Daniel Stendel says Barnsley can take plenty of encouragement from the 0-0 draw with Wigan Athletic on Saturday.
The Reds picked up a morale boosting point ahead of the international break and were unfortunate not to leave the DW Stadium with all three after forcing Latics stopper David Marshall into a number of fine saves.
“I think we can be satisfied with our performance, especially after a lot of injuries – it wasn’t easy for the guys to play a good game and this is a formation that we’ve not played in pre-season or the last games,” said Stendel.
“I think this was a good performance; we kept a clean sheet with a new back four and goalkeeper. We had three or four big chances to win this game and I think we’re really satisfied.
“Their goalkeeper made three good saves from our big chances and Wigan had a good chance in the last minute that Brad [Collins] saved very well.”
One player, in particular, who impressed for Barnsley was Toby Sibbick, who found himself at the heart of midfield with Kenny Dougall, Cameron McGeehan and Alex Mowatt all unavailable.
The 20-year-old, who arrived at Oakwell from AFC Wimbledon this summer, excelled in his unfamiliar role and Stendel reserved special praise for our versatile youngster.
“We need to trust the players and, for Toby, it’s the first time he has played central midfield and he played a similar performance to right-back, centre-back and left-back,” continued the Reds Head Coach.
“I think we can trust him very well this season in every position and I’m happy that Mads [Andersen] and Aapo [Halme] got their clean sheet because, after their early yellow cards, we weren’t sure whether we’d need to substitute them.
“But it’s important that, heading into the international break, we have more confidence after this game.”
You can watch Daniel’s full post-match interview on iFollow Barnsley.
