Barnsley boss Michael Duff was delighted to end a four-match winless and goalless run in the league with a 2-0 victory over Forest Green Rovers at Oakwell on Saturday.
The Reds had slipped out of League One’s top six with some poor recent performances but dominated their lowly visitors.
Duff told the Chronicle: “We won a game we expected to win, but you still have to win it and we haven’t done that recently. We’ve had a few conversations in the last couple of days. It’s a case of sticking together. It’s in its infancy. There has been so much change at the club. I understand I have to win games but it takes time.”
On the game, Duff said: “It was an OK performance. We weren’t brilliant. We were good in the second half..
“It was a really difficult game. People won’t see that. They will look at the league table. They will say we were in two different leagues last season. But it’s the way they play. They are very awkward.
“We knew the crowd would get itchy. The pressure and expectation was on us to win.
“We thought we could hurt them if we changed the shape, went longer, not playing in front of them all the time. We were deserved winners. The clean sheet is positive. I don’t remember Brad (Collins) making a save.”
Devante Cole headed in the opener after 15 minutes then, after the Reds missed a host of second half chances, substitute Josh Martin added a second late on.
Duff said: “The first goal is really important for us at the minute. When we’ve gone 1-0 up we’ve looked good but 1-0 down, we’ve struggled.
“It was quite quiet in the first half. We weren’t brilliant and supporters were like ‘come on.’ In the second half, the players got the supporters off their seats and they came with us.
“In the second half we opened them up five six or seven times and could have scored more. Players came off the bench and affected the game which was pleasing.”
Was he worried when Barnsley missed chances at 1-0?
“I am always worried because I know how hard it is to win a game of football. There’s no God given right because we have a bigger stadium, more fans, our budget will be bigger. We’ve struggled against the smaller teams.”
Slobodan Tedic squared the ball to fellow substitute Martin for the second goal. Duff said: “Boban deserves a lot of credit for that. He’s in a foreign country. He is on his fourth loan in a couple of years. He hasn’t scored for a long time. He missed a penalty recently. He could have been selfish but he squared it and puts the game to bed.”
Tedic came onto the bench for Jack Aitchison. Duff said: “He just wasn’t selected in the squad. We brought Boban in and Jack was the one who missed out.”
On Martin, Duff said: "He's a livewire and dribbler. Hopefully that will give him a boost. It's always good when forwards score."
Right wing-back Jordan Williams added: “We dug in. We could have been more ruthless and put the game to bed earlier.
"But we’ve created a lot of chances which is a big positive after the last few games. It’s massive to get then after the last couple of results.”
