The First Team Coach analyses the weekend defeat against Sheffield Wednesday while looking ahead to the First Round tie in the Carabao Cup against Carlisle United.
Barnsley were beaten 2-0 on Saturday in the South Yorkshire Derby and Dale Tonge whilst admitting the performance wasn't good enough, he told us he believes the squad can still take things from the game.
"Saturday was a great learning experience for the players," the First Team Coach said.
"It was a lesson in how to play against a very well-drilled and vastly experienced outfit at this level.
"There's no point getting onto the players.
"They're young, they're learning all the time and sometimes in defeat the lessons are more rewarding in the long-term and I think with the atmosphere, everything about the game they'll have taken a lot away in terms of development."
Whilst the Reds were nowhere near their best in what was a departure from the display put in against Fulham a week earlier, our hosts punished Barnsley to the full.
Tonge was quick to commend the Owls who were the better side at Hillsborough.
"You have to credit the opposition. Wednesday did a job on us. Whilst we didn't play anything like we'd hoped, we didn't stick to the plan really, you still have to say well done to them because they were the better side on the day.
"Again, we won't get too down about it because we didn't get high after Fulham. This is elite level football and we knew coming into it that there would be days we weren't good enough. But we will be. We will keep on improving with games."
Tuesday night sees the return of the Carabao Cup and the Reds will be hoping to go further than last season, when they were eliminated at this stage by Blackpool.
It's Sky Bet League Two opposition this time around with Steven Pressley bringing his Carlisle United outfit to Oakwell for a 7.45pm kick off.
"I think they were unlucky at the weekend," Tonge explained. "They came up against a strong Swindon side who've a couple of our former players in their squad and I think the red card for Carlisle scuppered their chances.
"It'll be a tough game, they'll come here with nothing to lose."
