Barnsley 1-0 Bolton Wanderers (2-1 agg) - Marc Iles' big match verdict

Liam Kitching’s first-half header ensured it will be another year of football in League One for the Whites, booking Barnsley into a South Yorkshire derby against Sheffield Wednesday at Wembley on May 29. 

But for a purple patch at the start of the second half, Wanderers did not sustain enough pressure on their hosts’ goal to have claimed the result they so desperately wanted. 

Due credit to Barnsley, after taking a club record haul of points they followed it up with two resolute, canny and battle-hardened displays in the semi-final when they needed it the most. 

Michael Duff’s side will fancy their chances of a return to the Championship – and Bolton’s only advice to the Owls would be: Don’t let them get ahead! 

Evatt made two changes from the side held on Saturday at the UniBol, Dan Nlundulu and George Thomason coming in for Josh Sheehan and Elias Kachunga. Both Kieran Lee and Shola Shoretire were ruled out by injury. 

One other change of note was the referee. Josh Smith had originally been pencilled in to manage the game, replaced in the build-up by Preston’s Michael Salisbury.    

But for a very early scare when Aaron Morley’s loose pass caused a flutter of panic and a last-ditch clearance from Ricardo Santos, Bolton looked quite comfortable for the opening 20 minutes. 

Wanderers willed Barnsley to come out of their shape but until the ball met halfway, the men in red were virtually motionless, set like training ground mannequins in a training drill. Someone had to be proactive on the ball, and in truth, nobody really grasped the nettle. 

A couple of half-chances dropped to Dion Charles and Nlundulu, neither struck especially cleanly, but with Conor Bradley getting more space on the right side than he had managed last weekend the game was moving in a positive direction until midway through the first half. 

Wanderers looked to have snuffed out a ball looking for Devante Cole in the left channel when ref Salisbury pulled play back for a foul by Eoin Toal, who had himself claimed to have been tripped. 

The award of the free kick left Evatt shaking his head in the technical area – and his mood was not helped by some slow defending thereafter. 

Luca Connell’s initially delivery was poor but when the clearance was switched well by Jordan Williams back to his feet, the former academy lad whipped in a superb cross to pick out team-mate Kitching, whose powerful header beat Trafford’s despairing dive just under the crossbar. 

Barnsley took the lead 29 times in the regular League One season and only surrendered it on three occasions, never going on to lose the game. Bolton had already beaten the odds to some extent in the first leg by dragging themselves back level, the task this time at Oakwell seemed bigger still. 

Wanderers looked a little rattled as the half time interval approached. Bradley continued to push and probe but despite being chopped down at every turn, got little from the officials, who walked back down the tunnel at half time to a chorus of boss from the travelling 2,000 in the top half of the North Stand. 

With 45 minutes left to save their dreams of Championship football, the Whites had to get better, and quickly. 

Those lucky few who had secured tickets still believed. Their vociferous backing drowned out home fans long into the second half. 

A clever pinch from Charles deep into Barnsley territory created a half-chance for Bradley soon after the restart, the young Northern Irishman denied by some good covering from Mads Andersen. 

Kitching then did something similar after a quick break, stretching to clear a pull-back from Dempsey just as Charles wound up to pass the ball in from close range. 

Bolton had finally got a sustained spell of pressure and were moving the ball as fluidly as they had managed all night. The breakthrough, however, remained frustratingly elusive. 

The home side everything they could to stem the flow, slow the game down to the comatose state it had been in during the early stages of the first half, but whatever message had been delivered at half time by Evatt in the dressing room appeared to have sunk in. 

Thomason and Toal had shots blocked and the Tykes appeared, for the first time in either tie, to be rocking on their haunches. The home support had been quietened, at least until they sparked into life after the award of another throw-in which could be catapulted into the Bolton box. 

Adam Phillips gave us a reminder that appearances can be deceptive, blasting a dipping shot that skimmed the top of Trafford’s bar. Six inches lower and that would surely have been game over. 

Evatt looked to the bench for salvation, first with Elias Kachunga and Victor Adeboyejo, then with Declan John and Josh Sheehan. And still the 2,000 kept hoping, spurring their team on from above. 

With 14 minutes left, we were treated to a real retro rarity. Mads Andersen’s back-pass was picked up by keeper Harry Isted, presenting Bolton with an indirect free kick well inside the penalty box. Bradley teed up Morley but his shot soared well above the bar. 

With that, the wind started to ebb from Wanderers’ sails, each substitution calming things down when Evatt’s side desperately needed an element of chaos. 

They must heed these lessons this summer in preparation for a new campaign. The moments of indecision and nervousness across the first half of both games ultimately cost them dear, and streetwise teams such as the Tykes have too often been able to upset rhythm. 

Bolton will need to build again without Trafford, without Bradley. It seems unlikely that Evatt will make wholesale changes in a squad that has done so well on the whole, yet that could also hinge on how easily their play-off disappointment can fade.