Daniel Stendel happy to see Barnsley maintain unbeaten start to season

Posted Sunday, August 19, 2018 by PA

Barnsley manager Daniel Stendel was pleased his side maintained their unbeaten start to the season despite a goalless draw at home to Wimbledon.

Barnsley started the match strongly as the first chance fell to Brad Potts who fired over the bar, after Dimitri Cavare won the ball high up the pitch.

The visitors responded as Adam Davies did well to deny a long range effort from Tom Soares in the 12th minute, before Kwesi Appiah curled a free-kick just over the bar.

In a tightly contested affair, Wimbledon’s defence stayed resolute under sustained pressure from the hosts.

Appiah could have put the Dons ahead in 56th minute but he shot straight at the keeper after good link-up play with Scott Wagstaff.

Barnsley’s best chance of the second half came when Kieffer Moore ran onto a long ball before crossing to Tom Bradshaw but his shot was well blocked by Deji Oshilaja.

Stendel said: “In the end it’s still a clean sheet and we’re happy with that.

“If you told me three weeks ago that we would have seven points after three matches then I would’ve taken it.

“We made a good start to the match and created lots of chances from our crosses.

“I think if we could have been a bit more ruthless then we might have scored and won the match at the end.

“In the second half, we still had a positive attitude but we were up against a very strong and physical opponent so it wasn’t easy to create chances.

“We would’ve had to take a risk and we didn’t want to do that because we could get caught on the break.”

When asked if he was frustrated by Wimbledon’s performance, he said: “No, we have to find a way and if we win in the last 20 minutes or from a set piece, it would be fine for us.

“I feel that I would probably do the same when they play against us again.”