Barnsley Head Coach José Morais insists that the team is fully focussed ahead of two huge games that could define the Club’s season.
Up first are Yorkshire rivals Leeds United on Saturday where the Reds are aiming to secure their first win at Elland Road since November 2011.
First half goals from Ricardo Vaz Te and Craig Davies were enough to seal all three points for Barnsley, despite Ross McCormack’s strike ten minutes after the interval for the hosts.
Now, the Reds need a similar result to help boost their Championship survival hopes as the campaign draws to a close.
“The next game is a massive, important game for us - and so is the next one,” said Morais. “The next two games can give us a clear picture about what we can achieve.
“What I want to focus on is what we really want to achieve, which is to stay in the Championship. We will do what we are capable of for us to achieve this goal.”
After struggling for consistency in the final third for large periods of the season, Barnsley appear to have found their clinical side in recent weeks with seven goals in their last four games.
The Reds have found themselves ahead on several occasions only to be pegged back by late goals, but Morais says the team is working hard on the training ground to rectify this.
“The more you are in theses situations, the more you will be able to handle these situations,” continued the Head Coach. “I believe that the team, during this season, wasn’t really in too many situations where they were leading the game.
“Now we are leading games, we are having the possibility to keep leading but we are not showing the strengths capable to keep holding the lead.
“It’s a question of discipline and integrating this value into the team game. We are working on this and hopefully in the next game we will have a better capacity to do this.”
Having coached in the Champions League with Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Chelsea, Morais has a strong, successful background at the highest level of football.
However, the Reds’ Head Coach has also experienced the polar opposite pressures during his time in Turkey where he was involved in a relegation fight.
“I had one experience when I was coaching Antalyaspor when they were at the bottom of the league, and I managed to take them from bottom to tenth in the league,” said Morais.
“I’m not someone who thinks the past can be repeated, but a certain experience of a situation like this can give you possibilities and solutions to use in terms of achieving what you really want. We have a team that is capable and we have a staff that is experienced in situations like this.”
You can watch José's full press conference on our iFollow channel.
