Heading into our Sky Bet Championship clash with Derby County on Wednesday evening, Conor Chaplin says that, while there is an air of optimism around Oakwell following this recent run of form, the Reds will not be getting carried away.
Barnsley are unbeaten in nine league games – winning their last seven – and welcome a Rams side to South Yorkshire who are currently 19th in the table having lost two consecutive fixtures.
But Chaplin insists he and his teammates will not be taking this encounter lightly, with our forward believing that the visitors have enough quality within their ranks to cause plenty of problems.
“It’s a good bit of momentum we’re on in terms of the feeling in the group, the confidence and the results as well,” began the 24-year-old. “It’s massive and it’s good to be part of; it’s very positive around the place, as you can imagine, and long may that continue as well.
“I know it sounds like a cliché, but it’s important that you can’t look further ahead than the next game and tomorrow against Derby. Obviously, they’re on the back of a couple of bad results and back into the mix of the fight so it’s something that we’re not taking lightly at all.
“It’s going to be a tough game and they’ve got really good players, a really good squad – I know they’ve got a few injuries – but it’s a good squad and it’s going to be really tough.”
The Reds ran out 2-0 winners the last time these two sides went head-to-head back in November, with Chaplin opening the scoring at Pride Park before Victor Adeboyejo’s first Championship goal sealed all three points after the interval.
Since then, Barnsley have come on leaps and bounds and are playing a brand of football that is proving very effective – as demonstrated with recent, battling victories against Stoke City, Millwall and Birmingham City on home soil.
“It was a good day for the team,” reflected Chaplin. “It was the gaffer’s first win away, so it was big and a good performance from the team. The first half was completely different to the second, if I remember rightly – it showed the two sides to our game that people probably didn’t think we had at the time.
“We’ve gone on to prove that further this season, but that was probably the first glimpse of what we’ve come onto become as a team.”
You can watch Conor’s press conference on iFollow Barnsley.
