Shrewsbury 0 Barnsley 3: Sam Winnall's double lifts Tykes to vital victory

Sam Winnall scored twice against Shrewsbury.

“I thought we were brilliant in the first 25 minutes.” said a delighted Johnson, whose side stormed into a two-goal lead through Sam Winnall.

“The game-plan went well. We could have been another couple up. They were two great finishes from Sam, we felt we could get at them with the pace we have in our wide players and we did.”

Adam Davies then saved a penalty from Andy Mangan in a half when everything went right for Barnsley. Johnson added: “The penalty was beyond the call of duty, he was unlucky last week as he made a mistake but he’s performed really well recently and we asked him to keep that consistency up and he’s done that, he’s been part of a very big win.

“I am really pleased for Josh Brownhill as well, he was excellent in his first game. There was too many other good performances to talk about everybody.”

Winnall had already seen a header cleared off the line by Junior Brown before he did break the deadlock in the 15th minute.

It was a route-one strike, with the former Scunthorpe hit-man latching on to a long clearance from Davies before smashing home from just inside the Shrewsbury box. Six minutes later Winnall bagged his 12th of the season when he charged at the heart of the Shrews’ defence and drilled home confidently.

Alfie Mawson sealed the win in the second half.

Shrewsbury: Halstead, Knight-Percival, Whitbread, Gerrard, Grimmer, Clark (Wallace 46), Cole, Black (Wellens 46), Brown, Mangan, Vernon (Vassell 46). Unused substitutes: Leutwiler, Grandison, Whalley, Akpro.

Barnsley: Davies, Bree (Roberts 90), Long, Mawson, A White, Isgrove (Fletcher 73), Hourihane, Brownhill, Hammill, Winnall, Watkins (Ryan Williams 83). Unused substitutes: Townsend, Abbott, GWilliams, H White.

Referee: P Gibbs (West Midlands).