Conor Hourihane says moments like the late equaliser against Bradford have made all his hard work as Barnsley head coach this season worthwhile.

It was announced before the game that the head coach would leave at the end of the season, with the search for his replacement already at an advanced stage.

The Reds played with ten men for 90 minutes after Vimal Yoganathan’s early dismissal but levelled in the 96th minute.

Asked if such a good game made him emotional to be leaving, Hourihane told the Chronicle: “It’s part of the territory that I'm walking into, in terms of moving in different ways in the summer.

“Those moments are what makes it worthwhile in terms of the early mornings, the long hours, the preparation, because the gameplan.

“The work ethic and the care and the want to win games over the course of the 15 or so months has been there for everyone to see. There are inconsistencies, decision-making around certain bits and pieces that I can reflect on and do better in certain scenarios.”

Hourihane says he wants to stay in management.

“I want to be head coach in the game.

"Don't get me wrong. Do I feel like this last 15 months is going to make me a better head coach moving forward? Absolutely.

“There's been some challenging moments, some brilliant moments, but the fire is still there to be a successful head coach. And obviously I'd like to put on record, you know, not every person gets an opportunity like this so early in their coaching career. So the opportunity that the club have given me for the last 15 months to take over from into interim, into permanent manager. It's only going to be ever a thanks from me because I feel like I'll be a significantly better coach moving forward after the experience.”

Eoghan O’Connell opened the scoring with his first Barnsley goal.

“Bonesy is a top, top guy. It was a great header.

“I think he's been consistently really, really good. He's been very close over the last few games to getting on the end of something. He had one at Rotherham, he had one at Port Vale. I think he had one earlier on in the first half.

“Their ‘keeper is obviously a big boy as well, so you need to put it really in the corner to go and beat him.

“With us down to ten men, every opportunity, we wanted to get in territory and put the ball in the box and put him on the pressure on them.”

Marc Roberts scored an own goal to put Bradford ahead.

“I thought Robbo was brilliant. It’s the life of a defender, little nick from a threatening ball.

“So many of them get cleared, so many of them run through to the goalkeeper.

“It’s ultimately unfortunate for himself and the team, we but stuck with it, kept battling and it's great to have got something again.”

It was a third equaliser on 90 minutes or later in six games.

“Brilliant trait to have. Never say die attitude.

“Lads are giving me everything. I'm so proud of how we've gone about the last three games, really.

“You know, Rotherham was a pressure game. Port Vale, obviously we needed to get something from it.

“We should have won against Bradford. Obviously we got something from it.”

Josh Earl came off at half-time in his third game in a week following a long injury lay-off.

“I was umming and arring about playing Josh, to be honest with you, in this game. “He's been out for a long time. He's had two real good solid performances, but we knew that there was going to be an opportunity or a game where we'd have to take him out. He felt like his body was a little bit tired after ten or 15 minutes.

“We kind of were looking at each other going, are you OK? So it was just kind of the right substitution at the right time.

“But probably more of a fatigue, body-struggling thing after coming back and having two tough games in a short space of time. He should be OK for Tuesday night.”