Luke Freeman struck a late equaliser to help QPR draw at Tykes

Manager Ian Holloway was pleased Queens Park Rangers’ efforts were somewhat rewarded as they drew 1-1 at Barnsley in the Championship.

QPR went away from Oakwell with a point as Luke Freeman stunned the home support with a brilliant equaliser from distance late on.

Harvey Barnes produced a rare piece of quality in the first half to open the scoring for the Tykes in the 20th minute when he superbly curled the ball into the top corner after the ball fell kindly to him on the edge of the box.

The west Londoners, though, continued to press with the home fans becoming increasingly frustrated with their side’s defensive approach in the second half.

The negativity culminated in Freeman matching Barnes’ first-half effort to equalise in the 87th minute of the Sky Bet Championship clash.

Holloway said: “You’ve got to earn rewards and I thought we kept going and tried to change things to get back in it. Luckily, we managed to get this out-of-this world strike from Luke.

“I’m a bit frustrated though, to be honest, as we were better in our performance.

“I thought the lads played well, but I wanted my wingers to get inside their full-backs, where we should have scored two goals.

“Luckily enough, in the end, we pinned them back and we managed to get one. That being said, we’ve only got two points away from home all season and I can see why.”

Barnsley boss Paul Heckingbottom, meanwhile, was disappointed with his team’s display, commenting: “I would have been delighted if we had played poorly and won 1-0, but I don’t think we’re there yet.

“I still thought we were the better team in the first half, but we’re nowhere near the levels we have been throughout the game. That was disappointing because we can control that.

“It was the simple things, like the 10-yard passes, the organisation and set plays and you end up working harder when you get those things wrong.

“It’s a product of the youth in the squad. We did very well against Nottingham Forest, but we’re still bombing forward when we’re winning when we could just slow the game down.

“Obviously it’s not what we’re after, but upon reflection to play that poorly and be disappointed not to come away with three points shows we’ve come a long way.”