Neill Collins on his Barnsley FC balancing act as he looks for consistency whilst giving opportunities

Two of November's remaining six matches are against lower-division opposition – an FA Cup replay at non-league Horsham and a Football League Trophy match at League Two Bradford City – adding to the possibilities for rotation, but Collins is key to maintain some consistency without overworking key players.

"That's the balance we've got to try and find," said the coach, who has Herbie Kane suspended after his fifth booking of the season. "My biggest thing is to try and win as many games as we possibly can but also I want to try and give players opportunities.

"We've got some guys like Josh Benson, who's trained really well and probably deserves an opportunity but in that area (midfield) we've got so much competition. Jack Shepherd after two really good performances and clean sheets has not really had a game because of the consistency at the back.

"It's down to me and the staff to make sure we get the right balance.

"With four midweek games coming up, we want to try and win them all and these guys will have to play their part because we do want to keep everyone fit.

"We've done a good job up to now of controlling that apart from a couple of innocuous injuries to Kacper (Lopata) and Robdo (Liam Roberts) that we couldn't do anything about."

Luca Connell made his first start of the season as a substitute against Horsham last Friday after recovering from illness but is not yet ready to start.

Lopata is back in non-contact training after injuring his shoulder.

Callum Styles will be away with Hungary next week and Fabio Jalo, who scored a brilliant goal against Horsham, with Portugal under-17s.

"From a consistency point of view I'd much rather they were all here but Callum Styles is aiming to play in the Euros so for Barnsley to have a player that could potentially do that is great and shows the assets we've got," said Collins.

"You can't have it both ways, if you want to have good players you're going to have call-ups."