Darrell Clarke on Barnsley FC squad learning from his mistakes as a player - and are they 'nasty' enough?

It was mostly - but not exclusively - down to his barely-disguised anger at witnessing his Barnsley side blow a precious advantage against the team almost universally considered to be the best in the division en route to a self-inflicted 2-1 League One loss.

His side’s Achilles heel in 2024-25, the inability to manage the second half of matches, especially at home, was again exposed.

Clarke's fury also saw him harken back to what greeted him when he first entered the building in the summer.

He believes that Barnsley possess talent in their squad - enough in his eyes to earn a top-six place come season’s end.

But for those teams who go all the way, you cannot rely on that alone. You need mentality, resilience, character, drive and also a bit of nastiness.

Specifically on whether his players are nasty enough, Clarke – whose side have produced some half-decent performances of late, but find themselves without a win in six matches in all competitions ahead of Saturday’s long trip to Exeter City – said: "It’s a question I asked the other day in the changing room. It’s having that winning desire every minute of your day.

"Everything you do in your life, what time do you go to bed, what do you drink and eat, do you put yourself in the right mindset to enable yourself to be a winner?

"It’s a word I mention a lot. I don’t stand in front of the players and go and say: ‘I made the most out of my career’ because I didn’t. That’s what I see through players at times that I want to push them to understand that if they dedicate their whole lives to winning football games, you can make a good career in this game.

"Promotion teams are relentless in their approach. The players need to get that in their heads individually. When I said ‘how many promotions have we had' in the changing rooms in the summer, not many hands went up.

"That tells you there’s an inexperienced lack of that and what you need to be a winner on a regular basis to try and get it out of the group.

"To be fair to the boys, they are good trainers. The intensity has certainly stepped up in the last two or three months.

"I wasn’t happy with it at the start. That has been a non-negotiable moving forward, they are aware of that and players do a lot of extras.

"It’s those competitive games and minutes and moments where the real focus has to be. It’s up to myself and my coaching staff to keep drilling that into them."

Almost halfway through the busiest month of the season, Barnsley are doing it tough every which way you look.

Their fixture list is gruelling and exacting. After facing divisional heavyweights Wrexham and Birmingham, they must now negotiate a 520-round trip to Devon.

They also tackle Peterborough United, Bolton Wanderers and Wrexham, again, over the Christmas and New Year period.

Results are a concern and so are injuries, with the Reds’ woes intensifying with the news that defensive talisman Marc Roberts and another senior figure at the back in Josh Earl are out until 2025 with calf injuries.

Roberts is out for six weeks, while Earl’s period of absence will be four to six weeks.

Meanwhile, teenager forward Fabio Jalo is sidelined until the spring. He will undergo shoulder surgery next Wednesday.

The likes of Gaga Slonina and Max Watters also remain in the treatment room.

Clarke is plainly not interested in his squad being the 'victims' in his words.

He remains convinced that his side have the 'tools' to finish in the top six, aided by the return of key figures such as Roberts and Earl and one or two 'missing pieces of the jigsaw' in the January transfer window.

But, as he also acknowledged last weekend, it's about walking the walk as opposed to talking the talk. Talk is cheap.

Chiselling out some wins amid adversity this month would represent a start in that regard.

The Barnsley head coach, whose side are currently two places and four points adrift of the side currently occupying the final top-six place in Reading, continued: "I will be bitterly disappointed if we don’t get in the top six this year and that’s just me as a person.

"I have never shied away from expectations and have worked really hard in my career to get an opportunity at such a fantastic club with a fantastic support base.

“That’s the way I think and what I push onto my players. I will never change that aspect of who I am.

"We’ve got enough tools - and maybe we need one or two key missing pieces of the jigsaw that we need to get right in January.

"But in general, I’d be very disappointed if we are not up there in the top six come the end of the season."