CENTRE-back Jack Shepherd believes he has improved as a player since his last FA Cup appearance for the Reds against Horsham two years ago – and he’s hoping a win today will kickstart Barnsley’s season.
The 24-year-old signed for the Reds in 2023 from non-league Pontefract Collieries having played in non-league for Barnsley teams Penistone Church and Athersley Rec.
He played in the infamous Horsham replay later that year in his only FA Cup appearance for Barnsley to date.
But after a successful spell out on loan at Bradford City last season, he believes he’s certainly improved as a player since.
He said: “I’d like to think that I’m a better player.
“I feel like I’ve grown in terms of experience.
“I’ve played a lot of games and you can gain experience by doing things wrong.
“We’re all human so we’re going to make mistakes in the game and on the training pitch.
“It’s just about how you learn from them.”
Barnsley have not kept a clean sheet since a 1-0 win away at Peterborough on August 19.
But he says the team aren’t getting too down about it.
“We’ve grown massively as a unit and a back four,” he said.
“We need to not get too disheartened by the results recently and keep focused on what we’ve been doing.
“The results and the clean sheets will come.
“At the end of the day we defenders want clean sheets.
“If we keep doing what we’re doing then I’m sure they’ll come.”
Shepherd said the team have to view tomorrow’s opponents like any other, and not focus that they are in the National League.
He added: “We’ve just got to go into it as the same as any normal game.
“It doesn’t matter what position they’re in.
“We’ve got to go into it with the right mentality and go in in the right way.
“They’re doing will in the league and they’ll bring a few fans so it’ll be a good test for us.”
He said that he’s excited to play in the FA Cup again – and knows that momentum is key so a win is vital.
He added: “Momentum’s a massive thing in football so it’s something that we can build on.
“We can use the game as a platform to take into the game after.
“It’s a massive competition.
“It’s got a lot of history.
“We want to win and move into the next round.”
