Darren Moore tells Sheffield Wednesday 'I'm super proud of you all' as Barnsley FC end 23-game unbeaten run

Not that the Owls manager was limiting his admiration to his squad after they went half a season without tasting defeat.

Tuesday’s 4-2 reverse, combined with a 2-0 win at Plymouth Argyle, knocked them off the top of the table but they play their two games in hand in the next seven days.

"I said to them in the dressing room, and I’m going to extend it to everyone, I said, ‘Lads, I’m super proud of you’," said Moore, whose club had 5,000 fans at Barnsley. "I got them to all look at me.

"I went around to every single one of them in the room, including my staff, and congratulated them on the run of games – because that long run we’ve been on takes focus, takes mentality, takes commitment, takes drive, togetherness and a oneness. We’ve seen all that.

"What we have to do now is bottle that, and move on to the weekend and continue it. There’s so much football still to be played, there’s a quick turnaround of games that we have to be ready and focused for.

"They’re a good group, an honest group."

The Owls have two televised games in a week with Sunday's lunchtime kick-off at Forest Green. They are at Cheltenham Town on Wednesday.

Their injury list is shortening with former Doncaster Rovers, Barnsley and Hull City winger Mallik Wilks close to a return and Callum Paterson well-placed to play again this season.

"We think it’s good news with Mallik, if he keeps continuing what he’s doing – he’s just building up volume in training," said Moore. "I didn’t want to risk him and have him on the bench (on Tuesday), but we think that he’s in a better stage.

"If he can continue over the next few days we think he’ll be in a position so we feel confident with him.

"With Callum Paterson, if it all goes to plan it’ll be a couple of weeks before he’s back in training. With the run of games we’ve got we want bodies back.

"We feel like over the next few weeks, if we don’t get anything else, we’ll get one or two back where we can chop and change."