Barnsley FC v Aldershot: Daniel Stendel's praise for Luca Connell

Connell lost the captain's armband at the start of the year and a minor injury issue also affected him early in the season.

The 25-year-old, whose future was subject to speculation during the last summer window, also received his marching orders in the League One game with Leicester City in September, incurring a three-match ban.

The Liverpudlian - in his fifth season at Oakwell after joining in the summer of 2022 - has dusted himself down and was at the heart of a gutsy performance from the 10-man Reds, who chiselled out an unlikely point against high-flying Oxford last weekend.

Attention now turns to cup matters for the Reds, as they seek the psychological fillip of a first win in 12 matches in all competitions since September 2.

Stendel said: "I think we've given him more responsibility (lately).

"He's a long time in the club. He has quality for this league and character and mentality to help every team in this league and we need him.

"I think last week he showed that he can push the team too and this is really important for us together with players like Cameron (McGeehan) or Daniel Johnson.

"I said also I want players like Patrick Kelly and Vimal Yoganathan to take more responsibility in the squad for the future.

"With all these players together, I expect that they can lead our team more and especially young players like Tobi (Adeyemo) or Rylan (Brownlie) can play better games next to them and this is what I want.

"And that is the reason we talk a lot with these guys about what we can do, how we can improve, how we get more confident and how we get more situations like what we played (last Saturday). We've had really good games for - 60, 45, 70 minutes; really good games.

"But in the end we need 90-95 minutes to get the result we want to get. "We have a good relationship with them and we work hard for that. Luca is a big part for us to talk about some things."