The Reds Head Coach spoke to the assembled media today at Oakwell..
Whilst looking ahead to this weekend and the trip to Birmingham City and St Andrews, Hecky first reflected on last Friday's defeat against Nottingham Forest. The sending off of Marley Watkins means he'll be missing for the next three matches and Paul spoke about the impact of that."We are disappointed" he said. "It's a lack of discipline. When we saw the incident in real-time everyone was outraged because we didn't see anything. But once we've got in the dressing room and seen it back, there's definitely a thought in his mind to do what he gets sent off for. He's let his mates down, they've had to run around a man down for 35 minutes without him. And then going forward we're now missing him for the next three games. So he's suffering and the team's suffering for his actions.
"He's been in really good form too, we've been happy with him. He offers something different up there for us with his pace and power. It's up to someone else now to come in and take their opportunity, but it's disappointing to lose him and how that's come about."
In terms of the performance against Forest last weekend, Hecky feels the standard of the opposition that the Reds are facing is clearly evident, with small mistakes punished more often in the Championship.
As he explained: "It's ruthless up here. We need to get what we're good at going again. We've started to go against that recently. We're getting things right at one end one week, then right at the other end the next game. It needs to be all done together. Against Wigan we were rock solid defensively, we've kept clean sheets previous to that too. But we weren't doing enough with the ball to hurt them. On Friday we had good possession, used the ball well and really took the game to Forest, but then we go and gift them their goals.
"It's the harsh reality of Championship football. It's ruthless. We need to be better at both ends of the field. It's alright playing well, and we have been doing, but we need to start getting the results too. I know that, the boys know that and together we're all committed to making that happen."
Despite recent form the Gaffer insists that he believes in his players and remains convinced that in the dressing room he has the quality needed to compete successfully in the Championship.
"The talent's there. And they're more than capable of performing out there, we've seen that plenty of times already this season. We've shown that clinical, ruthless side ourselves at times. We need to get back to that. We might well go to Birmingham on Saturday and face lots of pressure so we definitely need to be taking our chances when they arise. But we have to get it right at both ends of the field and to work extremely hard to see games out. Concentration is key.
"A lot of the clubs in this league have got lots of money and therefore they have players who are used to playing at this level. Our players are learning, developing. I know they're good players, I work with them every day. But it's a work-in-progress. We probably always will be because we can't go and buy ready-made players. We are all about coaching and developing them. And then it's down to the players to buy into everything and then they can be as good as they want to be. Because there's real talent here, but it's not about looking good it's about being good."
Hecky's thoughts switched to Saturday's fixture against Birmingham City and as well as acknowledging the quality of the opposition, he is confident of getting a result at St Andrews if the players can put all the small details together on the day, as they've done previously away from this season.
"Birmingham might have surprised some this season, but not me. Gary (Rowett) did the same at Burton. It's all very similar to what he asked of his players there. They're very well organised. For example in looking at the last two games their opposition must be looking at both games and wondering how they've not won. But they're determined, they throw bodies on the line and make it really difficult to play against them and they come out with the three points.
"I know we're known for our brand of attacking football but if we go back to last season we got promoted because we also won games like that, like Gary's Birmingham side. This season we've not really done that. We've had to be the best side to win. But hopefully between now and the end of the season we can pick up a few results like that along the way. We might see that this weekend. We might be the side with our backs to the wall but grinding one out. It'd be nice for once to see the opposing coach walking off the pitch shaking his head wondering how they've lost and I'm the one enjoying looking at him being frustrated like I have been recently."
You can see the full interview with Hecky over on Barnsley Player HD.
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