league means the forwards are all a lot better and they punish things. We've got to get used to that. Only eight games have gone, there's another 39 or so to go. In our season so far we've started poorly. We probably got booed off at half-time and we haven't had that for a while and that was basically a kick up the backside. We knew we had to step it up a gear, which we did in the second half." From just after the press-up party it was wide open as Stoke picked up again and went for a third. Likewise Barnsley strained, likewise a blank. Send us your match report click here or text us your verdict. Simply text the word SHEFFSTAR followed by the word Reds, your postcode and comments of up to 160 characters to 84070. Texts cost 25p each plus standard network rate. If you do</div>
