BARNSLEY forward Stephen Humphrys says his 19-game wait for a goal has not impacted his confidence.

The 27-year-old striker scored four goals early in the season but, since a specular strike after running from his own half at Cambridge in November, he has not netted since.

He has started seven of the last eight league games, drawing praise from head coach Darrell Clarke for his performances in the wins over Northampton and Lincoln.

Humphrys told the Chronicle: “I haven’t lost confidence. I love scoring and celebrating but, if we’re winning, and the team scores four and I play a part in the goals, I am happy.

“My new role is to be a nuisance, create chances and gaps for others.

“As long as I am on the pitch and we’re winning, I am enjoying it.

“I have had some good games recently but I have more in me than that – goals in particular. I scored a decent amount last year. I need to get in the box more but a lot of the time I am not in the box because I have made a run for someone else. At Northampton I could have shot but I got an assist and I am equally as happy if he scores (Davis Keillor-Dunn) as if I do.”

Some of Humphrys’ celebrations this year have gone viral. He said: “I have had people messaging me asking to do specific ones. I will keep them under wraps but hopefully, if I score, you will see one.”

Humphrys was ill earlier in 2025 and lost a significant amount of weight.

He said: “It was tough. Within the space of about ten days I lost four and half kilograms. I just couldn’t eat, I was freezing. When you’re a footballer, I don’t think people realise how important food is and fuelling up. If you don’t eat slightly as much as you should, you will feel it in your legs. So for me to lose that weight, I felt like it was pre-season again. I felt so much lower than everyone in terms of energy and power and sharpness. I have got some of that weight back on now.”

Barnsley played four games in ten days, with the last being at Charlton on Tuesday in which Humphrys was taken off at half-time. He said: “I was absolutely fine and felt brilliant until the Charlton game then nothing can prepare you for when you go out there and feel flat. It’s been a gruelling period. We’ve done really well in it and, because of that, you forget about how you feel. I think the manager saw I was tired so that’s why I came off.

“If I had done another 90 minutes, I wouldn’t have felt as fresh as I do now going into the Blackpool game.”

On the play-off chase, Humphrys said: “We’re never going to stop believing.

“A few people wrote us off four games ago. We would have snapped your hand off for nine points from four games.

“We feel we’re in a good place, it was a little bit of blip the other night.”

The Reds have an option at the end of the season to extend Humphrys’ contract by another year.