Barnsley urged to keep their focus right to the end

BARNSLEY manager Mark Robins yesterday challenged his players to maintain their high standards until the end of the season.

Back-to-back defeats against Ipswich Town and Bristol City may have dented a late push for the play-offs but the Tykes have improved significantly under Robins this season.

With eight games to play, there is even the possibility that both Barnsley and Doncaster Rovers could finish above both Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday in this season's Championship table. Some say that would signal the start of a shift of power in South Yorkshire football.

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When Robins arrived at Oakwell in September, Barnsley had picked up only one point from five games and were deep in trouble in the relegation zone.

A victory tomorrow against Doncaster would leave both clubs on 52 points, only two behind United and considerably clear of Wednesday who are locked in a battle for survival.

Robins said: "We have to focus and keep going – we owe that to everybody who has bought a season ticket or a match ticket, we owe it to our fans, to keep going until the final kick of the last game.

"The players have shown great character, great mental strength, resolve – all the usual things you have to show in a side to climb a league, we have shown that in abundance – we are just looking for consistency."

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Robins, who shot to attention as the manager of League One neighbours Rotherham United, has striven to keep a lid on expectations at Oakwell where supporters, historically, have been notoriously low on patience.

Since Danny Wilson succeeded in taking Barnsley to the Premier League for the first time (albeit for a solitary season 1997-98), there has always been a pressure to secure a return.

Nine managers have come and gone since Wilson walked out to join Wednesday and Robins, arguably, has started his reign better than any of them.

His only target this season was survival – and, to his credit, that has been achieved with plenty of time to spare.

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"It's quickly forgotten," he says, recalling the situation he inherited nearly seven months ago. "But that is good. We are starting to build up expectations and we want to live up to and surpass the expectations all the time – but that comes after a period of time.

"We are trying to change the mentalities and thought processes at the club. Of players and supporters alike and we have to continue to do that," he stressed.

"There is a big pat on the back but we can never rest on our laurels. What has gone is gone. You have got to try and better what has gone. That is how you get your progress."

Doncaster's Sean O'Driscoll is another manager who has successfully raised the bar this season.

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After 50 years in the relative wilderness of the lower leagues, Rovers had been tipped to struggle, especially after the sale of two prized assets Matthew Mills and Richie Wellens.

Yet Rovers – who have extended the loan signing of Arsenal midfielder Jay Emmanuel-Thomas until the end of the season and allowed John Spicer to join Leyton Orient on loan – sat eighth in the table at the start of this week and only a narrow defeat against table-toppers Newcastle United pushed them down to 10th spot.

"Sean has done a fantastic job there," commented Robins. "To get promotion and then to keep them up last season.

"They have built on that this time around.

"It will be a tough match for us (tomorrow)," he admitted. "We are under no illusions and Doncaster, along with Swansea, play probably the best football in the division.

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"Unless we can impose ourselves and be patient, we will get picked off. But we are at home and we have to play our game. We have to try to take the game to them and be clever."

Back in 1994, when both Sheffield clubs – United and Wednesday – were playing in the Premier League, few could have imagined that, 16 years later, Barnsley and Rovers would be threatening to steal the crown of South Yorkshire's top club.

The Blades are desperately trying to balance the books after a one-season return to the top flight while the Owls are still hamstrung by the debts they amassed in the wake of their fall from the top in 2000.

Doncaster chairman John Ryan says next season is going to signal the shift in power. He may just be wrong. It could be happening right now.