Barnsley are looking to take 'another big step' tomorrow with a win at high-flying Walsall which could possibly put them into the League One play-off places.

The Reds have won ten of their 12 league matches since December 28, picking up five more points than any club in the division in that time. They moved level with sixth-placed Coventry City on Tuesday by beating the Sky Blues and are now only outside the play-offs on goal difference. Another victory over a West Midlands club at third-placed Walsall tomorrow will reduce the gap between the clubs to four points after it was 24 at the start of 2016.

Caretaker head coach Paul Heckingbottom said: "It would be another big step for us to win at Walsall. We've probably raised eyebrows by beating Coventry and going level on points with them. Everyone is talking about us within football which is great.  

"Winning at Walsall would put another marker down for us but we're not approaching it any differently.  It would be special and we know it is a massive game. I have been really impressed with the way we have responded to big games in recent months."

Heckingbottom has taken the Reds up five places with four wins, a draw and a defeat in his six matches as caretaker since head coach Lee Johnson left for Bristol City almost a month ago. He says there have been 'no conversations' about his position being made permanent thought it is understood that he is likely to be in charge all season.

Owner Patrick Cryne said this week: "Paul Heckingbottom is not thinking like Lee Johnson. He just wants to stay at Barnsley. He might well move forward to be the first team head coach but if we decided to bring someone else in then he would have a role here for ever."

Heckingbottom said: "My role is just to win the next game and that would be my mindset whether I have a four-year contract or if I know I am leaving after the next game. I am happy to take it game by game. That decision is not in my hands.  I can't hide the fact that I love what I am doing and I would love to do it longer. But my approach to it is game by game."

Walsall have been competing for automatic promotion for the vast majority of the season and were top of League One at the end of 2015. But the Saddlers have won two of ten league games since the turn of the year – both of them away from home – and are without a victory in any of their last five matches which have brought three points and two goals. Walsall are now eight points behind leaders Burton Albion and four adrift of second-placed Wigan Athletic.

While Walsall have the best away record in the division – with only one defeat in 16 games and nine wins including a 2-0 success at Oakwell in October – their home points tally is the second lowest in the top half. Dean Smith was one of the longest-serving managers in the Football League but ended his five-year spell at the Banks's Stadium to join Brentford in November and was replaced by Sean O'Driscoll, who turned down the chance to manage Barnsley in 2013.

Heckingbottom was playing for Barnsley when they got their last win in Walsall, a 2-1 final day success in May 2006 that saw them sneak into the League One play-offs which they won. He said: "There are a few teams stumbling at the top because it's a tough league but Walsall have earned the right to be up there. "They play good football and they are pretty good defensively. "We've got to take it head on and try to impose ourselves onto Walsall."