CONOR Hourihane believes Barnsley’s chances of a very late promotion challenge this season rest on the next three games and said: ‘we know if we want to do anything this season we have to have a really good week.’
The Reds are 13th in League One, eight points off the top six and ten points clear of the relegation zone. They have games in hand on most other teams.
This week they played at home twice, winning 2-1 over Exeter City on Saturday then drawing 1-1 against second-placed Cardiff City on Tuesday.
They are now due to visit fellow mid-table club Mansfield Town on Saturday before hosting two relegation-battlers in Wigan Athletic on Tuesday then near neighbours Doncaster Rovers on March 21 before a possible two-week international break.
Hourihane told the Chronicle: “I think the next three games are going to be really important to really know how our season’s going to pan out.
“Are we going to be mid-table, potentially, like we are currently if we don’t get a real positive points return over these next three games?
“If we get a real positive points return over these next three games, let’s see what happens because we’ve still got a couple of games in hand.”
Have they set a points target for these three games?
“Not really. But we know we need to win a couple to try to push forward.
“Then we’ll have nine games after the international break which will probably be the most in the league. That will be a real opportunity to push forward if we have a good week this week.”
The majority of Barnsley’s remaining games are against teams below them, especially in the next eight matches before they face teams currently in the top eight such as Bradford, Stevenage and Stockport. That adds to the idea that Barnsley have a chance to pick up a lot of points in the next few weeks but Hourihane said: “You can’t think like that. Mansfield will bring challenges, Wigan will, Doncaster will.
“It doesn’t matter who you are playing whether it’s top of the league, bottom of the league, middle of the road – you have to be fully ready for these games.
“If you come off it any little bit, that’s when you get results you don’t want.”
After Saturday’s game was interrupted by a small fan protest which saw tennis balls thrown onto the pitch, the atmosphere in midweek was very supportive.
Hourihane told the Chronicle: “I think it was good.
“I still think there’s more energy and more volume in us all, if I’m honest.
“I think the fans want to see us pressing aggressively, and we want to play it that way. A lot of the time at home, we get the opposite because we control the ball at times and teams, like Exeter, are sitting against us. But we had to press hard against a team like Cardiff because they want to dominate the ball.
“At the weekend, there was a little bit of frustration because I felt like we were winning the game, and some of the reaction from the crowd was a little bit disappointing.
“But on Tuesday, they were right behind the team from start to finish.
“And it just shows when everyone is together what you can do.”
Barnsley have not kept a clean sheet for 20 games and have the fewest in the English leagues this season with two, but they have shown signs of some defensive improvements in recent weeks. Hourihane said: “It looks a lot more solid. Over the last four games we’ve conceded four whereas the previous four was seven or eight.
“The clean sheet hasn’t quite got there.
“If we concede one for these next block of games, we will score goals and I would imagine we would pick up points.
“We’ve done a lot of work on it and the trio of Owen Goodman, Eoghan O’Connell and Mael (de Gevigney) have done really really well and made us look more solid.”
Specifically on goalkeeper Goodman, Hourihane said: “Owen’s been really, really good. The only one for Owen, and he’ll say it himself, was the goal at Leyton Orient. Other than that, we’re not speaking about Owen because he’s been really consistent and absolutely fine. He’s not had any issues in terms of making anyone anxious or the defence anxious.”
