Michael Duff said Barnsley produced a 'good performance' in their 2-0 loss at Charlton Athletic on Saturday.

The Reds have now lost all three games in 2023, scoring no goals and conceding eight. They remain sixth in League One with games in hand on teams around them.

Charlton scored in both halves whereas Barnsley hit the crossbar twice and had periods of dominance.

Head coach Duff said: “It was a tough afternoon in terms of the result, but not in terms of the performance. I thought it was a good performance.

“We've come here, hit the crossbar twice. Another referee decision has gone against us at 1-0 and the second goal is two yards offside.

“We had 23 shots, our disappointment is that there were only two shots on target within that. But I don't think many teams will come here between now and the end of the season and dominate the game like we did there.

“It's where we're at at the minute, a little bit of bad luck. I thought the general performance was good.”

The Reds have not won from behind this season.

Duff said: “We need to score a goal ultimately, there's no getting away from it.

“We've had three defeats in a row. The first one there referee decisions within it, the next one we weren't as good and today I thought we were excellent.

“We looked good, we switched the play and got down the sides of them. We had shots that were hitting our own men, shots cleared off the line and hitting the crossbar twice.

“Sometimes you can over-analyse and look for things that aren't there. It was a good performance.”

Duff was frustrated with the second goal which he thought was offside.

“I'm not allowed to go and speak to him (the referee).

“The frustration is we worked really hard on crunching the pitch and getting out of the box and doing all of that.

“We told the referee before the game, we pre-warned him that we'd had a few refereeing decisions go against us because the linesmen haven't been keeping up with play.

“Low and behold it happens again. It kills the game because at 1-0 down after 60 minutes we're totally dominant, we're totally on top. Yes they have a threat on the counter because they've got good players.

“It's frustrating because we've had it a couple of times in the last couple of weeks, but we've got to get our heads down and focus on next week.

“We haven't got a clean sheet or scored a goal, so there are things to work on.

“I'll end up getting in trouble if I say too much.

“You come to a tough place, they've had really good results recently and we've dominated the game.

“It's big decisions in big moments that have cost us.

“We can't have 65 per cent of possession and 23 shots and not score a goal. There are bits we can't hide behind and we need to improve those parts of the pitch.”

On the first goal, Duff said: “We turned the ball over in the middle of the pitch, but that's the way they play - they play on the counter.

“Brad (Collins, goalkeeper) will be slightly disappointed I'd imagine, but it's a team game and we win and lose together.”

Barnsley’s Nicky Cadden hit the bar at 1-0. Duff said: “If he scores that on the stroke of half time he makes it a different game. It's one of 20-odd shots.

“We've had them cleared off the line, they hit the post and it falls to one of their players, we hit the crossbar twice and it doesn't. The general performance is all I can go on. I tell the players all the time to look after the performance because the results are my job.

“I'll take that performance because if we play that game ten times, I think we win it seven or eight times. Overall it's disappointing, but there were good bits within it.”