Barnsley's club captain admits their rollercoaster victory at Millwall on Tuesday will boost morale in the dressing room more than a comfortable victory would have done.

Lewin Nyatanga headed in an injury-time winner on his 27th birthday after the Reds had fallen behind then lost a 2-1 lead with eight minutes left.

"In a strange way, to do it that way is better for everyone's confidence," Nyatanga told the Chronicle.

"To show we can go away to a difficult place to win and to do it in the way we did is fantastic. You couldn't have written it better with it being my birthday."

The Welsh international is the oldest player at the club by two years but believes Barnsley's three successive wins have begun to answer questions – from inside and outside Oakwell – about whether such a young squad can compete in League One.

He said: "I hope all the younger players can see now that we have got a good team who can win games at this level and that we will all keep learning and improving.  We can talk about what we want to do before games and say all the right things to each other but you become a proper team by winning games together.  We have a lot of fantastic young players but we need to take that quality and potential and turn it into consistent performances because that's what you need to do in this league."

Nyatanga said he was happy to play at left-back on Tuesday although his usual position is centre-back. He is glad to face competition for his place in the middle of the defence from summer signings Marc Roberts and captain Alfie Mawson.

"Barnsley is a big club in this league and we want to get promoted back to the Championship so we need quality competition in all positions."