Fresh from netting his first Barnsley goal in our 1-1 draw at Cardiff City this weekend, Toby Sibbick says it is testament to how new Head Coach, Markus Schopp, wants him and his teammates to play.
The Reds – Brad Collins and Josh Benson, in particular – passed the ball around in defence before the latter’s raking cross-field ball found Sibbick, who drove forward and fired an unerring strike into the far bottom corner to level the scores in South Wales.
“I think that’s how we want to play under the gaffer; build-up, be patient and try to draw the opponent in and hit them on the counter and I think that’s what we’ve done,” discussed the versatile defender.
“He told me that he didn’t want me overlapping, but I saw the space and a few of the boys told me to go – I just went with my instinct. It was a lovely ball by Josh, I took a first touch and took a shot – there were a few bobbles, but it doesn’t matter at the end of the day.
“That’s what the gaffer wants; he wants us to be brave on the ball but not to be stupid on it as well and not to make silly mistakes, and I don’t think we made any around the back because a team like Cardiff will punish you. We tried to implement the style that he wants and I think we’ve done that really well.”
Barnsley suffered a 3-0 humbling on their last outing to the Welsh capital, but there never seemed to be any real danger of a repeat score line – despite falling behind to Marlon Pack’s thundering header nine minutes after the restart.
Reds teams of the past might have crumbled in that situation, but this side is made of sterner stuff and rallied to claim a share of the spoils on the opening day.
“I think any team coming here will obviously take a point, but I feel like we’re a bit disappointed as well,” continued Sibbick. “We feel like we could have got the three points – we made some good opportunities and, on another day, I think we score them and get the win.
“A couple of seasons, we go 1-0 down and our heads drop and Cardiff go on and beat us two or three-nil. Our character is a lot stronger now, we’re a lot more confident in ourselves and we know if we go 1-0 down we can bring it back with the quality in our team and that’s what we did.”
You can watch Toby’s post-match interview on iFollow Barnsley.
