Barnsley FC head coach will not throw defender 'under the bus' after more League One pain at Wycombe as Reds dig in ahead of key weekend game
BARNSLEY head coach Darrell Clarke says he will not throw senior defender Marc Roberts ‘under the bus’ after his dismissal as the Reds copped a third successive League One loss on the spin at top-two chasing Wycombe Wanderers.
Clarke’s side took a 10th-minute lead through a well-taken strike from Jon Russell, but the Chairboys went onto dominate the second period in particular as Barnsley succumbed.
They were awarded a penalty in the 65th minute when Fred Onyedimna was clipped in the penalty area by Donovan Pines and prolific striker Richard Kone converted.
Things got worse for Barnsley as Roberts was shown a straight red card for a late tackle on Luke Leahy.
Then, with seconds remaining, Garath McCleary's cross was headed home by Kone – his 19th goal of an impressive campaign.
Clarke, whose side, who are now ninth, host Burton Albion this weekend, said: "I thought we switched off from a throw and it looked like a clumsy foul in the area (for the penalty).
"Then we lose Robbo with a strong tackle. He’s apologised. But I won’t chuck my players under a bus. We’ve got to stick together and that's my message.
"Robbo is disappointed with it. He’s an honest player and has done really well for the football club. He’s held his hands up.
"I won’t sacrifice him, we’ll deal with it in-house.
"You know that coming to Wycombe, you are going to have to do some decent defending and we didn’t do that enough at times. But it was a massive kick in the teeth (at the end).
"We’ve got to have a siege mentality and go again. That’s a few times now where we’ve been in the top six and dropped out.
"It’s all about the reaction and I’ve got to use my experience of managing teams like this before where you do through spells like this where you think you have turned the corner with four wins on the spin and then there’s a couple of really disappointing performances and results.
"We have to make sure we’re right on Saturday. It's a game we’ve got to win.”
A tough night was compounded by injury issues sustained by forwards Max Watters and Stephen Humphrys.
Clarke added: “We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. Injuries are part and parcel and I’ve got to regroup the boys.
"They need the manager’s support to pick them up and work on things that we are not doing so well at and they will get my full support and we’ll look to turn the corner on Saturday. “