The England midfielder fired the first of three Blues equalisers at the suddenly silent Stretford End for his maiden goal since a high-profile summer move from Aston Villa.
But as he and his team-mates reflected on a valiant effort without reward, Barry said: “It’s always good to score somewhere like here in a derby, and in my first taste of a Manchester derby as well, but it all means nothing because we didn’t get the points.
“It always hurt to lose to a last-minute goal, especially after we looked like we would get a well-deserved point. Not many teams are going to come here and score three. We’ve made another statement by doing that.
That’s one of the positives, as well as the spirit that we showed in coming back three times when people might have thought that we would collapse
Gareth Barry
“We deserve a lot of credit for that but at the same time we have to look at ourselves because we conceded four goals at the other end. We have to have a look at that, it’s obviously something we have to improve on.”
Carlos Tevez, who played against his former club with his right knee strapped, made Barry’s well-struck goal out of nothing with his typical refusal to accept a lost cause.
Gareth added: “Carlos coming through was another positive for us, and he worked his socks off. It was a great atmosphere, very loud - the supporters made the game and it was a great spectacle, but sadly for our fans we got no reward.”
