The Reds' Head Coach gave us his reaction to the home defeat against Luton Town in the Sky Bet Championship.
Disappointed Daniel Stendel insists he needs to see a response from his team against Wigan Athletic next weekend, after the Reds were made to pay for their slow start against Luton Town on Saturday afternoon.
The 3-1 defeat saw our 29-game unbeaten league run at Oakwell come to end, after the visitors set the tone early on and raced into a two-goal lead within five minutes.
The Hatters then notched another midway through the first half, before Malik Wilks pulled one back in the second with his first goal for the club.
However, it wasn’t enough to prevent the Reds from slipping to their first home loss in over 17 months, and Stendel felt it was the opening exchanges which cost his side a chance of victory.
“I think it was the worst case that could have happened to us. We knew we had a good chance to get our second win, but our start wasn’t good and two goals after five minutes for Luton was more own goals than goals for them.
"After 15 minutes, the reaction from the team on the pitch was very insecure at this time and I think the performance in the first half derived from our start in the game. It was hard, we tried to change the feeling for the players on the pitch, but in the end, we couldn’t change the performance.
“After the game on Tuesday against Birmingham, I felt we prepared well for Luton, the atmosphere and feeling before the match was good, but our start wasn’t. You can’t play like this in the Championship and it was a big experience for us.”
The Head Coach, was however, more encouraged by the second half performance and hopes the Reds can learn from their mistakes, as they look to bounce back against Wigan.
“We need to apologise for the first half; the supporters came expecting more from us especially in a home game. However, in the second half, there were some positives, we tried to change the result and we created more chances; it gave me hope that we can learn fast as a team and understand how to win in this league. We need to.
“After our injuries, it wasn’t too easy, but we know we need to go back to our best performances and every player will get their opportunity next week to show me they can play against Wigan on Saturday. I think we can learn a lot from this situation. Next week, we need to improve, but we go there looking to control our own game again and I hope we can take the points from Wigan and bring them back to Barnsley.”
