Off it, events unquestionably laid the foundations for the club's power surge in late winter and early spring and it's something Michael Duff is grateful for.

The Reds kept all their key players in the January window and bolstered their squad with the important signings of Harry Isted, Max Watters and Bobby Thomas all adding to what the club already had.

After a number of close-season sales, the trade-off for Duff was that Barnsley pledged to keep the ‘family silver’ in the new year with the Reds head coach keen to give praise where it is due - even if circumstances may change this summer.

Duff, whose fourth-placed side are five points adrift of the top two heading into the Easter programme, told The Yorkshire Post: "You can't always sell your best players - you have to reinvest at some point.

"I knew in the summer (of 2022), there would be 'x' amount of players sold, but the positive to that is that in January, I got reassurances that no-one would be sold. And the board have been true to their word on it.

"In a season, you don't want to do all that hard work and then your legs to be taken away from you in this (winter) window.

"Now I am sure players will move on again in the summer, but that gives you a bit of planning time and then hopefully we will have a little more idea of where we are financially and what league we are in.

"With the board side of it, I do not sit in them (meetings), that's not my job - I look after the players.

"We've got some good players and it was settling them down. We started the (pre) season in June, you normally have three weeks with the window open and we had two months and that was a real difference."

Some significant business last summer in the shrewd recruitment of the likes of Luca Connell, Adam Phillips and James Norwood has also been pivotal in Barnsley's rise.

In that regard, Duff is quite to pay credit to the club's recruitment team - who had received some criticism in the previous couple of years.

Duff, whose side visit Burton Albion on Good Friday and then welcome Shrewsbury Town on Easter Monday – where they will be chasing their eighth straight win at Oakwell - continued: "There's a lot of things made about money.

"The one thing I did know - and the club were quite honest with me (last summer) - was that players would be sold. But you don't always have to spend money.

"You look at the midfield and Luca was a free transfer and Adam was a nominal fee in the biggest scheme of things. You can find good players.

"It's not easy, but the recruitment takes a lot of stick here. It is done differently and it was part of my learning in terms of how things went on and how it worked.

"It is not always a case of throwing money at it, but I do believe there are other parts of it such as motivation, character and why are you here and what we are here for."

Michael Duff on why January was key in Barnsley FC's strong pitch for promotion from League 1