Barnsley returned to winning ways with a 1-0 victory over Blackpool in Sky Bet League One and Reds Head Coach, Daniel Stendel was full of praise for his side.
The three points garnered at Bloomfield Road saw the Reds move back into the top six for Christmas, Cameron McGeehan's 59th minute header the difference on the day, and Stendel reckoned his side were deserved winners in a game they dominated at both ends of the pitch.
He told barnsleyfc.co.uk post-match: "It was a great away performance. We had patience from the start. Whilst we didn't create lots of big chances, we had a lot of good situations and we scored one goal which is all that we needed.
"It's not easy to win here at Blackpool. The pitch here is not very easy to play on, to play good football, but we did play good, my team played a good game and deserved to win today."
After a run of four games without success, the Head Coach admits that his players were perhaps over-thinking in recent games.
He suggested that despite the lack of victories, the performances in the main have been good and that maybe the team were trying too hard at times to score.
He explained: "It's not easy when you dominate games and don't get what you want from them. OK, there have been performances that aren't the best, but even last week against the top of the league we play well and deserve more.
"Again today we had three very good, big chances to score in the first half. But the players they think more, 'we want to win, we want to win' and it's been a good test the last few games of the players' mentality.
"Today they remained patient and continued to play and got what they deserved."
Particularly in the first half against Blackpool, Barnsley's shape and tactical setup looked a little out of the ordinary, with the front four a lot more fluid and rotating positions.
When asked about the reasons for this, Stendel told us it was a plan to get more players into the box to increase possibilities to score.
"We wanted to create more situations in the box. Especially in the first half, we wanted to get more crosses into the box, we believed that would be good for us against this team.
"It was good for us in the first 20 minutes or more of the first half, not so much after. But in the second half it was better, and we create more situations inside the box and score."
With Christmas upon us, the gaffer is looking forward to some more big games against direct rivals in the battle for promotion and wanted to thank the supporters who've continued to back himself and the squad, and hoped this support would continue and be rewarded with more victories.
"The players are off on Sunday now, now that they win! But they'll be back in on Christmas Eve for a light session, then we get back at it on Boxing Day.
"Peterborough are one of our main opponents and they're a good team, so we know we will have to perform to our best again if we want to beat them.
"I hope we get a lot of supporters at Oakwell on Boxing Day. Here we had very good support from the crowd again and yes, it's about the team on the pitch but the supporters are very important and can help us.
"I think we've built a very close relationship with the fans in Barnsley, and they should know that we and the players we work hard every day to be the best we can be.
"Merry Christmas to all!"
