Horsham 0-3 Barnsley: Tykes ease into FA Cup second round at non-league side

Seventh-tier Horsham’s hopes of an FA Cup upset were dashed as League One Barnsley eased to victory in their FA Cup first-round replay.

Having drawn the first tie 3-3 at Oakwell, Barnsley were taking no chances as McAtee’s sublime lob made it 3-0 and killed off any hopes of an upset after less than 30 minutes.

Horsham improved markedly after the break as their top scorer Daniel Ajakaiye went close three times, but they could not find the net.

The win sees Barnsley secure a second-round tie away at League Two’s bottom side Sutton United on Saturday, 2 December.

Goalkeeper Lewis Carey, who had been Horsham’s hero after saving 10 of Barnsley’s 13 attempts on target in the first game, had a start to forget as he weakly palmed Adam Phillips’ cross and Cadden fired in after less than three minutes.

Barnsley looked comfortable despite a rare competitive match on a synthetic pitch, and they doubled their lead in the 10th minute as McAtee stretched to powerfully finish Aiden Marsh’s cross from the left after a lovely long ball from the back.

Horsham had a penalty appeal turned down soon after when Mael de Gevigney tangled with Ajakaiye, but the Tykes were totally in control and put the tie beyond doubt when Luton Town loanee McAtee superbly controlled Jordan Williams’ lofted pass before deftly chipping Carey from the edge of the D.

The Isthmian Premier Division side, who took Swansea City to a replay in the second round of the FA Cup 16 years ago, created their first chance five minutes after the break as Lucas Rodrigues was put through on goal after a mistake by Jack Shepherd, but his low effort was comfortably saved by Ben Killip.

To their credit Horsham improved markedly from their tepid first-half showing as Ajakaiye dragged a shot wide before he side-footed a Lee Harding cross straight at Killip in the 62nd minute. He then curled a left-footed effort wide from a tight angle three minutes later.

Phillips drew a good save from Carey midway through the second half after teenage substitute Vimal Yoganathan’s excellent skill set up a cross from deep on the left as Barnsley reminded the hosts of their threat.

Ajakaiye put a Harvey Sparks cross wide at the near post as the hosts tried to give their fans something to cheer with 15 minutes to go.

Horsham’s FA Cup dreams in front of the live television cameras and a big crowd ended without the goal the ‘Lardy Army’ craved, although they gave a fine showing of themselves over the two matches.

Horsham manager Dom di Paola told ITV Sport:

“It’s an amazing night for us, I’m really proud of the boys, they went toe-to-toe with a team and they didn’t cave in.

“When you’re 3-0 down quite early in a game it can become a bit of a landslide.

“But I thought we acquitted ourselves well and second half we showed that we are a good football team and I couldn’t be prouder of the boys.

“These things are massive for us a as football club, it puts us on the map a little bit, and you saw tonight that on these big games a lot of people come out to watch.”

Barnsley head coach Neill Collins told BBC Radio Sheffield:

“I think it was very professional. You’ve got to give the players a lot of credit – the first half was excellent.

“In the second half you always want more, I thought we could have made some better decisions, and in the end we could have had a couple more goals with the chances we created.

“But we got ourselves into this situation, we rectified it tonight, we’re in the hat for the next round, a real learning experience.

“All three goals had some great aspects about them. I think the chip over the keeper was a real touch of class that was a great goal from an individual perspective, the other goals from a team perspective were very good, so really pleased we were able to finish off those moves.”