Cauley Woodrow was once again the star of the show for Barnsley as they overcame Hull City 1-0 at the KCOM Stadium to further boost their survival hopes before the end of the season.

The Tykes had been in terrific form as they prepared to make the trip to East Yorkshire on Wednesday night, with back-to-back wins and clean sheets against Fulham and Middlesbrough.

An impressive outing at Craven Cottage saw Woodrow shine against his former club with two goals and an assist in a 3-0 win, before Conor Chaplin’s second-half goal against Boro clinched six points from two games to lift Gerhard Struber’s men to within five points of 21st place.

They faced a Hull City side in a sorry run of form with no wins since the 1st January and without key players as their injury list piles up. It was a narrow win for the Tykes on the day but in truth, it could have easily been a lot more for the away side as they constantly created chances and would have added more if not for some heroic last-ditch defending from Matthew Pennington and co.

A win now means just three points stand between Barnsley and Middlesbrough in 21st place; with 11 games to go and three straight wins, confidence is skyrocketing at Oakwell as they hope for their survival.

Woodrow’s influence on the game was a key reason for why it went in Barnsley’s favour once again and the stats back it up…

A full match for Barnsley’s key creator as Woodrow clocked up 96 minutes in attacking midfield. It has been a new-found role for the forward this season as he drops deeper to utilise the pace in behind of frontmen Jacob Brown and Conor Chaplin, leaving huge gaps for him to exploit between the opposition midfield and defence.

It was another fruitful outing for the ex-Fulham man as he netted his 14th goal of the season, and while it wasn’t near the best he’s scored this season, it was just a sign of his intelligence in the penalty area to react first to a loose ball.

A low cross from Chaplin saw George Long fail to gather in the Hull goal, gifting Woodrow a simple tap-in, which he duly obliged.

As aforementioned, it was somehow the game’s only goal as Hull managed to limit the damage to just one goal, but this didn’t stop Woodrow from creating an awful lot for the visitors.

Playing in attacking midfield has allowed Woodrow to demonstrate more strengths in his game than previously and this was exemplified in the fact that he managed five shots in the game and registered four shot assists.

His own xG score highlights how potent he was in the final third as it was only 0.05 behind the rating he chalked up at Fulham when he scored twice, with one of those being a penalty. His xG for this game stood at 0.92, basically indicating he was well-worth the goal he scored.

A number of goal-line clearances thwarted the visitors in their pursuit of making the game far more comfortable but the 25-year-old’s match-winning efforts were more than enough for his side.

Even with Woodrow playing in attacking midfield and managing just three touches in the box, it shows his effectiveness to link up with his fellow attackers as he could still manage a passing accuracy of 82%, with each of his two passes into the Hull penalty area proving successful.

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Their dominance in the last three games has certainly warranted more than just five goals, which is a testament to how well both Woodrow and Barnsley are playing, given that they currently sit in the relegation zone and have played teams varying in form.

Playing in a high traffic area of the pitch means that Woodrow is in amongst a lot of the midfield battles, and this is the case even more under Struber as he looks to implement a very high-intensity style of play at Oakwell. This led to Woodrow achieving a 33% success rate in his offensive duels, winning three out of nine contested.

There is absolutely no doubting that without Woodrow’s scintillating form, Barnsley wouldn’t have much hope at all of staying in the Championship, given that his influence from the middle of the pitch has helped win a lot of their points this season.