Barnsley FC head coach Darrell Clarke on being 'frustrated' as opposed to 'really alarmed'

Barnsley ‘s nagging habit of not being ruthless enough at both ends of the pitch in home matches is continuing to afflict them, as evidenced in their last two outings against Reading and Wigan Athletic.

Clarke is entitled to be frustrated. But back in early October, he was downright alarmed when talk centred on his side and there is a difference.

His Barnsley side, even accounting for the dropping of points in their past few games, have more of a playing identity than back in mid-autumn. It’s just that annoying habits in both boxes are dying hard.

Taking out an EFL Trophy ‘dead rubber’ against Doncaster Rovers, Barnsley have lost once in their past eight matches in all competitions.

Given where they were after back-to-back league and trophy defeats to Huddersfield Town, that’s incremental progress. But Clarke wants much more and needs more.

He said: "After the Huddersfield league and trophy games, for me, there has been a lot of positives in the performances.

"I look at us against Huddersfield and I was really alarmed and critical of the team.

"I like to think I view games honestly after me and my staff have watched them back and we’ve reviewed (all) the games.

"I think after the Huddersfield games, there’s certainly been an uptake in performances. Not necessarily the amount of results I’d have liked, but I definitely think there’s been improvements in lots of areas of our performance.

"That’s the message to keep those and keep believing in what we are doing and I am a great believer in performances turning into more positive results."

Barnsley change tack this weekend when they are in FA Cup second-round action against Clarke’s old club Bristol Rovers.

After that, December commences with an arduous away league trip to home specialists Wrexham on Tuesday. It’s a sign of things to come in an exacting run to the end of 2024.

It also explains Clarke’s frustration at coughing up some points in the past three matches.

He continued: "The frustration for the group is we’re not higher up the table, to be honest.

"There’s belief in the group and squad and that’s the biggest frustration around the club; the fans as well.

"We’ve got knowledgeable fans as well, who understand that. There’s frustration, but they also understand, logically, that some of the performances have been decent and if you keep doing that, you get more wins."

Clarke has reported a positive update regarding the fitness of injury-hit midfielder Josh Benson, who returned to training at the start of this week.

Benson has been out of action since late October.

Clarke added: "He has his first full training on Monday and is back in full training, so hopefully we can keep him for a substantial period of time and make sure he is not having those little niggles and strains that just keep holding him back a bit."