Barnsley head coach Conor Hourihane admits that losing 6-0 to Premier League Brighton in the EFL Cup third round is ‘not nice’ but he can ‘take a lot’ from the game.
The visitors scored some excellent goals, especially Diego Gomez who netted the first four.
Hourihane told the Chronicle: “You have to recognise the level and how much they can punish you and you take your hats off to them. Looking at the team in the last round against Oxford, then when the team came through tonight it was stronger than we expected.
“The scoreline is not nice but I do feel in spells we did alright and there were a few good individual performances.”
He added: “I can take a lot from it. The scoreline paints a picture. It isn’t a 6-0 in my opinion. “It’s a bit of a mad game. We hit the woodwork three times they scored some worldies.
“But that’s the level you’re up against. When you give the ball away or come out of your shape, top teams pick holes.
“I said to the lads that’s Brighton, there are still plenty of levels above them.
“We should have defended the first goal better and it was a kick in the teeth.
“I don’t like losing games, but we just wanted to get through this unscathed and the main focus was Port Vale on Saturday.”
Hourihane was glad young players like Jono Bland and Vimal Yoganathan came up against the likes of veteran James Milner and highly-rated Carlos Baleba.
“It’s amazing. I told the lads to see where their game is at compared to that level. It’s a great experience for people like Blandy and Vimal. That’s the level they need to be aspiring to get to. Hopefully it will be an eye-opener that they are doing OK but there is so much more to do and to work towards.”
Barnsley beat Fleetwood and Rotherham in the cup before this third round loss. Hourihane said: “The Fleetwood game and Rotherham game came at great times to get minutes into players who haven’t been getting minutes in the league. This was the same even if the opposition is a lot higher.
“We’ve had a solid start to the league campaign and the teams hasn’t change that much so we’ve given players a rest.”
Mael de Gevigney finished the game at left-back. Hourihane said: “I was just filling gaps in certain areas. Nate (Ogbeta) has played so many minutes as a left-back and we don’t have a second one at the minute with Georgie Gent injured. Josh Earl can play there but I don’t really want him to. Mael was filling a gap to get Nate off the pitch.”
Jake Rooney made his debut as players are no longer cup-tied if they played for another club earlier in the competition. Hourihane said: “We only found out about it early yesterday. We benefited from it and we could rest a player. We wanted an extra body for these games. We have decent numbers to give players a breather.”
