BARNSLEY centre-back Marc Roberts said Saturday’s 3-0 defeat was typical of the way the season has gone so far.

The Reds conceded three goals in the second half at Oakwell on Saturday, leaving them in tenth place, eight points outside of the play-off places with just ten games remaining.

Roberts said the players must take the blame for the performance, rather than the coaching staff.

He told the Chronicle: “It was frustrating.

"It's just disappointing really.

"It's the characteristics of us this season that when we've gone on a good run we always tend to slip back into a bit of something like that.

"Thankfully we've always got out the other side of it and gone on another little run.

"But that's just us this season.

"Consistency is maybe not our strong point.

"There's complacency maybe - I don't really know but I said that performance is nothing to do with tactics, nothing to do with coaches or whatever you think on that side of things.

"That's us on the pitch making simple mistakes.”

The Reds started the second half the better of the two teams, with Roberts himself having an opportunity to open the scoring.

But after Sonny Carey scored just minutes later, head coach Darrell Clarke said that his side ‘chucked in the towel’ - and Roberts agrees.

He added: “I think we started that second half quite brightly.

"That (the opening goal) goes in and you try and get people rallying again, you try and use that experience.

"But you can half see people's heads drop and think 'ah no not again'.

"But that's where we've got to get better as a team and fight through those moments and then come back into it.

"We seem to find that difficult this year.

"But the only positive I can say - not about the game just the season as a whole - is that that we seem to be that kind of team that can put back-to-back wins together.

"And we always get out of a bad run."