What a disappointment Saturday's 2-0 defeat against Wigan Athletic was. We had started to string together some promising results and then came crashing back to earth with silly mistakes and a failure to convert some gilt-edged opportunities.

'You never win anything with kids'. We all remember those famous Alan Hansen's words about Manchester United's class of '92. Hansen memorably had to eat his words and how the United fans enjoyed the Liverpool man's discomfort.

But was Hansen so wrong and how do those words play out in a Barnsley context? For the Class of '92 were not on their own. They had, as team-mates, a strong mature spine of senior players such as Steve Bruce, Gary Pallister, Peter Schmeichel, Eric Cantona, Dennis Irwin and Roy Keane to name just a few.

It's all about balance and leadership in those circumstances – the youthful silky skills blended with experience. I know there have been strong comments from the fans about Barnsley's perceived over-reliance on too many young players. They are recruited, it has been said, by an analytical scoreboard and are being groomed for subsequent onward profitable sale.

There is nothing wrong with a model built on youth properly researched on a skills basis rather than a team constructed from anecdote and selective video clips – a very uncertain and lazy methodology. However, such a team has to have a balance with attitude and leadership.

That has been lacking to an extent in our team and steps have and are being taken to redress the imbalance. Losing game after game and achieving records for defeats is confidence-draining for everyone – fans, players and staff alike, particularly our young players.

So a few weeks ago, the board brought in the well-respected sports psychologist, Bill Beswick, to meet the head coach, staff and players. Bill has advised a number of football associations around the world as well as Premier League clubs. He has also been working with our British Swimming team of young but already world class athletes including three-time World Champion, Adam Peaty, who was one of the contenders in Sunday's Sports Personality of the Year.

What we wanted Bill to do was to examine issues of confidence, attitude and character among staff and players and demonstrate how to create the right environment and backbone for successful results. We also wanted him to assist the squad with techniques of belief and concentration, identify why and how mistakes are occurring and look to achieve the gains which have helped sports teams such as British cycling to excel at Olympic and world level.

All in all, Bill was impressed with what he found at Barnsley: excellent facilities, bright training and a good energy. However, he did identify a number of areas for improvement as we would expect from the club's league position. Everyone felt that his visit was beneficial and certainly the performances which followed demonstrated a considerable improvement.

With a packed Christmas programme, let us hope that we can put Saturday behind us and continue our progression. We must also not forget that we have the Johnstone's Paint Trophy Northern Final games to play with the Wembley final a great incentive.

I would like to finish by wishing all our supporters a happy Christmas and a prosperous and healthy New Year.