Adam Murray was pleased with 'a real good away performance' in Barnsley's 1-1 draw at Millwall on Saturday – his last as caretaker manager.

There were two goals just before half-time as the Reds took the lead through a stunning Alex Mowatt strike but the hosts levelled immediately and forced goalkeeper Jack Walton into several superb saves.

Murray said: "It was a real good away performance. You know when you come to a team that is in the play-offs at times you will be stressed out. We caught them a few times on the counter-attack but again our final pass needs to be a little bit better and we need to be more ruthless. You expect to be under the cosh a couple of times and we relied on Jack at tines.

"Jack is a very confident lad and a top top goalkeeper. We will need him at times and his performance was very good.

"We need a win so there is always an air of frustration. But if someone had said we would go to two really tough places at Stoke and Millwall and not be beaten, we would have been happy."

Cauley Woodrow and Jordan Williams both pulled out of the warm-up with hamstring injuries. Murray said: "They were two freak injuries. We don't think Cauley's is a bad one. He had a dead leg in the warm-up and he's too big a player to take any risks. It's more of a knock than anything but it just didn't feel right. Jordan, we'll have to wait and see. He felt a slight tweak."

Mowatt fired in his first goal of the season from 25 yards. He told the Chronicle: "It was a relief. It was nice for it to go in the top corner for my first goal of the season.

"I have had a bit of stick lately for my shooting but, as soon as I hit that, I knew it was in.

"It came out of nowhere. Muz wanted me and Elliot to play higher and that's where it came from.

"It was so frustrating because when we were celebrating my goal we said 'let's shut up shop for the next minutes until half-time'. But we conceded a corner then a goal so it was really frustrating.

"We had the better of the first half but we needed to play more in the second half. We weren't brave on the ball."

On Jake Cooper's headed goal, Murray said: "It's a common trend. We make some really naive mistakes. It's disappointing to concede a goal from a set piece."

Murray brought captain Mowatt off after 74 minutes. The coach said: "It was just fatigue. When we see the numbers from the last two games, the work the lads have done is through the roof. I wanted to make changes to bring energy into the team."

Asked about his three games in charge, Murray said: "I have not been beaten, so I will take that."

New head coach Valerien Ismael was in the stands watching the game. Murray said: "I haven't met him yet. We have had a few messages over the last couple of days. We are in tomorrow morning so we will start afresh and move on from there. We don't know a great deal about him but we'll know he'll fit our philosophy. But I am excited to work with him as a young coach. He's another coach from a different culture who I can hopefully learn from."