Barnsley's Michael Duff says Premier League 'trickle down' has raised League One standards for Reds and Sheffield Wednesday

The Reds' South Yorkshire rivals Sheffield Wednesday produced a good advert for the division in the way they knocked Newcastle United out of the FA Cup at the weekend.

Fleetwood Town and Ipswich Town knocked out Championship sides Queens Park Rangers and Rotherham United respectively.

The Owls, Plymouth Argyle and Ipswich are in a three-way title race.

Barnsley are competing strongly with the likes of fellow ex-Premier League clubs Bolton Wanderers and Derby County and yo-yo clubs sides Wycombe Wanderers and Peterborough United to make the play-offs, which is why Duff has been shortlisted as the division’s manager of the month for December.

He thinks the third tier is feeling the benefits of the Premier League's Elite Performance Plan, introduced in 2011 to increase the quality of players emerging from top academies.

England won the Under-20s World Cup and European Under-19s Championship in 2017, were European Under-19s champions again in 2022, and technically-gifted players such as Phil Foden, Marcus Rashford, Jack Grealish, Mason Mount and Jude Bellingham have shone at international level.

Many, though, find no room for them in top-division first teams and end up with the likes of Barnsley.

"The Premier League parachutes players in from everywhere ready-made so the cascade effect is some really good players in League One," said Duff, who managed Cheltenham Town in the division last season.

"I spoke to (Oxford United manager) Karl Robinson last month about the midfields that would have played if our game had not been postponed. "Our midfield would have been Luca Connell, who came through at Celtic, and Herbie Kane and Adam Phillips, who've both come through at Liverpool.

"Their midfield would have been (Cameron) Brannagan, who's come through at Liverpool, Marcus McGuane, who had been at Arsenal and Barcelona... talk about a schooling – that's a League One fixture. That's why I think the standard’s gone up."

Sheffield Wednesday's midfield features Manchester City academy product Fisayo Dele-Bashiru and Dennis Adeniran, formerly of Fulham and Everton. Reece James played League Cup football for Manchester United and Michael Ihiekwe was in Liverpool's academy.

Duff thinks the standard has improved on last season, with lower-ranked teams upping their games.

“Last year there was a definite split between 11th and 12th (nine points from Ipswich to Accrington Stanley),” he said. “The bottom five and top three are cut adrift a bit but the rest are pretty close."

Sixth-placed Barnsley are 10 points behind Ipswich, in third, albeit with two games in hand.

"I don't see the top three going away,” said Duff. “If one or two end up hitting a wall, it's irrelevant if we're not winning."

Owls goalkeeper Cameron Dawson is shortlisted for December’s League One player of the month. The winning player and manager will be named on Friday.