Barnsley FC's Michael Duff on links with Huddersfield Town, Nicky Cadden's dismissal and a rebuke for his Reds side

Weekend reports suggest that Duff, who moved to Oakwell last June on a three-year deal, could be a target for the Terriers in the close season.

Duff, whose side maintained their hopes of gatecrashing the top two of League One following a 2-1 victory over Shrewsbury Town on Easter Monday, said: "I went for three pints in Barnsley yesterday with the wife because the kids are away and some bloke came up to me and showed it me. It was news to me as well.

"It is a by-product of doing well and my focus does not change. It is 'win the next game'."

Barnsley won on home soil for the eighth time on the spin on a fractious afternoon against Shrewsbury.

Goals ahead of the break from Nicky Cadden and Devante Cole put the Reds in charge at the interval.

But Cadden controversially saw red for a challenge on Kilian Phillips 16 minutes from time.

Phillips pulled one back in the first minute of nine added minutes of stoppage time on an afternoon when tempers flared near the end, with visiting striker Ryan Bowman dismissed in the final minute of added-on time.

Unsavoury scenes also followed the final whistle when Shrews players confronted home defender Bobby Thomas, with his Reds team-mates soon running over amid a bout of pushing and shoving.

Duff said: "In the second-half, we got involved in a scrap and sucked in, into the way they wanted to do it. That was the frustration, but credit to the resilience and character that we managed to see the game out."

On the dismissal of Cadden, who is now set to miss a return to former club Forest Green this weekend - with the Scot receiving a straight red card - the Reds chief added: "I have not seen it back properly. I have seen it once live and I didn't think it was at the time. When we will, we will assess it.

"But one thing I do know is that it won't be malicious. He clearly over-ran the ball. Where he caught the lad and whether his studs were up, I don't know.

"But Cads is not that type and isn't known for big tackles.

"I have never seen so many clashes of heads in a game of football in my life and there were bandages all over the place."

And on the scenes after the final whistle, he continued: "At the end, I told them in no uncertain terms that it was not for me, that. Whether it us winding them up or them winding us up, walk off the pitch, we have just won a game. You don't need to get involved.

"It was a win and all wins are good, but the performance was not at the levels we have been at. But we are at the stage of the season now where you have to unfortunately sacrifice performances for results.

"You can't always be brilliant. Performances have been really good and we have been free-flowing and we have scored twos, three, fours and fives. Even at half-time, we were not particularly happy with them. We were too slow and the tempo wasn't quite right.

"We have run over the top of teams, but here we kept looking for another pass and it was a bit slow and people were back-heeling and flicking things when they didn't need to."