HEAD coach Conor Hourihane felt his side lacked ‘energy and intensity’ after a 3-0 defeat at home to Plymouth.

A double from Owen Oseni and a goal from Lorent Tolaj sank the Reds to their second straight home defeat in a 3-0 loss at home to Plymouth.

Hourihane thought that Plymouth’s second goal was against the run of play, but ultimately admits they did not deserve anything from the game.

He said: “We got into some good areas and played some decent stuff, we were just lacking that little bit of quality in the final third.

“I felt like the second goal was a little bit against the run of play but when that goal went in I just felt the game went away from us.

“I felt like we could have done more then in the last 35-40 minutes then to try and push forward.

“I just felt like there wasn't any intensity or energy there to try and get back in the game.”

They are now without a win in six and are only five points above the drop zone in League One.

Hourihane said: “Obviously we were really free-flowing for the majority of the season, scoring lots of goals, even if we gave away a couple, we were always scoring two or three.

“I think that’s stalled a little bit which is probably our downfall at the minute.

“We're just probably lacking that little bit of confidence at the minute.”

The three goals conceded meant that Barnsley have now not kept a clean sheet in their last 25 games.

It equals a club record 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 said: “I think we've mentioned it a lot over the course of the season now about the goals that we give away and it's a big head-scratcher because we do untold work on defending as a team, defending around the box.

“We're just not carrying it out well enough when we go on to a game day.

“It’s really frustrating.”