BARNSLEY’S outside chances of sleepwalking into a relegation fight in the third division could become a real life nightmare if they have another poor week this week.

Conor Hourihane admitted after the home humiliation by Plymouth on Monday that they need wins to make sure they are not sucked into the scrap to stay out of League Two.

It should be humbling and humiliating for a Reds manager with some of the best attacking players in the division, albeit a real lack of depth, to even be saying those words. But the priority is to make sure that, by next week, they have no chance of going down then they can assess what went wrong and how to move forward.

Realistically, the Reds may well already have enough points to stay up with 51.

They are seven places above the drop zone with three games in hand plus all the bottom three to visit in their last seven fixtures.

Fourth-bottom Exeter City ended a 15-game winless run by beating Doncaster on Monday and are five points below the Oakwell club.

A couple more Grecian wins in their last four fixtures would blow the relegation fight wide open but they play three promotion-chasers in Plymouth, their bitter rivals on Saturday lunchtime, Stockport and Bradford as well as fellow strugglers Burton.

If Barnsley get to 55 points with a win and draw, it is unimaginable that they will go down.

The last team to be relegated from League One with 51 points were Torquay in 2004/05 while the highest total of a relegated side to the fourth tier, since three points per win came in, was Southend’s 54 in 1988/89.

But if they do not get at least one win at third-bottom Rotherham on Saturday, and bottom club Port Vale on Tuesday, the Reds deserve to be in the relegation fight and you would have to question where any more wins would come from. Those two sides both won at Oakwell this season but are almost certainly going to drop into the fourth tier this month.

Even if we assume they will stay up, Barnsley need to improve on recent performances and results to generate some positivity going into next season and replenish the dwindling backing for Hourihane and his squad.

Can Barnsley players flip mentality to relegation battle?

Can this Barnsley team, who have shown a flimsy mentality and brittle resilience for much of the season, cope with a sudden shift from mid-table with ambitions of promotions to needing wins to avoid relegation? They will need to match the intensity of two teams fighting for their lives.

The Reds are winless in six, drawing four and losing two – which would be the other way round had they not netted last-gasp levellers against teams below them in Wigan and Burton. The last time they didn’t win in seven was pretty much this time last year when Hourihane took over from Darrell Clarke while the most recent eight-match winless sequence in the third tier was under Lee Johnson in 2015 when Hourihane was in the playing squad.

Millers on brink of relegation

Rotherham are 14 points behind the Reds having played a game more.

They have only won one of their last 12 games and their loss at Vale on Tuesday means they are almost certainly going down, 11 points from safety.

The Millers, who have up to ten players out injured, will have one day fewer to prepare than Barnsley, for whom the five-day gap between the Plymouth game and the trip to The New York Stadium will be their longest period without a game in this frantic conclusion to the season.

Matt Hamshaw, who lives in Barnsley, was sacked last month, with his ex-Red assistant Dale Tonge leaving shortly after, while Lee Clark returned to the EFL after his only jobs in the last nine years were with Blyth Spartans then in Sudan and Oman.

They are yet to score or win in three games under Clark, who lost 5-0 at home to Barnsley when Birmingham manager in 2013 but then won two and drew one of the other three meetings.

Barnsley have not lost at Rotherham in six visits since 1982, winning the last four including all three of their trips to their current ground.

They lost at home to the Millers in October, ending a very one-sided sequence which had seen them win seven in a row and not lose in the fixture for 43 years.

Other than their win at Oakwell, Rotherham have a poor record in all-Yorkshire games this season, taking one point from six meetings with Bradford, Doncaster and Huddersfield. Barnsley have taken seven points from six meetings with fellow Yorkshire clubs, with Rotherham and Bradford to play.

Some big selection decisions for Conor

Hourihane has some important selection decisions to make ahead of Saturday’s match.

Jack Shepherd had one of his worst matches of a torrid season on Monday and may be due another break from the side, with fit-again Josh Earl the obvious replacement although he can also be error-prone and would be another centre-back playing at left-back.

Barnsley’s left-back will probably come up against Harry Gray, the son of former Reds striker Andy.

Whether to put Tennai Watson back at right-back or continue with Jono Bland is another conundrum, if Corey O’Keeffe is still out injured.

With Barnsley needing attacking spark, there is a strong case to recall Adam Phillips who is one of the best attacking players in the division on form but has started just one of the last six games.

Hourihane must find a line-up which allows him to avoid a club record of 26 consecutive games without a clean sheet in one season.

Although wins are more important, the Reds will not get a better chance to keep shut-outs than at Rotherham – who have not netted in four games – then Port Vale who are the lowest scorers in the division.

The Millers do have a striker in Sam Nombe who has caused Barnsley issues in the past.

It is also a chance to reward their loyal away supporters. The Reds have won two of 16 away games this season, since winning the first two.

They may post one of their worst away points total for decades at this level but still have five away games left, including at all the bottom three.

But, again, two wins are surely the main goal this week – however they come.