Midfielder Gary Gardner spoke to the media at Oakwell on Monday morning ahead of the trip to face Nottingham Forest at the City Ground.
The Reds are travelling to the East Midlands for the second time in as many weeks, after the previous clash was called off just hours before kick-off due to a waterlogged pitch.
Gardner was in no doubt about the importance of the task ahead, with the opportunity for his side to claw themselves out of the relegation zone with just two matches remaining.
“It’s a massive game for us, every game has been, but we’ve got to go there and win as we can get out of the relegation zone if we do and that’s our plan, to go there and win the game.” He stated.
“It would make it more difficult [if the Reds didn’t win], but it wouldn’t be over if we didn’t. We’ve got to go there and win if we are to stand a chance of staying in the league. We know what we’re going there for, we need to win so that’s what we’re setting up to do. We’ve now really got to go there and do it, we’ve had enough chances in other games to win so hopefully on Tuesday night and the game here against Brentford on Saturday we can do it.”
Saturday saw Gardner and his teammates lose out by the odd-goal away at Yorkshire rivals Leeds United. There were enough chances in the match to pick up the points, but its missed chances that the on-loan 25-year-old has highlighted as the issue for the lack of victories.
“I’ve said it before and we have a good bunch of lads in there, that want to do well and are trying their best every game. As you saw at the weekend, we had a number of chances to score and could have won the game but that’s football and we’re in the position we’re in now so we have to keep fighting to get out of there.
“We’ve shown quality all season, if we were higher up in the league we wouldn’t be picked up on the chances we’ve missed, so we have to keep going and put away the chances that we create in games.”
As a former hunting ground for Gardner, he will step out onto the turf at the City Ground in Nottingham on Tuesday night against some familiar faces. Two separate loan-spells from Aston Villa saw him become a fans favourite, but he won’t be distracted on the task at hand when facing his former side.
“I haven’t taken much notice of them to be fair,” Gardner said, remaining focused on the job at hand. “I’ve been concentrating on Barnsley. Yeah, I’ve been at Forest and played a couple of seasons. They will have a massive support there and lots of fans getting behind them so it will be a tricky game for us but I know we can go there and win.
“I think the fans and the whole Club treated me well, I enjoyed my football there and scored goals there. But I have to concentrate on Barnsley, my focus is on keeping us in the league. I think we need to take our chances, we’ve done well in games but not taken them so if we can do that on Tuesday we’ll get the win.”
Gardner has found himself on the scoresheet in recent weeks, with vital goals against both Sheffield United and Bolton at Oakwell. The powerful right-foot will now be on show away from home, but it’s not all about goals, he just wants to help the team in any way he can whilst playing alongside anybody selected by José Morais.
“The Gaffer will pick a team that’s going to go out there and work hard, fight for each other and the fans who will be travelling there. We’ve got some good players here, good enough to rotate, so whatever team goes out on Tuesday will be the right one to go there and win. I’m trying everything to bring more to the team, if that’s scoring goals then so be it, I’m trying everything to help us win a game. We’ve got to keep fighting and trying!”
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