Reds Head Coach hopes his side can move on quickly from tonight's 5-2 defeat to Nottingham Forest.
Paul Heckingbottom believes Barnsley's 5-2 defeat to Nottingham Forest can be used as a reality check and a learning curve for his side.
Despite leading twice through goals from Sam Winnall and Marley Watkins, the visitors proved too strong for the Reds.
He feels the Reds handed Forest all three points in the way they conceded the goals this evening.
"We've gifted them the goals," he said. "The first one, the free kick, he's hit it on the 'keeper's side, second one we don't track a runner and get back into a near post slot.
"Third we give the ball away, a free header in the box with three defenders, the fourth one we didn't gift them that but we had four defenders back and it was a free header in the box, the fifth one was a penalty.
"You have no chance of winning a game. You can forget all the positives and things you're doing well, that's our fundamentals and today we were nowhere near in terms of that.
"They'll go away happy thinking they've put in a great performance but we've gifted them the three points."
With so many mistakes in the Reds' play, Heckingbottom hopes they have got them all out of their system and wants them to eradicate their errors and regroup against Birmingham City next weekend.
"I hope they have," he added. "I know it's a steep learning curve but we have to learn because it's a harsh league. The players we're playing against have got good experience at this level and higher and they aren't going to feel sorry for us.
"We weren't at our best today but we'll learn from this game and move on, starting in next weekend's match with Birmingham City."
"We have to make it as difficult as possible for them and with the ball today, we got that spot on in terms of how we were going to beat them, getting the ball wide early and the two versus one situations wide against their wing-backs and scored two great goals from it.
"In-between that we've gifted them their first goal, we should have been 2-0 up and cruising, we give them another goal and we sort of go away because we have lots of the ball and lots of possession.
"We go away from what was getting us the joy and getting the ball wide, the two versus one situations and getting the delivery in the box.
"We looked a good side in terms of possession, a pretty side, but we were soft without the ball and we played into their hands."
Hecky' admitted this defeat is one of the toughest for him to take as a head coach since he took charge at Oakwell.
He feels the fourth goal for Forest put the result beyond all doubt and ultimately ended the match as a contest.
Heckingbottom said: "It kills the game. We're pressing but we still had the bodies back to deal with it. The one query is why the game wasn't stopped, when one of there players was down a bit later the game was stopped.
"They've scored when our player was down and that is a strange one but they scored five goals from their seven shots on target.
"It's difficult to take this one, I'll watch this back but this is more disappointing than Saturday's game because we should have won that game, but we didn't give Wigan anything, they defended for their lives and we just didn't take our chances.
"We gifted Forest this game."
Hecky' felt the Reds strayed away from the basics and lost sight of their game plan.
Despite Barnsley lacking some Championship experience, the Head Coach feels the Reds cannot stray from the basics in order to be successful in this division.
"Lots of things weren't good enough, we went away from the game plan a little because we thought we were better than what we were when we had the ball.
"We pride ourselves on the basics, we know where we've come from, the players understand how hard they have to work to bridge that gap in terms of what's in the other dressing room, the experience they've got or quality.
"I back these lads to go out there and beat them but they'll not if they don't get the basics right.
"It's a reality check, that's exactly what it is. That's what we'll use it as," he added.
