Barnsley FC's Michael Duff issues 'entitlement' warning to his Reds players ahead of MK Dons game

After a mini-dip in form, Barnsley have posted a win triple and have plenty of options, especially in midfield, going into the game with MK Dons.

Luca Connell, Adam Phillips and Herbie Kane have started in the last two games with Josh Benson coming on from the bench with Josh Martin being another option.

On the job of keeping his midfielders happy, Duff continued: "It is not my job to keep them happy, it is my job to pick the team who I think will win and my job is to put good training sessions on that keeps them happy.

"But if they think they have got an entitlement or 'he's played three games, so it's my turn now' then that's not how football works.

"If you are playing well and you have got the shirt, you keep it. And if you haven't got the shirt, you have got to work harder than anyone else in training to get the shirt or put at least a little bit of doubt and come into the conversation when we do pick a team and we think 'he's trained well in the week and done this, that and the other.'

"Every training session is a window of opportunity. It is a case of 'we won last week, we'll just pick the same 11.' It never can be that.

"You are playing against different opposition, it's at home and there are different challenges. We will pick up a team who we think will give MK Dons the most problems.

"If footballers want to think they are entitled to play a game as they haven't played for a couple of weeks, then they are in the wrong business.'

Barnsley have no fresh injury concerns heading into Saturday encounter with Liam Manning’s MK side, with loan striker Slobodan Tedic being assessed after suffering an ankle injury early in last weekend's win at Shrewsbury, but managing to play on.

Despite MK Dons lowly position, they have taken four points from their last two away games against Charlton and Cheltenham.

Duff added: "They are in a transitional year and I think I have heard them say that themselves. They have lost a lot of good players.

"If you just look at the league table, supporters will think 'well, we'll beat them'. But you look at their last performances, as we have, they should have been two or three up against Derby at half-time last week.

"They have drawn at Cheltenham and are the only team to go to Charlton and win this season."Their identity and performance levels are coming back and in time, their results will come back. i am pretty confident they won't be in the bottom four at the end of the season."