Barnsley head coach Darrell Clarke passed on his condolences to Blackpool manager Steve Bruce and family after the tragic death of his grandson which meant he missed the Reds’ 2-1 win at Bloomfield Road on Saturday.

There was a minute’s silence for the four-year-old and the players wore black armbands.

Davis Keillor-Dunn put the visitors in front then, after the hosts levelled in the second half, Marc Roberts won it in injury-time.

Clarke said: “First of all, I want I pass on my condolences to Steve Bruce and the family. It’s so sad. I know how hard it is to lose loved ones. Steve is a good man. I wish his family the best.

“On our performance, we had nine or ten days to work with the lads and we wanted to see what we worked on in this game. We did that for lots of the game. It wasn’t vintage and we were a little bit loose at times but it was a lot better performance than the last two or three games. Blackpool are a good team who have been on a good run.

“I'm really proud of them today. The intensity in training had been very good.

“We scored a great goal – three or four passes of great quality then a finish from Davis.

"We’re disappointed to concede from a set piece, we need to see where that went wrong. We were on the ropes for ten or 15 minutes but the resilience was pleasing.

“We’ve still got loads to do. We’re not the finished article by any stretch of the imagination. We’re got four wins from six away from home, that’s top two form. Now we need to sort the home form out starting from Tuesday. That’s the message straight away to the players.”

Roberts netted his third goal of the season. Clarke said: “Robbo loves this club. He would die for it. He’s one of the senior boys ands he leads by example. It was really pleasing he got the winner. I don’t know what it came off and I don’t care.”

Roberts added: “It’s the best shoulder you’ve ever seen. It doesn’t matter how it goes in. I am glad to get the winner. You could see what it meant to everyone.

“It was a tough game and a really good result. We showed some flashes of what we can do and there are things we need to get better at.

“We had bit of a wake-up call with the last few results and this was a bit of a reaction but we need to be consistent now.”

Jon Russell started for the first time in the league under Clarke. The head coach said: “In the last few weeks he’s been excellent in training. I said places were up for grabs. He’s trained well and took his chance.”

Clarke confirmed Adam Phillips 'took a whack on his ankle' so had to come off. Sam Cosgrove missed the game through injury.