Eyre pleased with Barnsley showing
Steve Eyre paid tribute to striker Connor Loftus as his side earned a narrow victory over Barnsley on Monday afternoon.
“I am very pleased with the result,” he told htafc.com. “The effort as usual was brilliant from the lads and the performance was good, but we have been better this season.
“We were a little bit wasteful and could have been out of sight at half-time. I told the lads to be more careful at half-time and look after the moments they get in the final third. We were a bit too deep at the start of the game which wasn’t allowing us to get any sort of passing game going and we weren’t able to get our tackles in because there was too much space.
“Once we had got higher up the pitch our intensity improved and I thought we were quite comfortable in the second half despite it being a close score line.”
Barnsley passed the ball around well and created a number of openings, but failed to find a way past Lloyd Allinson in the Town goal.
“It is good for the lads to play against a team like Barnsley who keep the ball well because it meant that we had to look after the ball when in possession. The turnover of possession at times was quite high, but thankfully we took care of our moment when he had one. We are grateful for an opportunist piece of skill by Connor Loftus in the box.
“It looked like he should have taken the effort first time, but he knew what he was doing and the final result was what everyone wanted.”
At the end, Town were indebted to Alinson who pulled off two fine saves to deny Toni Silva.
“We were inviting a little bit of pressure into our box because we weren’t tight enough and Barnsley managed to work an opening," explained Eyre. "Lloyd has stood up to the challenge as I knew he would do and produced a good save. His development is coming on great and saves like that will only boost his confidence.”
