Barnsley FC wing-back and former Birmingham City player Corey O'Keeffe on keeping out the 'noise' from above in League One

Birmingham-born O’Keeffe, who made one league appearance during his time at St Andrew’s, counts a host of Blues followers among his friends. He was also a boyhood fan.

While all of the talk in League One circles is currently revolving around Birmingham and second-placed Wrexham, the 26-year-old remains quietly confident about the prospects of the Reds, sitting pretty in a handy top-six position.

He quipped: "I think they (Birmingham) think they have won the league already, we’ll see what happens! There’s a lot of noise.

"It’s a tough league with some big teams in this year and it will be challenging. But I think we have enough, when it clicks. We have shown signs already when we all gel together.

"It’s still a new ‘gaffer’ really and early in the season. When we will click, we will be fine.”

After a 7-0 Carabao Cup trouncing at Manchester United last Tuesday, the Reds dug deep to chisel out an important 2-1 league success, four days on, at Burton Albion.

It was a game when Darrell Clarke’s side did not hit spectacular heights, but got the job done - which is just exactly what they needed to do in many respects.

More especially after a candid Clarke damningly labelled their performance at Old Trafford as soft and flaky. The players were angry with themselves too.

O’Keeffe added: "Even when we are not playing well, sometimes it’s about getting 0-0s and that will help us instead of going a bit gung-ho and letting a goal in.

"If we are struggling in a game, it’s just about staying tight.

"We came in after the (Manchester United) game and there were a few words that we said to each other because we were frustrated.

"I don’t think anyone was expecting us to go there and win, but we wanted to give a good account of ourselves and we didn’t do that.”

Barnsley, three points behind Blues and Wrexham, return to action on Saturday evening when they play host to Stockport County.