Robins in challenge for Barnsley to punish Plymouth

The Tykes were beaten at Middlesbrough on Tuesday night and are now four points adrift of the Championship play-off zone.

Robins refuses to talk about the possibility of promotion but has again stressed the need for improvement.

"I am not looking at the play-off situation," he said. "I am just looking for improvement all the time and we need to improve on what we did against Middlesbrough, in terms of the result, on Saturday because we are playing at home against Plymouth which is another big game."

Since arriving at Oakwell in September, Robins has steered Barnsley out of the relegation zone and into the top 10.

"When I came in we had one point," he reflected. "We have turned things around and had some great results, some not great results, some brilliant performances, some poor performances, but things generally have gone well.

"Hopefully, we can kick on from here and make sure we get back to winning ways as quickly as possible."

Robins praised teenage defender Keiran Trippier who got his first taste of senior football against Boro after arriving on a month's loan from Manchester City.

Trippier replaced on-loan defender Ryan Shotton who is banned for another three games but Robins will be hoping to have full-back Rob Kozluk available again this weekend after a groin injury.

"Keiran did really well," said Robins. "We had to do something – and there were one or two options – but I wanted a right-footed right-back in.

"Rob Kozluk (groin) should be back pretty soon so he will end up fighting for his place. Hopefully we will also get Bobby Hassell (groin) back as soon as possible too.

"We need everybody fit to give us more options and more competition for places. At the moment, we are bare down that side. When you lose one player like Ryan Shotton it leaves a big hole in what we have been doing."

Boro chief Gordon Strachan was pleased with his side's efforts and, when asked if it was the best performance since he arrived at the club, he said: "We've had some decent ones and that was as good.

"We stood our ground when we needed to on the physical and mental side. That was good because Barnsley are a test.

"They sorted us out in the second half but we were actually very confident until the goal went in – and that was their first shot on target I think.

"It was just a lack of concentration and a lot of work had been put in that could have put us in a stronger position.

"But we'll learn from that and there were a lot of good things to take from the game."

Barnsley are in talks with striker Daniel Bogdanovic about extending the Malta international's contract.