Our Head Coach gave his thoughts to the assembled media ahead of Tuesday night's Carabao Cup Round One tie with Tranmere Rovers.
ON PORT VALE VICTORY
"As you can imagine, for the whole club it was an enjoyable day. Without being boring, I think the first 25 minutes, the way that the players dealt with the intense pressure that Port Vale put us under - I don't think the team did an awful lot wrong in that period.
"Although people would have felt that we were under a lot of pressure, just the way that Port Vale played made it difficult to get out. But, it's hard to sustain and I thought we showed a lot of character in those moments. That's when you talk about learning a lot about your team."
ON INTEGRATING NEW PLAYERS INTO THE SQUAD
"Theo (Chapman), it was his league debut. Jack Shepherd, league debut. Kacper Łopata, league debut. That's fantastic for the Club. Especially someone like Theo, coming through the youth system. Young, energetic, I think he's done very well in pre-season. He showed both sides on Saturday. Very good against the ball, confident in possession, so just excellent for the Club that we're able to start seeing these guys impact the first team. It's up to them to see how far it goes."
ON THE APPROACH FOR TUESDAY NIGHT
"First of all, we see it as a game that we want to win. We view it as a competition that we want to go as far as we possibly can. But equally we've got to consider that we've got three really tough league games coming up with Bristol Rovers, Peterborough and Oxford. Because we have got suspensions, illness and injury a lighter squad at the moment. So, I have to consider all these things. The team that we play tomorrow night should still be capable of competing and winning the game. Also, I'm at a point where I still need to look at these guys in these environments. We look to win every game that we play this season. But of course, they'll be different opportunities for different players."
ON TUESDAY NIGHT'S OPPOSITION
"Watching them, they look to play football. They look to build out, they look to be very well organised in terms of how they want to attack. I think they'll be a big threat in terms of that side of things. They've got a lot of experienced players, so I think it will be a really tough game.
"Them being a League Two team, us being a League One team, as the season goes on that gap grows. But I think at this stage there's not a lot in it and I think we'll need to play really well to be in the next round."
Watch Neill Collins' pre-match comments in full over on iFollow Barnsley!
Join us at Oakwell on Tuesday night as we begin our Carabao Cup journey against Tranmere Rovers.
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