A delighted Paul Heckingbottom addressed to the press after seeing his side gain a huge three points in their return to Sky Bet Championship action at Oakwell.
The Reds dominated for large parts of the match and got their rewards with Hourihane and Mawson finding the net.
Heckingbottom explained, “We were really strong and really good, we believed and we were just waiting for that. We’ve shown we can do it on a number of occasions.
“The players will take the belief from that now, the performance and the result that comes with it. We knew why we’d lost at Ipswich, we thought we’d performed really well, but we had chances and didn’t take them then weren’t ruthless enough in our own box. Today we did that, we were strong in both boxes as well and really organised and disciplined in the middle of the pitch, the boys got their rewards.”
Hourihane’s strike which saw an own-goal awarded following the ball taking the final touch into the net from the Scott Carson’s back was only 10 minutes into the match. Mawson’s goal came just two minutes after half-time and the Reds Head Coach told of how he asked his team to start quickly.
Heckingbottom said, “We started both halves really well, which is something we’d spoke about. We want to create a good atmosphere at this place and the fans to get behind the team. We need to do our part by starting at a real high tempo, then the fans respond. I’ve said it before, the fans can have 100% confidence that all these players will give 100%. They like being winners, they like working hard and they want to improve every day.”
The Reds did have some moments of the match where they had to be aware of the Derby attack, but remained calm and kept their clean sheet.
“We fell back on the organisation, discipline and work-rate.” Hecky said. “You don’t have to panic, so long as we’re controlling where they’ve got the ball and keeping it in front of us, we can be comfortable. We defended our own box really well all game and that was everyone, to a man.”
He continued, “Adam Davies pulled off some really great saves. Goals change games, and him keeping us 2-0 up meant we remained comfortable.“
You can see Paul Heckingbottom's press conference in full on Barnsley Player HD.
