Steele just like Bale in way he prepares – Flitcroft

Barnsley goalkeeper and captain Luke Steele and the feted Tottenham Hotspur winger play at opposing ends of the pitch, but that did not stop Reds chief David Flitcroft from highlighting a similarity following Tuesday’s game at Oakwell.

Meticulous attention to detail is the common denominator. While Wales international Bale’s 
set-piece prowess has been honed by countless hours of practice on the training ground, so Steele’s extra work saving spot-kicks paid off with interest in the 2-1 win over Brighton.

With the game on a knife-edge and the play-off chasing Seagulls on the front foot, Steele ensured three points were accumulated instead of one when he guessed right to save Leo Ulloa’s spot-kick six minutes from time at Oakwell.

It remains to be seen how vital a moment that proves for the Reds, who secured their fifth victory in their last six home matches to move two points clear of the drop zone, up to fourth from bottom after starting the evening propping up the Championship.

Flitcroft did not dare to look when Ulloa stepped forward.

On Steele’s stunning late intervention, he said: “I spoke to Luke last week and said, ‘Listen, as a captain I want you to lead by performance, not vocally’. It is about making match-winning saves and coming for crosses and dominating his box.

“The penalty save was very much like Luke. Him and the goalkeeping coach Ian Willcock put the time in and Luke puts so much work in on the iPad and in training.

“It is like Gareth Bale. The reason why he is so good at free-kicks is because he practices them, as Luke does saving penalties – although I did not want to look when Brighton had the penalty.”

He added: “But it was not just about Luke, it was a real team performance. I look at Chris O’Grady, who nearly needed carrying off after the shift he put in. I saw the beauty in that.

“Daggers (Chris Dagnall) also did not stop when he came on, and there were also the likes of David Perkins and Scott Wiseman, who were real heroes as well.”

The victory was Barnsley’s sixth in 11 league matches with Flitcroft at the helm – both as caretaker and full-time manager – and a replication of that in the club’s last 10 Championship games would be more than enough to secure second-tier football for an eighth successive year.

Their latest triumph was a particularly noteworthy one psychologically, according to Flitcroft, with his side breaking through the 40-point barrier.

That seemed a long way off ahead of his first league game in charge on New Year’s Day at Peterborough United when the rock-bottom Reds had just 21 points from 25 matches.

Flitcroft said: “The main target I set when I came in was 40 points and I told the boys we had to get there as fast as we can.

“I do not think any other manager brought in would have got there as quickly, I strongly believe that.

“It is a real milestone and now we are there, we must refocus and kick on again.”

Tuesday’s fixture against the Seagulls was the curtain-raiser in a run of half-a-dozen fixtures that could not be more difficult had Barnsley’s rivals handpicked them.

Following the clash with Gus Poyet’s side – who had lost just one game in seven matches before Tuesday – another arduous assignment awaits them on home soil in the shape of second-placed Watford.

The Hornets have amassed more points on their travels – 33 – than any other side in the Championship and have seen their colours lowered just five times in their 18 away league matches.

Having scored a combined tally of 15 goals and taken a maximum points haul of 12 from their previous four Championship trips to Yorkshire in 2012-13 – winning at Huddersfield Town, Sheffield Wednesday, Leeds United and Middlesbrough – it is clear the Broad Acres bring out the best in the Hornets, who visit Hull City on April 2.

Next up for Barnsley after the Watford test is a trip to Wednesday on Easter Saturday before hosting fifth-placed Leicester City two days later – ahead of a daunting looking double-header at third-placed Crystal Palace and leaders Cardiff.

If that is not enough, Flitcroft’s troops must also fit in clashes with two other high-fliers, Nottingham Forest and Hull City, before season’s end.

Flitcroft acknowledges the challenge and pledges to use a rotation policy, as he successfully did for the Brighton clash when he made five changes with O’Grady, Jason Scotland, Rory Delap, Jim O’Brien and Jacob Mellis all starting – and Dagnall and Marlon Harewood among those on the bench. Flitcroft said: “There’s a week coming up where we have Leicester, Cardiff and Crystal Palace and I keep having sleepless nights about that. It is really driving me mad.

“It will be about rotation for me for the rest of the season.

“I spent an hour in my room before the Brighton game letting the players know who was not playing and why.

“I made some tough decisions, but they all accepted it.

“They want to win as a group and are a special bunch of players and I trust them.

“It summed it up when Steeley made the penalty save and Marlon Harewood was going crazy behind the dug-out. That is what a special unit is.

“A lot of people want you to keep the same team. But you cannot keep the same team when you lose people like Stonesy (John Stones), Stephen Dawson and Scott Golbourne. Rotation has been the right thing to do to get fresh drive in there.”