Shrewsbury v Barnsley: How Duff is rewinding the clock to successful times under Cotterill

Rival Shrewsbury Town chief Cotterill, alongside former Burnley boss Sean Dyche, are the two managerial figures who have had the biggest influence upon Duff.

Defensive organisation and team unity were the tenets onto which Cotterill built successful sides at Cheltenham and the Clarets when Duff was a player there and it is something he now prides himself upon as a manager.

Barnsley's concession of 14 goals this term is the joint best record in League One - but in one aspect they are out on their own.

In eight away games, they have conceded just one second-half goal with Duff understandably keen for that to continue against someone he knows well.

He said: "I did not know that, but I know we have not conceded many goals.

"It is easy to take the credit when things go well. But when went four goals without scoring a goal, we were working on attacking play. You have to roll with the punches sometimes.

"But it is good we are getting (defensive) success from the work we are doing.

"One thing I do pride myself on - and a lot of this would have come from Steve and Dychey really who had two major influences on my career - is organisation. One thing you can describe both of their teams are is organised.

"I'd like to think that anyone would (also) describe any of my teams as organised.

“It is the one part of the game where you prescribe a little but more than the attacking football as it is a bit fluid and reliant on patterns and people coming up with a bit of skill. Defending is a group and unit thing and we spend a lot of time on it."

Given that the Reds have scored just three times in their last six league outings, their defensive solidity is heightened in terms of importance.

Duff added: "There are certain things I’ve seen in the last few weeks which I really like in terms of positoning of certain areas of the pitch. We have got good defenders.

"There's no getting away from that, if you look at the strength in depth in that part of the pitch compared to others. It gives you a platform.

"We cannot put ourselves into a position where we have to score three or four goals to win a game at the minute as we are not at this time.

"We are trying to be, but it's a work in progress.”