Conor Hourihane called Lincoln’s second goal in a 3-1 Barnsley loss on Tuesday ‘a complete moment of madness’.

The Reds had just equalised from Davis Keillor-Dunn when the home goalkeeper’s kick went straight through to Tom Bayliss to score.

The head coach said: “The first half was bitty, stop-start and not loads of energy in the crowd. I thought we did OK at times but I asked the lads to step it up a couple of gears because I felt the game was there for us. I didn’t think there was anything in the game. Until we scored in the second half, we did very well. It looked like we were going to score and we were on the front foot.

“Then after scoring it’s a complete moment of madness. To concede like that is crazy. I can’t get my head round it. I am not sure what they are thinking or doing as a team. We’ve worked so hard to get back in the game at a tough place. I feel like if we saw out couple of minutes we could go back to dominating the ball and creating more chances. We let them off the hook massively. They had them where they wanted them and threw it away.

“It’s frustrating because we could have come away from something from a really good side.”

He added: “I don’t think it’s to do with defensive mentality or defensive weakness, it’s just a moment of madness that you probably won’t see for a very long time again.”

Lincoln’s third was a header from a long throw. Hourihane said: “The third goal is what they do. Something they do all the time, long throws in the box. But they get the upper hand off the second goal.”

Asked if Barnsley missed their more experienced defenders such as the ill Josh Earl and Marc Roberts who was on the bench after injury, in that moment, Hourihane said: “Maybe so. But we still had older players in the team and you’re looking at them to regroup. In games you have to feel when you have a team where you want them and you’re playing well. They just needed to come through a couple of minutes and no doubt they would have gone on to dominate the game, but as soon as that goal goes in it’s a completely different game.”

Goalkeeper Murphy Cooper added: “As the ball went up the pitch we tried to squeeze and get really high when we needed to play the conditions, we know the goalie has a big kick with the wind behind him. It bounced three off four times before it got to the box. We need to learn because we can’t concede straight from kick-off. There are moments you need to be responsible and not take those risks. If we deal with it we have the momentum but it gave us mountain to climb and the third goal is disappointing from a team perspective.”

Captain Luca Connell was booked for diving so will miss Saturday’s game with Leyton Orient. Hourihane said: “It looked harsh. I would have to see it back. Did he really dive over? I am not too sure. I thought it was a bit harsh.”