Barnsley boss Conor Hourihane has accused Dominik Szoboszlai of a lack of respect after the bizarre goal that gifted the League One side the chance of an FA Cup shock against Liverpool. The Reds were cruising shortly before half-time in their third round clash at Anfield on Monday evening through goals by Szoboszlai and Jeremie Frimpong.
But Szoboszlai was then guilty of a horror error shortly before half-time when he mishit a bizarre attempted backheel inside his own six-yard box towards goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili that allowed former Reds striker Adam Phillips to nip in and score.
And Hourihane was less than impressed with the actions of the Liverpool midfielder.
“First and foremost it’s such an amazing feeling for Adam to score in front of the Kop,” said the Barnsley boss. “He is a Liverpool fan and came up through the Academy here and had an outstanding game.
“It’s something he can always look back on, he can always say he scored at the Kop end.
“But I’m a little bit disappointed with their player if I’m honest. I thought he was a little bit disrespectful.
“I don’t think he does that against Chelsea or Arsenal or in a Champions Leaguegame. Delighted for Adam, but disrespectful from their player.”
Szoboszlai was also involved in an incident during the second half when Barnsley wanted a penalty when the Liverpool man challenged Reyes Cleary inside the area.
But Hourihane said: “I thought at time it was stonewall, but looking back at it the player does get a little bit of a touch on the ball but he’s gone into panic mode, he’s got hold of his shirt and it’s easily a decision that could go the other way.”
Barnsley kept the scoreline to 2-1 until Liverpool scored twice late on through substitutes Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike to set up a fourth-round tie at home to Brighton next month.
And Hourihane added: “I’m really, really proud, I thought the lads were outstanding. We had a gameplan to keep us in the game for as long as possible. We were sticking in the game until the very end and Liverpool had to bring on every superstar they had from the bench to get it over the line.
“The gameplan we put together made it as difficult as possible for them, the lads did that to ‘t’ but they got a little bit tired towards the end and conceded the third and fourth which I don’t think reflected the game.
“We started the game so, so well. They needed an unbelievable strike to settle them down a little bit. The way we handled ourselves, the occasion under the lights at Anfield, the hunger and desire when we had spells without the ball, I knew we would suffer at times. You have to take big compliments from that.”
