BARNSLEY will look to complete a positive week when they host another Yorkshire derby against Rotherham United on Saturday.
The Reds are tenth in the League One table, with 18 points from 11 games – six points off the top six and five clear of the relegation zone. They have at least one game in hand on most teams.
They drew 2-2 at high-flying Bradford City on Saturday in the league then won 5-2 at home to Manchester United under 21s in the EFL Trophy on Tuesday.
That ended a six-game winless run in all competitions but they have not won in their last four league games, losing to Blackpool and Port Vale then drawing with Wycombe Wanderers and Bradford.
Head coach Conor Hourihane told the Chronicle: “It’s been a good week.
“We’ve worked hard over the international break. We made a big point of coming back and being in a good position with results.
“We had a tough game at Bradford and got a really good point then a win in the cup. Hopefully we can follow that up with a win at the weekend.”
The Reds have conceded twice in each of their last five games in all competitions and are yet to keep a clean sheet at Oakwell under Hourihane.
Hourihane said: “I don’t think it’s just defensively. From a team element, can we defend better? Can we be more aggressive without the ball as a team? Can we win more duels as a team? Then try to control the game better as well. We need to work harder and defend better as a team more than anything.”
Rotherham moved out of the relegation zone up to 17th with a 1-0 win at home to Leyton Orient, meaning they have taken seven points from the last three games.
They won just one in nine after the opening day then but had been 2-0 up at home to Bradford before drawing 2-2 then won 2-1 at Northampton.
They had lost all five away league games, and two in the cups, before the victory at Sixfields.
Hourihane said: “They will play five at the back, they go quite long, they make it difficult. Hammy (Matt Hamshaw) is big on set plays, so that will be something we have to watch out for and stand up to. We have to try to control the game with and without the ball.
“They will have done their homework on us and we need to go about our business in the right way to try to get the result we want.”
The Millers are managed by Hamshaw who was Derby County’s assistant when Hourihane captained them to promotion last year.
“He’s a brilliant guy. I can only speak really really highly of him.
“I got on with him really well at Derby and now he’s leading the line as a head coach and doing a really really good job. I always look for their results off the back of the relationship I have with Hammy. I wish him all the best, obviously after this weekend.”
This will be Barnsley’s first home league game in nearly a month since they lost 2-0 to Port Vale – a first defeat there this season.
Hourihane said: “It does feel like a while. The last home league game was Port Vale and we need to improve on that performance for sure.
“We need the atmosphere and intensity which comes from the players and the crowd and it being a Yorkshire derby.
“It tends to help our players.”
He added: “For the Port Vale game, it was flat and quiet. Maybe that was from our poor performance, but we still need atmosphere in the crowd to add to the energy. I would ask on Saturday for a real good atmosphere to build a tempo and energy.”
Rotherham have former Barnsley midfielder Josh Benson who moved across South Yorkshire in the summer after being released by the Reds.
He made 95 appearances during four seasons at Oakwell but was badly hindered by injuries especially in his final two campaigns. He has played eight times so far for the Millers, scoring their winner at Northampton with a long-range free-kick.
Hourihane said: “It’s great for him to get a run of games and look like he’s staying fit.
“Sometimes when you leave certain clubs to move onto a different environment and energy, if you’ve been on the treatment table somewhere, it can make you change your mindset a little bit or you just react differently to their workload. A change of football club at the right time has come good for him.
“I was always a big fan of Benno, I picked him for my first couple of games then he unfortunately got injured.
“I was always a big supporter of him and he’s technically really good.
“It was just unfortunate he had a lot of injuries here.”
Barnsley have won their last seven meetings against Rotherham, including earlier this season in the EFL Cup when they came from behind at Oakwell to win 2-1 thanks to goals by Jon Russell and Adam Phillips.
Phillips scored a penalty in the Reds’ 1-0 win at The New York Stadium in February while Russell and Stephen Humphrys netted in a 2-0 home success in November last year. The Reds are unbeaten in 14 meetings since 1982 while the Millers have not won at Oakwell in 16 attempts since 1970.
Hourihane said: “That’s pretty irrelevant. Those type of stats come up sometimes when you play against certain teams. I don’t think it’s been mentioned the last couple of times we’ve played them.
“It makes the fans happy because we win more Yorkshire derbies but it absolutely doesn’t come into our thinking.”
After the Rotherham game, the Reds are set to play two more Yorkshire derbies on the next two Saturdays as they host York City in the FA Cup then visit Doncaster Rovers in the league on November 8. They then host Lincoln City in the EFL Trophy on November 11 and are scheduled to welcome Northampton Town in the league on the 15th but that could be postponed due to international call-ups.
