Hill left ‘desperately disappointed’ after Barnsley hammered

Hill said: “We bumped into an excellent Cardiff side who were really on song and could have scored more goals.

“I accept losing, as we did against Portsmouth, but the manner simply wasn’t very good. I’m desperately disappointed with that performance and my players know that. There was no need to scream and shout at them – that’s not my style anyway – because they knew how I felt.

“We can take no reward at all from losing a game 5-3. It’s easier to play when you are losing and we scored two goals in the second half. I just hope I can put this game into isolation because we were culprits of our own mistakes.”

There were two moments in the closing 10 minutes for Barnsley fans to savour as Jim McNulty and Ricardo Vaz Te scored.

Cardiff’s Iceland international Aron Gunnarsson had followed up his first goal for the club in midweek with one in each half and his first made it 3-1 at half-time.

Former Bluebirds loan star Danny Drinkwater had claimed Barnsley’s opening goal with a deflected free-kick after 36 minutes.

Kenny Miller, who left the field with a head wound after colliding with Ben Turner, had opened the scoring with a solo effort after 10 minutes and then forced a brilliant save out of Luke Steele moments before he departed.

Miller’s replacement, Joe Mason, scored his first goal for the club from close range in the 33rd minute.

Cardiff raced to 5-1 after the break with Don Cowie dancing around Steele on the hour to notch his sixth of the season and Gunnarsson adding his second 10 minutes later.

Cardiff City: Marshall, McNaughton, Hudson, Turner, Taylor, Cowie, Gunnarsson, McPhail (Earnshaw 77), Conway (Kiss 66), Whittingham, Miller (Mason 29). Unused substitutes: Heaton, Gerrard.

Barnsley: Steele, Wiseman, Edwards (McEveley 46), Foster, McNulty, O’Brien (Davies 46), Perkins (Vaz Te 46), Drinkwater, Doyle, Butterfield, Gray. Unused substitutes: Preece, Addison.

Referee: S Mathieson (Cheshire).

Man of the match: Aron Gunnarsson.