Conor Hourihane said his side deserved their 3-2 home win over Reading on Saturday despite being ‘flat’.

After Josh Earl’s opener was cancelled out, Davis Keillor-Dunn and Adam Phillips made it 3-1 before a consolation goal.

Hourihane said: “I think we deserved it. We started both halves really well. I asked them for a big start so it was pleasing.

“We conceded a goal against the run of play in the first half then I told the lads to crank it up at half-time because the game was there to win. We were really good and scored two. Their second goal was bad timing.

“Overall we were a little bit flat, and so was the crowd.

“We’ve had an international break which was lovely.

“I always want a relentless, at it full focus performance but sometimes you have to grind out a not so great performance. This was a game to get through.”

Earl opened the scoring from a corner. Hourihane said: “We’re hoping we score a lot from set pieces. We’ve worked it a lot attacking and defensively. Ed Davies (set piece coach) has been relentless.

“I am massive on them. They win and lose you games. We were playing really well at the start but ultimately it was a set play goal.”

The equaliser saw goalkeeper Murphy Cooper run out of his box but lose the ball to Jack Marriott who scored.

“He made a little bit of an error, maybe. He made the right decision not to pull him down and panic. To keep 11 men on the pitch was key for us in the game but he made two top saves two very very big moments late on so credit to him for bouncing back.”

The second home goal saw Luca Connell brilliantly play a cross field pass to Nathanael Ogbeta who set up Davis Keillor-Dunn to head in.

Hourihane said: “We work on that a lot. I am delighted for Nate, we work on getting him in behind. He’s got to be fit, we want him on the last line which lets Didzy come inside.”

Ogbeta added: “Luca has got a flipping unbelievable range of passing. We’ve been working on it in training and everything came off. Me and Davo have tried to get this connection going. We had one offside against Huddersfield. I am glad we were able to score this time.”

Barnsley are unbeaten at home this season. Hourihane said: “People spoke about home form so much and we’ve put it well and truly to bed with how we’ve started. Hopefully moving forward we can have a little bit more of atmosphere because sometimes the lads will be flat and we need momentum from the crowd to pull us through.”