Reds centre back Angus MacDonald gave his reaction following today's fantastic 2-0 win away at Brentford.
The towering centre-half was brought back into Paul Heckingbottom’s starting line-up replacing the injured Marc Roberts. It was the first time he’s been paired with Adam Jackson and both were like rocks at the back for Barnsley today.The summer signing from Torquay expressed his delight, saying: “It can’t have gone any better today can it really? Two goals and a clean sheet, three points, we can’t ask for much more can we really.
“I was rested Tuesday, that’s obviously the Gaffer’s decision but unfortunately Robbo’s injured so I’ve stepped in and I’m delighted we’ve got the three points.”
The Reds rearguard were superb this afternoon at Griffin Park, keeping out some of the division’s most potent players. Angus believes the defenders need to be at their best in this division as you can’t always be at your best in front of goal.
He said: “As defenders you’re not going to be scoring goals week in, week out but it’s your aim to be keeping clean sheets and today we done that so it’s another step forward in the right direction.
“They came at us late on, 2-0 down you’d expect them to. They’re going to throw everything at you. Then they bring on the big man up front and we’re getting a bit tired and that’s when you’ve got to keep your concentration. It wasn’t just the back four. The whole team dug in.”
The recent form for the Reds hasn’t been great but MacDonald made it clear that it hasn’t affected the players at all, if anything it’s helped bring them closer together as a group, showing solidarity through adversity.
“We’ve all stuck together, the performances we feel haven’t really been reflected by some of the results. It’s been individual errors more than anything, which we know we need to clean up a bit and today we’ve done that and come away with three points.
“If you look at Leeds away especially, it was just individual errors and so today justified the performance as a whole, the effort we’ve been putting in.”
Angus couldn’t pretend he wasn’t disappointed to lose his place in the side last Tuesday against Newcastle, but feels that has only spurred him on to get back in and prove that he deserves to start.
He said: “Of course I was disappointed, everybody wants to play but I fully respect Hecky’s decisions and it means I’ll just work even harder now to keep my place.
“To be fair I never really expected to have played this many games so it’s all good. I’m enjoying it!”
He had a final message for the travelling supporters, saying: “Respect to them for coming all this way to back us again today and I’m glad we could get them the three points.”
You can see Angus MacDonald’s full interview on Barnsley Player HD.
