Barnsley finally lifted themselves off the bottom of the Premiership last night by grabbing their first top-flight win since August 27th. Goals either side of half-time from striker Ashley Ward and skipper Neil Redfearn - via the penalty spot - ended a barren and depressing run of seven straight defeats against Premiership sides.

Danny Wilson's team had plummeted to rock bottom in the table, with bookmakers making them 1 to 16 for the drop - the shortest ever odds given at this stage of the season for a team to be relegated.

However, Barnsley set about trying to make a mockery of those odds as they moved above both Southampton and Bolton into 18th place with victory over a Coventry side who lacked inspiration for the majority of the match. But while Ward and Redfearn were the goalscoring heroes, goalkeeper David Watson took the man-of-the-match plaudits for ensuring the Tykes kept their first clean sheet since August 12th with seven outstanding saves.

Applications for match tickets from Ireland supporters for the World Cup play-off second leg match against Belgium in Brussels on November 15th, may reach 15,000.

Bernard O'Byrne, the FAI's chief executive, said that they expect to deal with between 12,000 and 15,000 requests, after the deadline for the receipt of applications, closes at the end of business today.

"The demand has been quite phenomenal and given that we have just over 7,000 tickets to distribute, its going to be a difficult exercise for us," he said.

As in the sale of tickets for the game at Lansdowne Road next week, preference will be given to those who blockbook tickets for home games.