Mansfield Town v Barnsley: Reds' League One season at a crossroads - plus Conor Hourihane on defensive tweak
BARNSLEY make the short trip down the M1 today with their season at a crossroads.
It's the first of a triple-header of games before the international break, which will decide the Reds' direction of travel this spring.
A healthy haul will maintain their outside hopes of reaching the play-offs. Failure to do so will end 2025-26 as a competitive entity.
Should the latter transpire, development will come into play, with the likes of Charlie Lennon and Georgie Gent likely to be handed more game time, with some academy products also potentially getting a taste of the first-team scene.
Head coach Conor Hourihane, who heads back to the place where his head coaching stint began almost exactly 12 months to the day, said: "These three games coming up are going to decide which direction we want to go in.
"Do we want to try and make headway and get a good points return and potentially with the games at hand have a sniff as the last nine games come along?
"Or is the points return going to become inconsistent over the week like it has done previously and we'll be kind of just floating from now until the end of the season.
"So it's all about the work we do now, me pushing the players and ultimately the players wanting to win more games than they have previously."
Incremental improvement in terms of the Reds’ much-maligned defensive numbers over the last few games has been welcome development, with the employment of centre-half Jack Shepherd at left back having aided in that regard, while still allowing right-back Corey O'Keeffe to get forward within a four-man defensive structure.
Hourihane commented: "Corey's a lot more attacking than Shep. We've got a certain structure when we have the ball, when Corey's playing high and wide and Shep looks like an outside centre-half.
"So, that's another reason why Shep can play there, because when we have possession, he looks like an outside centre-half, not a flying full-back.
"He's slotted into that position really, really well over the last couple of games. We've got certain roles for individuals and over the last couple of games, they've carried them out pretty well."