Barnsley FC head coach Gerhard Struber hails the leadership qualities of Cauley Woodrow

The former Fulham player took his season's tally to an impressive seven in Saturday's 3-2 loss at Blackburn Rovers - his fourth goal in five matches.

Woodrow showed his tactical versatility to feature in a role just behind Jacob Brown and initially Patrick Schmidt at Ewood Park, with his influence among his team-mates something that Struber has already acknowledged.

Alongside Alex Mowatt and Daniel Pinillos, the Hemel-Hempstead born forward, who turns 25 next week, is the only Reds player with recognisible Championship experience.

On the importance of Woodrow, Struber, speaking ahead of Wednesday night's crunch relegation encounter at fellow strugglers Middlesbrough, said: "I think he can play more positions. He can play as a striker or the number ten.

He created a good job in this (Blackburn) game and he is a very important player in this situation. He is a leader, but also a player who can score.

"It is important that we have this player on the field and he is very helpful for the young players and whole team."

This evening's game at Middlesbrough is the second part of a congested first full week in charge for the Austrian, with a hectic seven days ending with his first home match at the Reds helm against Hull City on Saturday.

In many respects, it represents a baptism of fire for the 42-year-old, who has not been afforded the benefit of a full week's training between games with his new charges.

On whether it is a good or bad thing, he said: "There is two sides. One side is that we can create points very quickly when we make the turnaround.

"The other side is that we have not so good chances to create the time in training what we need.