Paul Heckingbottom says Barnsley being safe from relegation with a month left in the Championship campaign is a 'superb achievement' but believes next season will be even more difficult.

With five games to play, the 13th-placed Reds – who secured safety with a 2-0 win at Blackburn Rovers on Saturday – are 13 points away from the top six and 16 clear of the bottom three, who can no longer catch them.

Head coach Heckingbottom – who guided his hometown club to promotion last season – told the Chronicle: "I'm really proud to be safe already and it's a superb achievement. If we were talking at the start of the season or even after we got those wins early on in the season (the Reds won five of their first seven matches), everyone would have snapped your hand off for the position we are in now.

"But it's just the first part of it and this league is going to get a lot tougher next season, of that I am sure. "We know how hard it has been this year and we know we have to improve to have any chance of doing the same next year."

Plenty of big name clubs with larger budgets are likely to join Barnsley in the Championship for the 2017/18 campaign with Sunderland and Middlesbrough close to being relegated from the Premier League and the Reds' local rivals Sheffield United already promoted from League One while Bolton Wanderers are favourites to join them.

Heckingbottom, who has operated with one of the smallest budgets in the league, said: "I am looking at the league and the possible clubs who are coming up and down and it is going to be even tougher.  Our finances aren't changing but it will seem like they are going backwards because of the clubs who are coming into the league.

"We'll be shopping in a different market to most clubs and it is tough, but we know we can get it right if we work really, really hard when we get those players in the building. Some will hit the ground running, some will take all season but get there eventually like George Moncur and some won't be good enough – but the fewer we can get of the latter the better we will be.

"What will be attractive for us is the players know we will have a small squad and they know we have given players a chance. That's what we have got over everybody else."

The Reds were just four points off the play-offs in eighth in January before selling top-scorer Sam Winnall, captain Conor Hourihane and regular right-back James Bree. They have since picked up 18 points from 16 matches. Asked if he felt Barnsley could have been promoted if they had not sold that trio, Heckingbottom said: "We were definitely in with a chance.

"But that's the way it is and we have some more money now to improve the club. The skill is selling people at the right time to maximise profit and selling the right people. "It's very hard to keep creating something new over and over again."

Heckingbottom has said he is expecting to have to sign more than 12 new players in the summer. All six loanees are expected to return to their parent clubs while out-of-contract stars Josh Scowen and Marley Watkins are likely to be snapped up by rivals with bids expected for in-contract players such as captain Marc Roberts.

Heckingbottom said: "We're always thinking about our transfer plans and we have been all season. "But all those things will be sorted at the end of the season.  We want to finish as strongly as we can then it will become apparent to everyone what we are going to do and the direction we are going to go in.

"There are always dynamics changing in terms of who we are bringing in and what money is available. I have in my mind the idea of who we will bring in but I know all those deals will not happen so there are always trade-offs to get what you want. No players have said that they will definitely be leaving."