Following the Reds latest pre-season friendly outing - Tuesday night's 4-2 victory over Toulon - Head Coach, Daniel Stendel gave iFollow Barnsley his reaction.
The Reds' Head Coach was satisfied with the win in France on Tuesday evening.
He described the match as testing, admitting it's given him more of an idea of where his young squad is at, at this early stage of pre-season.
"It was a good test, a tough game for us." Stendel began.
"Especially after all the hard work on the training ground these last few days, it was a good game to have. But it was clear that we have lots of work to do in these next three weeks.
"We want to be in good form for the first game against Fulham." The Gaffer continued.
"It's our job to work together and for the players to learn quickly. In this game, especially the first half you could see we were missing our compactness. But the second half was better. Even though we didn't score, we looked better and the team were more together, working against the ball and with the ball in possession.
"So yes, it was a good test and we go on our way."
Well-known for giving opportunities to players regardless of age, Stendel has brought a number of Academy players to France to take part in the training camp.
Three of them - Jasper Moon, Jordan Helliwell and Aiden Marsh - came on for 20 minutes last night, and the Reds' boss was happy with their progress.
"I think when you can see the game today, we have lots of young players, and especially the players we brought over from our Academy. That's one of our big goals, to develop and bring through our own players.
"But you stand a better chance of teaching them, and they a better chance to improve and develop if they're around us as a first team group.
"I was very satisfied with our young Academy players in this game."
Despite a lot of early incoming business in the transfer market, the Reds have also seen three key players who formed part of last season's backline depart for pastures new recently, and Stendel admits that as ever when working with new players, it is a process and patience is necessary.
"Our style is based a lot on power. We need our power. That comes down to a lot of hard work in training, it will take time. But again, that's what we're here to do and I enjoy the opportunity to work with hungry, young players.
"It's going to hard though to have everyone in the right way when we play Fulham. But I'm looking forward to the challenge, against one of the big clubs, it's exciting and everyone knows we will give it our all."
