Barnsley 6 Rochdale 1: Reds' renaissance can take them all way to play-offs, says Sam Winnall

They head to Valley Parade tomorrow seeking a fifth successive League One victory and with their centre-forward in rampant goal-scoring form.

Yet Barnsley are still only 17th and 10 points off the top six with 20 games remaining, having moved to within a point of Saturday’s visitors Rochdale, under former Reds chief Keith Hill.

It will be a tall order and head coach Lee Johnson – describing this as “definitely my best day as Barnsley manager” – admitted to a sense of frustration that he did not have this group of players behind him earlier in the season when a dreadful run put him close to the sack.

Speaking after the first League hat-trick of his career, former Scunthorpe marksman Winnall said: “It’s definitely a match that is going to live long in my memory.

“My thought after scoring the third was that ‘that’s a perfect hat-trick and I’ll probably never do this again’. It’s so rare to get a right-foot, a left-foot and a headed goal in one game and I was just chuffed.”

Barnsley’s renaissance – this was their best win since a 7-1 home victory against Huddersfield in 1998 – has coincided with Winnall moving up the scoring charts, though he was quick to praise the service he is receiving.

“It’s just football, the life of a striker,” he reflected. “I went eight games without a goal earlier in the season and now I have eight in four. I’ve had it all my life, hot streaks and barren spells.

“It’s just about staying confident through them both and at the moment I am as confident as I have ever been.

“This is my second hat-trick. I got one against Burton last season in the FA Cup so this is my first in the league so it is a very special moment. I got 23 goals while I was at Scunny in our promotion year and I now have 15 in all competitions, so who knows where I will finish?

“All I can do is just keep getting myself in position to score and, hopefully, the lads will continue putting them on a plate for me.

“I have got the easy job of putting the ball in the net. Players like me thrive off the service I have had (on Saturday).”

Ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Bradford, Winnall continued: “We have been looking up for quite a while now because we know what we can achieve.

“Within our group we have had the mindset that we are a good team and we are aiming for those play-offs. With results and performances like (this one), I don’t think it is an unrealistic target.”

Winnall scored twice and Alfie Mawson got the other in the 3-0 win at Shrewsbury the previous week and it was the central defender who struck first this time.

Adam Hammill was the supplier, curling in a free-kick for Mawson to head home his sixth goal of the season in the eighth minute.

It took until shortly after the break for Barnsley to turn their dominance into a 2-0 lead as a clever flick by Marley Watkins released Hammill down the left and his low cross was expertly tucked home at the near post by Winnall.

Hill made a triple substitution on 59 minutes in a bid to get back into it, Joe Bunney, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Jamie Allen coming on, and it paid dividends after Conor Hourihane had wasted a chance to make it 3-0.

Mendez-Laing gave Dale hope by heading home inside the far post from Michael Rose’s inswinging 65th-minute corner after Kevin Long had headed out a cross from Peter Vincenti.

A Barnsley substitute then made a dramatic intervention of his own with Manchester United loanee Ashley Fletcher immediately speeding down the right and crossing low for Winnall to steer the ball inside the far post.

The return of Josh Scowen from a lengthy knee injury lay-off was greeted with as much applause as Watkins blasting home the fourth goal in the 84th minute.

Watkins then headed home the fifth after the ball had been pumped forward and Fletcher had got his head to the ball before goalkeeper Josh Lillis could make the punch on the edge of the area.

Hammill took a knock which makes him a doubt for tomorrow and was off the field as the ball came in from the left and Long headed home the sixth, celebrating the extension of his loan from Burnley with his first goal for the Reds in front of the Kop.

With goals coming from other areas of the team, Winnall sees no reason why he must match his tally with The Iron to ensure the Reds can make a late surge.

“I was delighted for (strike partner) Marley, who does a lot of running and works so hard in creating space for players like me, to get on the scoresheet.

“There were so many positives that it is hard to sum them all up.

“We are a very level-headed bunch of lads and we will not get carried away. We are scoring goals all over the pitch. We have so many avenues from where we can score goals and that’s the main thing – making sure we keep creating chances.

“Over the past month or so we have been dangerous and created a lot of chances and scored a lot of goals. We are also starting to gel together as a defensive unit, learning each other’s jobs and becoming really solid, and that’s a combination that can only lead to winning games.”

Surprisingly, Winnall said he believed Barnsley’s transformation began with a draw rather than a win.

“It’s just down to a bit of faith in believing that what we are doing is the right thing. I think it was the Sheffield United game here that did it. We turned it around and played really well, got that late equalising goal and confidence just grew from that.”

Barnsley: Davies, Bree (Roberts 82), Long, Mawson, G Williams; Isgrove (Fletcher 68), Brownhill (Scowen 79), Hourihane, Hammill; Watkins, Winnall. Unused substitutes: Townsend, R Williams, White, Templeton.

Rochdale: Lillis, Cannon (Mendez-Laing 59), Lancashire, McNulty, Rose; Camps; Vincenti, Lund, McDermott (Allen 59), Henderson; Andrew (Bunney 59). Unused substitutes: Musangu, Rafferty, Bennett, Noble-Lazarus.

Referee: N Miller (Co Durham).