Michael Duff explains decision to take Herbie Kane, Devante Cole and Luke Thomas off in Barnsley FC draw with Port Vale

Barnsley were leading the League One encounter at Oakwell through Liam Kitching’s goal on the stroke of half-time.

But Duff’s opposite number Darrell Clarke won the substitutions battle and got a point from the game when Elliott Harrison headed home a right-wing cross in the 83rd minute.

After that Barnsley could not retake the initiative because Duff had replaced midfield creators Herbie Kane and Luke Thomas, as well as striker Devante Cole, at various junctures of the second half.

"The Herbie change was pre-meditated based on the minutes he's played, the rest of is was because I thought we were losing the scrap in the middle of the pitch,” explained Duff.

"So that’s why we went with (Matty) Wolfe for his physicality and also Adam Phillips with his physicality.

"Devante ran himself into the ground, so that’s why we changed him. One was pre-meditated, the rest was trying to react to what was in front of us.”

Barnsley extended their unbeaten run in League One to three games with the draw, but Duff knows it should have been another three points with Cole and Thomas both missing good chances to extend the lead.

“I’m frustrated, there’s lots of positives but the game should have been out of sight, ultimately,” said Duff.

"When you’re that dominant for that long you’ve got to put the game to bed, we had enough chances to do that.

"And then with 15 minutes to go they probably can’t believe they’re still in the game. They make the changes and credit to them they’ve made a go at it and scored a good goal, although it’s disappointing from our point of view, the ball should never come into the box.

"And then after that the last 10 minutes it’s ding-dong. When we’ve gone from total dominance to turning it into that, that’s the disappointment.”

Phases at both ends of the game in which Duff felt Barnsley were dominated by Port Vale, disappointed him.

“I was disappointed with the first 10 minutes, first contact, second balls we didn’t win enough of, but after that for the next hour of the game I thought we were excellent,” he said.

"We played through them, created good chances, but at 1-0 we started playing a little bit safe, a little bit sideways, a little bit backwards, almost keeping the ball for the sake of it, which is what I don’t want.

"I don’t want that football, the ball ends up with Brad (Collins) in goal whacking it and we lose the first contact and lose the second balls, and that’s how we lost the momentum in the game.

"But it’s all a learning curve, they’re young players, they lack the street-smart know-how because there’s not thousands of league games in there.

"The positives in it were the chances created, another game unbeaten, a good performance overall, for 75 per cent of the game. It’s about building on that.”