‘Work in progress’ Barnsley produce a performance Michael Duff was proud of

Posted Sunday, November 20, 2022 by PA

Barnsley head coach Michael Duff felt his side put in their best home performance of the season as they cruised to a 3-1 victory over MK Dons.

Adam Phillips and Herbie Kane scored in the second half after Jordan Williams’ 18th-minute opener was cancelled out by Dons’ Mohamed Eisa before the interval.

Victory moved the hosts into the League One play-off places and their boss was pleased with what he saw.

Duff said: “I thought we were as good as we have been at home. We looked a threat from minute one.

“I’m disappointed we weren’t winning comfortably by half-time, but we started the second half as we did the first and it’s a credit to the players.

“We mixed it up and played some good football.

“We’re a work in progress, we nearly went a month without scoring a goal.”

On the performance of Williams & Nicky Cadden, Duff said: “When you play with a back five, you’re only as strong as your wingbacks.

“They covered a lot of ground, Jordan did well to get there for the first goal. He has been excellent every time he’s played.

“Nicky is starting to look like the player we signed, he had a bit of a stop-start pre-season. He rarely takes three stepovers and beats a man, he’s touch & deliver.

“The centre-forwards have built a relationship with him. They should be knowing where to run.

“I thought Herbie was good, he took his goal well. There were lots of great performances.”

MK Dons head coach Liam Manning was disappointed after a third league game without a win left his side six points adrift of safety.

He said: “It’s a frustrating one, we didn’t start the game great. We conceded a poor goal.

“They started the first half extremely well. We showed a good response, we showed togetherness and spirit, but in the second half we didn’t get going.

“The message at half-time was that the game was there for us. I was pleased with the momentum we had, but they’re extremely well coached and difficult to go through.

“Just because we’ve had a run of five or six games where we’ve performed well doesn’t mean we were going to continue that trajectory.

“We need to reflect and put all of our energy into changing the level and consistency of our performances.”

On his side’s position in the league table, Manning said: “To be honest I haven’t looked much, all I know is we need to win games and I don’t need to look at the table for that.

“I know there’s good players and a good team in there. It’s just about consistency.”