Barnsley FC not giving in as they await Michael Helik news

On a day when Barnsley could have moved within two points of fourth-from-bottom Reading, the Royals maintained their five-point buffer.

With a decent run-in, the Berkshire side are now strong favourites to stave off the drop.

Asbaghi, who should be handed an update on injured defender Michal Helik later today after the Polish international hurt his ankle in training on Friday, said: “For sure, we have still got hope.

“Now we have not had the win, we cannot say we are close right now to having the control in our hands.

“We are a team who are dependant on what especially Reading are doing and performing. It is not a nice feeling to let other teams have control and rely on their results.

“But the last thing that can happen is that we lose one or two percentages and then it turns out that Reading do not do their job in the last rounds and then we look at each other and say: ‘Hey, what were we doing?. We gave up too soon, we could have done it.’

“We are going to do everything we can to get as many points as we can, so in the end we still feel we did everything.

“We have seven games left and have been a team who can lose any game, but we are also a team who can play against any opponent and win points in games like against Fulham and Middlesbrough.

“For me, even though there are some tough games left in this seven, none are ‘mission impossible’ to win. We still have confidence in the team, even though this result feels like a loss, of course.

“We had a chance to close the gap, but didn’t. The only comfort is that we didn’t lose and the gap didn’t increase. There are seven games left, but we will not give up.”