Darrell Clarke said his Barnsley side were ‘nowhere near good enough’ despite registering his first win as head coach with a 2-1 success at Lincoln City.
Sam Cosgrove and Marc Roberts scored the Reds’ only shots on target then Lincoln replied and created numerous chances.
Clarke said: “Nowhere near good enough. I don’t paper over the cracks, the performance was poor. We were sloppy. We had one or two good moments and I am pleased to win so I don’t want to be too negative but we have to be better.
“Our decisioning making, transition of the ball was sloppy. We went 2-0 up with a well worked set piece, that we do a lot of work on, then we are sloppy concede a goal which puts us under pressure. We have to learn.
The good news is the group understand.
I believe I am managing a good honest group who understand that’s not the standards we set. The last two games were better than that.
"We were very loose and went backwards too much.
"Our goalkeeper probably was a little bit overworked.
"The fans were ten out of ten. We were probably three out of ten. I felt very uncomfortable for a lot of it but when I have a glass of red I will enjoy the first league win.”
Cosgrove netted his first goal of the season. Clarke said: “It was a lovely finish with his left foot in the bottom corner. It was a well-worked goal, finished off well and hopefully gives him confidence.”
On Roberts’ goal, Clarke said: “It was a great set piece goal. That wins us the game. Conor Hourihane has been doing lot of work on the attacking set plats. It’s a vital part of the game.”
Roberts added: “I have been telling Barry (Cotter) all week ‘don’t mess about with it, get down the line and cross it in.’ He put quality in the box and I haven’t havde to do much.
“Three points is the most important thing and I am pleased with how the lads dug in and the goals we scored. But we’ve definitely got to be better as a team in some aspects. We let them have too much control towards the end. It’s not easy to come here and win."
Lincoln’s Michael Skubala told BBC Lincolnshire: “It’s a tough scoreline. All in all when we look back we will say we played well. We started the game brightly. We made a mistake for the first goal, and we weren’t tight enough and it’s come from switching off which is disappointing. The second half of the first half we were on top then we conceded a soft goal. We got back in game. I am not sure I should say this but I don’t think you should punch people in the head and get away with it (an accident involving Jon Russell). I think we could have had penalty (for a tackle by Marc Roberts on Tendai Darikwa). We had eight chances and scored one and we need to shore things up at the back.”
