Barnsley FC chief Darrell Clarke on likely League One play-off wins target as Reds 'dig in' to try and keep their season alive

The Reds are badly depleted in terms of options.

Key duo Adam Phillips and Josh Earl are ‘very, very doubtful’ and their absence would potentially take the number of players now unavailable towards the double-figure mark.

Joe Gauci, Donovan Pines, Georgie Gent, Jonathan Lewis, Fabio Jalo and Barry Cotter are injured, while Mael de Gevigney serves the final game of a three-match ban.

Equally, Barnsley are mindful of the need for a win to keep their slim top-six chances going into the home straight.

They are six points behind sixth-placed Huddersfield, with the two of the sides above the Oakwell outfit in Reading and Bolton both having a game in hand.

On ‘digging in’, Clarke said: "That is exactly what we can got to try and do. Dig deep and try and get some bodies back.

"We’ve got to try and get the game plan right and win Saturday’s game and then we’re a little bit Saturday to Saturday for the next two or three weeks where we can hopefully get some bodies mended a bit and Mael (de Gevigney) comes back from suspension as well and we start to look a little bit stronger with the strength in depth.

"We’ve got to ride the storm and we know we have got three wins in the last four games and can we make it four out of five on Saturday and that’s all I am looking at and then down the line, let’s have a right good go in the last 10 games of the season.

"We’ve got to win a certain amount of games. In these next 11 games, we’ve got to win whatever that looks like; we might potentially get seven or eight wins to get in the top six. I look at it in that aspect, but let’s try and take care of Saturday’s game (first) and I am sure our crowd might get right behind the boys.

"We might have one or two young players in the group.

"If we get that three points on Saturday, we can maybe have a ‘reset’ and re-assess with the games Saturday/Saturday for the next few weeks after.”