Barnsley FC boss Neill Collins on 'excellent' Adam Phillips, a 'special day' versus Derby County and the promotion race

Trailing to Sonny Bradley’s 18th-minute header, who scored in front of Derby 4,995 travelling support among a season’s-best crowd of 18,332, Phillips levelled with a stunning and unstoppable volley on 33 minutes, showing wonderful technique in the process.

A finely-poised game was then decided midway through the second-half when Phillips netted a clinical header after latching onto Nicky Cadden’s outswinging corner. It took his tally to four goals in his past two home matches.

The Reds saw the job out to seal three points to cut the gap between themselves and second-placed Derby to three points with a game in hand.

An added bonus saw third-placed Bolton crash 4-1 at Blackpool. The Reds are three points behind Wanderers, whom they host in their next home game on Tuesday week.

On Phillips’s goals, including a special leveller, Collins quipped: “I showed him exactly how to do that volley…

"That’s where the club have done a great job in giving us players like Adam Phillips and what he has at his disposal.

"Hopefully we can keep putting him in positions where he can show what he’s good at. That’s all I can do. He’s been excellent.

"You knew the volley had a chance.. I can’t remember exactly the game, but he hit one like that and it rocketed off the underside of the bar and went out. Today, it went in."

On a special afternoon at Oakwell for his side, with scenes of celebrations following the final whistle, Collins continued: "Listen, the scenes at the end, obviously we’d got a full house…

"The fans were excellent and the players were happy. But no-one was getting carried away. The players have been extremely professional and consistent over the season.

"Just because of the day as a whole, big crowd and big club we were playing against and where we’re at in the league, I won’t have anyone say we got carried away.

"But we’ll enjoy it and get ready again. We’re in a promotion race and promotion races go on over a long period of time. But it’s great for the 18,000 who were here today to see the home team win.

"It was nice to get three points and move a little bit closer to the teams above us.

"Everyone kept telling us this was ‘must win’. But as soon as you are in this position as a manager with 13 games to go, you can lose a game of football and play fantastic. Things can happen.

"We can’t have the players so high if we win and so down if we lose. Thankfully, we have performed well and won the game. We’ll have lots of ‘must wins’ between now and the end of the season.”