Michael Duff hails battling Barnsley after hard-fought win at Port Vale

Barnsley boss Michael Duff was delighted with his “excellent” side after they won a “horrible game” at Port Vale.

Luca Connell showcased his immense talent with a stunning strike just 25 seconds into the first league meeting at the ground between the two sides for seven years.

Nathan Smith equalised for the hosts, but goals from Liam Kitching and substitute Adam Phillips sealed a 3-1 victory and ensured the Tykes remained in the League One play-off places.

“I thought we were excellent,” beamed Duff. “It was a horrible game, there’s no getting away from that. I don’t think it was a classic and you wouldn’t want to play on it every week.

“But you’ve got to play on what the game’s telling you and what the pitch is telling you to do.

“I thought Bobby Thomas set the tone in the first five seconds of the game by heading it 40 yards over their back three.

“The frustrating thing is we conceded from a second-phase set-play again.

“We showed the resilience that we’ve shown because they pegged us back. We’ve shown that with refereeing decisions and going behind in recent weeks and they’re positive signs.

“The grittiness, the determination, the togetherness, the fight and little bits of quality have won it for us.

“We’ve said you’ve got to do it the right way round. If you’re going to rely on the little bits of quality and not do the other bits then you’ll be found wanting.”

The hosts were condemned to their seventh game without a win and boss Darrell Clarke reflected: “It was a disastrous start.

“After 20-odd seconds we’re picking the ball out of our net and that’s not ideal.

“I thought we responded really well with our goal and then we conceded another sloppy goal from a set-piece.

“The third takes a deflection and we didn’t get back into the game after that really.

“We huffed and puffed, there was nothing wrong with the endeavour, but we keep falling short of the top six, top 10 teams in this division.

“When you look at the run that we’re on, maybe it’s a little bit of confidence lacking in the boys at times.

“Like I said to them in the dressing room ‘get your heads up because this is when you have to stick together’.

“We’ve shown that as a group over a period of time and we’ll show that again.”