Darrell Clarke pleased with Barnsley’s response in victory at Shrewsbury

Barnsley boss Darrell Clarke believes it was a “good response” from his players after they beat Shrewsbury 2-0.

The Tykes had only won once in their previous six games before coming to Shropshire, having drawn 2-2 with Charlton on Tuesday night.

Barnsley opened the scoring just before half-time through Jonathan Russell’s superb strike. Max Watters added a second when he slotted home at Toby Savin’s near post.

Shrewsbury have struggled to find the back of the net, with this defeat making it three consecutive games without a goal.

The hosts’ best chance came from Tom Bloxham but his thunderous long-range effort was parried to safety by Ben Killip.

“It was a good response from the players,” Clarke said. “I thought we were pretty dominant first half and we got the goals by the start of the second half.

“It was a great finish by Jon Russell, who has come into the team the past three games and has been excellent.

“He is worthy of a goal because he hit the bar the other day and had one cleared off the line.

“You don’t know how games will pan out, but I thought we worked the ball well; we worked the opportunities to get the ball forward in good areas.

“From the back to the middle third to the final third, we created chances.

“It was pleasing to get the goal on half-time.

“We’ve lost some points from winning positions this season; I go back to the Northampton game where we were 2-0 up. We should see the game out the right way and take unnecessary risks and it ends 2-2, but the players learned that today.”

Shrewsbury boss Paul Hurst said: “We were second best for almost all the game and Barnsley are good at what they do and we struggled on the basics of football.

“We had an idea of turning them around, and we did that once with George Lloyd, but other times, we turned that down.

“To be fair, I thought we defended most of the set plays well; we know they are a massive threat from it.

“To concede straight after half-time from exactly what we were trying to do in turning it down the sides.

“It was a good ball; the lad cuts inside and scores too easily and from there, it was an uphill struggle.

“We have to do a hell of a lot better; that’s the bottom line. Irrespective of that, I do think we have come up against a very strong team that are hard to play against.”