Ben Pearson says Barnsley are capable of playing their way through League One if they can replicate their performance against Everton.

The 20-year-old loanee says the Reds midfield is operating differently now that Lee Johnson has had time to implement his style and ideas. And the Manchester United man did not have to be convinced into buying into them.

Pearson told the Chronicle: "I think it's a bit more dynamic and technical which I think is better, especially in this league. I think the way forward is to play your way through the league and not lump it. The manager has brought that in and I think it's only going to be good for the long-term and we'll see where we end up.

"I think we need to take that sort of performance (Everton) into the league.  You're always going to get a bit more motivated for those sorts of games with the big crowd and with the TV coverage. We have positives to take into Saturday's game against Rochdale. "If we play like that then we'll beat most teams.

"It'd be good to kick-start my goal tally for the season but my job is more to keep the goals out rather than scoring them."

The performance against Everton reinforced Pearson's belief in his team-mates. He added: "I think, for the neutral, it was an unbelievable game.  From our point of view we've shown that we can play against the best. That's what the main aim was really. We wanted to get across what our philosophy is all about. I think we did that.  We created chances and dominated for large periods of the game.  We were unlucky not to win but Everton are a good team and they were always going to score.

"They came at us in the second half and it was a bit of a shock. We can't complain because we've scored three goals against a Premier League side. "There's many positives from it. You want to be able to compete against the best and keep your heads high."