Ryan Hedges insists he and his Barnsley teammates are enjoying the excitement that comes with being in the automatic promotion spots at this stage of the Sky Bet League One season.
The Reds’ winger says the atmosphere at Oakwell is positive heading into the final six games as his side look to secure an immediate return to the second tier.
“Overall, looking at the position we’re in, I think it’s been a positive season,” said Hedges. “Over the course of 30 or 40 games, on a whole, we’ve done well as a team and now I’m looking forward to the next six games and, hopefully, we can stay in this position.
“It’s good to be at the top end rather than the bottom end and it’s obviously exciting; we’ve got a good group of lads here and we’re all willing to work in the right direction.
“It’s a different type of pressure – one you probably thrive under when you’re at the top because the will to win is so massive because you can go into the Championship. When confidence is there, things come naturally to you and it’s a pleasure to play in.”
Barnsley travel to Burton Albion on Saturday knowing that three points will be absolutely priceless as the race for promotion hots up.
Both Sunderland and Portsmouth are waiting in the wings for any potential slip ups with all teams at the top capable of stringing a sequence of victories together, and Hedges believes it won’t be a straight-forward encounter at the Pirelli Stadium.
“If you look at Luton being unbeaten for 25 games, teams are doing this and no one is really batting an eyelid,” continued the 23-year-old. “But it shows the standard of the league and how competitive it is, and, hopefully, on 4 May, we’ll be sitting where we are now.
“We’ve just got to take it game by game and, hopefully, we can stretch this run to 26 games by the end of the season.
“When Burton came here, they went away with a draw and they’ve done well to be where they are. I think, coming down, they probably weren’t favourites to go straight back up but they did well here and we know what to expect when we go there.”
You can watch Ryan’s full press conference on iFollow Barnsley.
