Gaffer thought's after the win away at Oakwell
Former Barnsley assistant boss Micky Mellon was overjoyed after watching his side beat the hosts 2-1 with a killer late goal from Jordan Clark. ‘Clicker’ struck with barely 30 seconds of added on time remaining to secure a first league win of the season to leave Micky delighted at the end.
“We had to take our medicine last week and we all know how tough it is to take. We know that we didn’t really deserve that against Burton but you always know in football that one day you’re going to get your turn or your roll of the dice,” said the Town boss. “We’re absolutely delighted to come to a really tough place and pick up all three points. We started the game really well and had a 25 minute spell in the first half where we were playing reactive football and allowing them to knock it about a little bit. We were too much on the back foot and we got them in at half time and had a wee chat about it. I think in the second half we deservedly gave ourselves a fantastic chance of winning the game.”
Town’s boss was delighted for Clark who was playing in front of family and friends and found himself the matchwinner on 94 minutes: “Jordan and his family will have mixed emotions because they’re all Barnsley people but I thought he was absolutely fantastic. We know he’s very capable of that so we’re very pleased for him. We wanted to link things a wee bit better up front and felt that going with the front two we weren’t getting the ball into the final third enough or keeping it there enough. Playing Clarkey in there and getting balls into his feet and allowing him to get in his turns helped us get up the pitch a bit quicker. I thought we were much better after the break with a higher tempo and we’re thoroughly delighted with the victory.”
James Wesolowski went off early doors with the manager confirming it was a knee injury for the returning midfielder: “It’s too early to assess at the moment but it’s his knee,” said Micky. “We’ll need to see how that settles down over the next 24 hours or so. Losing two of our players through injury today has been a bit of a blow.” Micky lightened the mood when he spoke of the extent of Junior Brown’s knock: “I think he said in there that he had cramp, I don’t know. He only told me 5 minutes ago but it’s really difficult to understand what he says at times. I’ve been with Junior a long time and he’s tough to understand – maybe he should just write things down on a piece of paper or something.”
And the manager was very quick to heap praise on another one of his stars who has been away through injury and is only just returning to the team for selection: NKP. “He was brilliant for almost all of the game,” said Mellon. “We know the full story more than the Barnsley fans or for people who might not know a lot about us. To come in and put in a performance like that, just shows you how important he is to the group.”
The manager thought it was important to get the win but said he didn’t feel like relief was the right word to use to sum up his emotion, nor was it extra special for coming at one of his former clubs: “I wouldn’t say it was extra special because I’ve got too much respect for Barnsley to get involved in things like that. This was a club where I had some unbelievable times with and had times that you just couldn’t buy. I was thrilled to be able to come here and work in the game that I love amongst some great fans. It’s no more important to me today than it would be next Saturday.”