CONOR Hourihane says bringing in an extra striker on deadline day ‘ultimately didn’t fall for us’ and Barnsley will now focus on ‘getting as many wins as we can’ while keeping an eye on the unpromising free agent market.

The Reds’ business on deadline day saw them sell top-scorer Davis Keillor-Dunn to Wrexham for a fee understood to be £2million, rising to £3million with add-ons, and bring former striker Tom Bradshaw back on loan.

The new arrival added to the signings of Tawanda Chirewa late last week and, earlier in the window, Eoghan O’Connell, Owen Goodman, Charlie Lennon and Scott Banks.

The Reds attempted to bring in another striker, including their former players Jacob Brown and John McAtee, but could not get any more deals done.

Hourihane told the Chronicle: “We’ve lost Davo, which is frustrating. I’m not going to sit here and say I didn’t want another one. I think it’s obvious that we all did and it just wasn’t to be.

“We tried, but ultimately, it didn’t fall for us, which is frustrating.

“I think the pace factor would have been something that we would have liked. Someone a little bit different that can really stretch and get behind teams.

“For example, Northampton (Tuesday’s visitors) sat in a mid to low block at times and you want to try and slip down the side or you want to have them run in behind to make it look a little bit different than just playing in front of them all the time.

“It’s a solution that we obviously didn’t get.

“We tried. We definitely, definitely tried. It is disappointing that we didn’t get it.”

Barnsley can still sign free agents who have no club.

Hourihane told the Chronicle: “I think it’s a market where you can look.

“If something falls and we think that would be decent, then why not?

“But right now, to my knowledge from what we’ve looked at so far, there isn’t much there. But we’ll wait and see.”

Barnsley’s only senior strikers are 38-year-old David McGoldrick – who is in fine form with five goals in his last four games – and 33-year-old Bradshaw who has not started in six months and not scored in 18 months.

The Reds still have 20 games to play in less than three months.

Hourihane told the Chronicle: “The squad is what it is now. The window’s closed.

“There’s been loads of questions over the course of the last couple of weeks.

“How many players will we get in and who’s going to stay and who’s going to go? We are where we are now.

“We know the bodies that we have, so we just have to move forward with it.”

The Reds are 14th in League One, six points clear of the relegation zone and 11 off top the six, having won 3-1 at home to Stevenage on Saturday then drawn 2-2 at home to lowly Northampton.

They still have at least one game in hand on all other teams.

It is understood that the club have decided to reinvest the Keillor-Dunn money in the summer rather than spend it in January, which has been interpreted by some as the owners accepting a mid-table finish this season.

Hourihane said: “I think that’s for everyone else to decide.

“If they feel like the club are accepting mid-table, then that’s for everyone else to have their opinion.

“I want to try and win as many games of football for this club, a club that obviously I care about a lot.

“There’s a lot of people in this building that care about it.”

Hourihane said before the weekend that the two games this week and deadline day would send a message about where the club was going. Asked what message had been sent, he told the Chronicle: “I think performance and results-wise, it’s been OK. I think we’ve changed the system and went with two wingers and we’re playing some good football at the minute, in my opinion, and creating loads of chances.

“Would we have liked to have an extra body to really share the workload a little bit to help the squad? Yes.

“I think the picture is being painted.

“It is what it is.

“We didn’t manage to get that body and we’ll move on and try and get as many good results as we can over the next few weeks.”

Kelechi Nwakali, the Nigerian international midfielder who has been outcast from the first team squad this season, did not move away in the window.

Wing-back Barry Cotter had interest from clubs in the Irish League but remains on loan at Notts County where he has not played since September.