CONOR Hourihane says he will ‘look ahead’ in Barnsley’s final nine games of the season while trying to ‘be really competitive.’
The Reds are 13th in League One, ten points off the top six play-off places and eight clear of the four-team relegation zone.
They lost 1-0 at home to Doncaster Rovers on Saturday and now have almost a fortnight without a game in the international break before playing their last nine across 29 days.
Their next match is on April 3, Good Friday, at Burton Albion.
Hourihane has admitted they are now set to finish in mid-table and suggested that he may blood more young players.
He told the Chronicle: “We will be probably look ahead a little bit. I think we’ve got to.
“I think we’ve got Friday, Monday when we come back and then obviously we’ve got the Saturday, Tuesday games up until the end.
“We obviously still want to pick up points and we want to be really competitive. I do feel like there will be an element of me looking ahead a little bit as the games go on.
“I’m not saying that would be the case straight away from Burton, but that will have to kind of filter in as the games go on.”
Barnsley have kept two clean sheets in the league this season, the fewest in English professional football, and have conceded in each of their last 23 games.
If they let in a goal at Burton and at home to Plymouth Argyle on Easter Monday, they will equal a club record of 25 games without a clean sheet in one season.
That was set in 1952/53 – when the club was in turmoil due to the illness then death of long-serving war hero manager Angus Seed – then equalled in 2002/03 when it was in danger of going out of business.
Hourihane told the Chronicle: “I agree with the clean sheets point of view.
“But I think, over this five-game period, since we’ve really honed in on it, we’ve looked way more stronger and harder to beat, but we’ve just not had the clean sheets.
“Before it was like twos and threes constantly, but we were sitting here going: ‘bloody hell, it’s way too many.’
“But we have been looking at the XG against and goals against over this last five-game period and we’ve looked way more solid.
“We’ve just not had that clean sheet at the end of it, which is probably something that I feel like we definitely deserved, but you don’t always get what you deserve.
“The Doncaster game was probably the typical game where you come away with a clean sheet, but it’s just a penalty incident that went against us.”
Hourihane has previously said that, during this international break, attention will turn to looking at next season’s squad and who the Reds will offer contracts to. They have an option to add another year to the contract of centre-backs Mael de Gevigney and Jack Shepherd plus midfielder Adam Phillips.
Those out of contract in the summer with no option include Eoghan O’Connell, Marc Roberts, Tennai Watson and David McGoldrick.
