Barnsley FC chief Darrell Clarke urges players not to 'wallow in self-pity' as Reds seek to turn around 'negative environment'
BARNSLEY head coach Darrell Clarke has told his players not to ‘wallow in self pity’ as a ‘negative environment’ threatens to engulf the League One club in the final third of a season for the second year in a row.
The Reds saw their winless sequence extend to six matches after the first instalment of a key derby double-header ended in defeat in a 2-1 weekend reverse to Huddersfield Town.
Clarke’s side, whose side are heading towards mid-table and are currently off the play-off pace, visit another rival in indifferent form in Rotherham United this weekend.
Barnsley left the field to boos last Saturday, with growing disgruntlement also evident from sections of the club’s supporters towards the Reds hierarchy.
Barnsley’s form similarly plummeted as they ‘hobbled’ into the play-offs last term after winning just twice in their final 12 matches. In the here and now, their position is comfortably worse ahead of the run-in.
Clarke said: “There’s always going to be negativity around when you are not winning games at Barnsley, with where we are at in in the league.
"There’s two ways you go about that, you go home and cry on your pillow and feel sorry for yourself and wallow in self-pity or you come out fighting.
"And I know what I am and what I demand from my players to be able to do.
"When you get that and get back to winning games, it changes the whole atmosphere at the club because it is a negative environment at the minute.”
Barnsley’s dressing room was quiet after Saturday’s loss and Clarke did not particularly like what he saw.
While the Reds chief voiced his fury in no uncertain terms after the Reds’ propensity to surrender points from a winning position surfaced yet again, he would have preferred if he had seen a bit more anger from the players he was addressing to.
Clarke believes he has a group who care, but one who lack a winning mentality, as it stands. The statistics seem to bear this out. His side are third in the first-half ‘table’, but 17th in the second half equivalent.
Clarke continued: "I was angry. Nothing was said (elsewhere).
"For me, sometimes I think ‘come on, I am giving you something here.’ It was a very quiet changing room.
"I don’t think for one minute that they don’t care. I am not saying they don’t care, they do.
"But there’s caring and then having that mentality to be a winner when things aren’t going well.
"I call it resilience. Resilience for me is very important and players need that resilience to be able to come through these spells by not feeling sorry for themselves.
"I try my hardest to bring that into them and how I have managed most of my career is when I can’t and I think I have come to a limit, then they are not going to be for me and I try and chop them when I can.
"I am the custodian of the football club and the players are. And while they are here, they have to take accountability.
"Everybody at the club has to take accountability of where we are at and I will take it more than most as that is my job and it should be that. I don’t cry or harp on about that.”