Darrell Clarke pledges to be 'ruthless' with Barnsley FC players and fires a January warning after 'unacceptable' defeat to Birmingham City

The Oakwell outfit saw their winless sequence in all competitions extend to six matches and despite his side producing a good performance for the opening 58 minutes, Clarke was more concerned with what followed afterwards.

The Reds chief was deeply unhappy with his side’s game management after that and questioned the mentality of some of his players - while firing a warning with the January transfer window on the horizon.

He said: "I am always judging players. I already know deep down, if I am honest with you (which players to trust going forward).

"With that comes player opportunities to change your mind. One or two players can talk the talk, but are they walking the walk?

"When I come to that, I am ruthless. This is not being big-headed, but I have never released or get rid of a player that has gone and bit me on the backside.

"That tells me that when I’ve made a decision after a fair assessment of four or five months with working with players that I know what is required to do what we need to do to make sure those fine lines of where we are not quite winning games is narrowed down.

"It’s making sure we strengthen in those areas where we need to."

Barnsley missed the leadership of Marc Roberts when he went off injured on 51 minutes. Despite that, Clarke was keen to avoid any excuses in his analysis of Saturday’s events.

Clarke, who confirmed that Josh Earl missed the game with a calf injury, continued: "We had a player who came on in that slot to do that job who did not do it. Then we don’t mark at the back stick (for second goal)..

"It’s players not doing their jobs and is unacceptable because that’s what cost us a point at the end of the day.

"I don’t know if my players were expecting a hard luck story or ‘go again, boys’. But they didn’t get that off me, they have got to be better.”

Barnsley fans voiced their displeasure with boos aimed towards referee Thomas Parsons at the half-time whistle and at the end.

Clarke added: "I have not got much money, so I don’t want to say a lot about the referee. The fans will tell you how the referee performed. The less said, the better.”