Devante Cole hailed by Michael Duff as Barnsley FC thrash play-off rivals Derby County

The Reds made it an impressive seven games without a defeat against Paul Warne’s side, climbing over them into fifth.

Cole scored twice, bundling home a controversial opener that was initially ruled out before being given, and then bulldozing his way past would-be tacklers to create space for Herbie Kane and James Norwood, before following the ball in to score with a close-range volley.

"Devante had gone a while without a goal but his contribution to the team has been good,” said Duff.

"He’ll have been conscious of the fact he hadn’t scored for a while.

"Between him and James Norwood it was two excellent centre forward performances for me.”

In between Cole’s goals, Adam Phillips swept home a fine second goal after a flowing move and David McGoldrick dinked one back for Derby.

Barnsley were rarely threatened in the second half and Luke Thomas fired home a fourth.

"We’re delighted to win three points against a very, very good team,” said Duff.

"We showed every part of our game today. In the first half we were energetic, our press was really good. We had worked hard on the press all week.

"Then in the second half we showed the other side, we dogged it out a bit.

"We kept them at arm’s length but they’re a good side, they’ve got some quality players even on the bench.

"If you’d have offered me that at 10am today I’d have taken it all day long.”

It was also the highest crowd of the season at Oakwell, swelled by a strong following from Derby.

But it was the Barnsley fans who went home happy.

"We were conscious we wanted to give a performance today,” said Duff.