Barnsley’s match at Luton Town tonight is not ‘win or lose for the season’ says head coach Poya Asbaghi but he admits the pressure gets greater as the winless run under him goes on.
The Reds are currently last in the Championship, eight points from safety, and winless in 12 league games while they have lost their last five.
Asbaghi, who has not won in his ten league games since taking over, told the Chronicle: “For every game we don’t win, the pressure rises. It’s not win or lose for the season against Luton. If we lose, we will not turn up against QPR on Saturday and say the season is over. But of course we cannot afford to keep losing as much as we have done. We have to start winning and hopefully we can at Luton.”
Luton are ninth, three points off the play-offs, and have won seven of their last ten games, losing just one.
Asbaghi said: “I am expecting an intense game in their home crowd, with the pitch they have. They play direct balls, (Elijah) Adebayo is a very good striker for this level. It is about handling that in our defence and creating more chances to score more goals than we have recently.
“We have been in the majority of games. I would prefer to take the lead which would put pressure on the opponents and give us a lot of confidence. But if not we need to stay in the game as long as possible and hopefully it is us who gets the decisive.”
Barnsley are yet to win an away game this season, the only EFL club yet to do so.
“We have to pick up more points on the road and at home. It is no difference, we have to develop both.”
The Reds have not scored in their last four games and are the lowest scorers in the EFL with 17 from 28 games.
“Teams in the bottom of the league cannot expect to create ten clear chances each game because then we will be in the top. We have had a fair amount of chances, but we need to be more clinical.
“I am definitely not happy with not scoring goals.”
Striker Carlton Morris added: “We look at Luton and think we should be where they are, obviously we were last season. We're in this situation for a multitude of reasons and we have to dig our way out of it starting at Luton.
“They are doing well but, from an analytical standpoint the gaffer and Ferran (assistant) are excellent at finding weaknesses. We just need to exploit their weaknesses. Kenilworth is a tough place to go but we've won there before and we can do it again.”
