Captain Mike Bahre admits that Cauley Woodrow’s finishing ability will be hard to replace but believes the other forwards at Oakwell will show their quality while the star striker is injured.
Woodrow – who netted 19 goals last season – has missed the last two games, so Daniel Stendel has played Conor Chaplin, Mallik Wilks, Mamadou Thiam and Patrick Schmidt up front with Bahre usually just behind them in attacking midfield. The skipper told the Chronicle: “I think Cauley is an important player for us, on and off the pitch, but we have enough quality to replace him.
“He is a goal-scorer and he has the nose for goals. Maybe we don’t have another player like that but we have a lot of quality. We have replaced other players and the quality in the squad is good enough to replace anyone. I played with Conor at Birmingham and we were new to each other and the league so it was difficult.”
Bahre is yet to score in six games so far this season but assisted the winner on the opening day against Fulham. He said: “Like everyone, I started quite well in the win against Fulham but since then they haven’t been my best performances, but it’s a new league and there are 41 games to go. We will all come on stronger after we get more Championship experience. I am still confident.”
Bahre could come up against his team-mate from last season, Kieffer Moore, who moved to tomorrow’s hosts Wigan Athletic in the summer. He said: “We trained with him every day, we know how to defend him. It will be good to see him again but, on the pitch for 90 minutes, we are rivals. We are just going there to get three points.
"If we win at Wigan we will have seven points out of six games, which is OK. Of course we could do better but we have a new team in a tough league. It’s an important game because we haven’t won the last few. If we win, everybody can keep calm, but it’s not like if we don’t win then the season is gone. There will still be 40 games to go.”
Barnsley lost 3-1 at home to Luton on Saturday, with the visitors’ goals all arriving within 31 minutes. He said: “Everybody was disappointed. It was quite surprising because we conceded two goals after five minutes and everybody’s heads were down. We weren’t at our best in the first half but we showed better in the second half. We will have good games and bad games and that was one of our worst games. But we will definitely get better and everybody is still confident. Everybody is learning from every game.”
On the captaincy, Bahre said: “It’s a new thing for me. I think I am doing alright, everybody is helping me and happy for me. “One of our main strengths is we work as a team and I am not the big man above everyone else. “Now we have a losing run and I want to take responsibility as captain to get us out of this run.”
