After three clean sheets in the three matches that central defender Liam Lindsay has featured in for Barnsley this season, the towering defender is pleased with his performances but has his overall sights set on promotion, not personal goals.
The 0-0 draw with AFC Wimbledon on Saturday was a frustrating one, but the Reds remain unbeaten and head to Rochdale on Tuesday evening with their unbeaten record intact.
“There are definitely positives from the weekend. Obviously we want to win every game, that’s our goal, but we make sure we do our bit at the back and it’s a point in the bag so now we look forward to Rochdale. It’s a good start for us and it gives us something to build on. We now want to make sure we get the three points in the next game.”
Lindsay and his teammates are well aware that any team they come up against may adopt the approach of taking a defensive mentality. That may differ from matches at Oakwell to away from home, but the defender knows they need to find a different way of winning from time-to-time.
“We talked about it after the game that we’ve got the respect from others, they will pile people behind the ball and we need to find a way of breaking them down. It doesn’t need to be pretty all the time, it can be whatever, but we need to find a way as that’s what is going to happen but I’m sure we’ll be able to do it.
“We’ve got players with a bit of magic,” he continued. “Whether that’s on the pitch or on the bench we’ve got some who can come on and do it so I think we’ll be fine, we just need to keep looking for those wins. I think you can see our game-plan, we want to win the ball back fast up the pitch and attack, that’s the way he [Daniel Stendel] wants to play and he’s drilled us well with that over the last six weeks, so we just need to keep that going.”
Rochdale are next up for the Reds as they travel to the Crown Oil Arena, previously known as Spotland, for another tough fixture. Keith Hill’s side have scored in every league match out of their opening three, coming up against a Barnsley defence that are yet to concede, so something has to give on Tuesday evening.
“I can remember playing them last season [a 2-0 victory for Barnsley during pre-season], it was a tough-tough game so it’s going to be a battle and everyone is expecting that. I think everyone knows what we’re in for, so we’d take a one-nil all day long! We just want to put in a good performance and win the game.
“It’s a different kind of pressure this year. Last season we were under pressure to stay up and scrape wins, now it’s the pressure of being expected to win games no matter what and get promotion. The squad is filled with players that have been in this league and have been unbelievable in this league, so everyone has personal expectations but that doesn’t matter as we want to make sure we go up as a team, I’m sure everyone wants that so we just need to do it.”
