Barnsley head coach Markus Schopp admits he is 'hurting' after a fifth successive loss which saw them drop to second in the Championship.
The Reds lost 2-0 at Middlesbrough to extend their winless run to 11 games, intensifying the pressure on Schopp.
The head coach told the Chronicle: "It is hurting me obviously. I wanted to win every training session as player and I am the same as manager. But you have to respect it will not always go this way. To get out of such a difficult situation is the biggest goal."
He added: "In football the sun is not always shining, sometimes it is raining - right now it is raining a lot, right in the face.
"I do everything that we go in the right direction. It's one thing to discuss the results but there are other processes."
The Reds missed a huge chance in the first five minutes through Clarke Oduor but the hosts dominated the rest of the match, scoring in the 20th and 87th minute while missing a series of other opportunities.
"We started well, we had big chances at the beginning. The team in our situation has to make those chances but we didn't. When we conceded the goal we did not have the organisation we wanted. But we came back in the second half better and had chances which we didn't take. Middlesbrough have the quality to hurt you on the counter-atatck . In the end, two set pieces were the difference."
Barnsley have scored two goals in their last eight games since August. Schopp said: "It's a tough situation. We are trying a lot but we don't score and we are always chasing the game after conceding the first goal. When you see how we play in the last third, we are not so convinced that we really can score."
Schopp said Toby Sibbick and Devante Cole, who dropped out of the squad, were not available but would not say why. He said they would be back in contention for Sunday's home game with Sheffield United. In Sibbick's absence, midfielder Will Hondermarck was used as the right centre-back in the first half.
"We had to make a couple of changes. We had to find a good solution. Will did a good job. But we have to stabilise our centre, we didn't win the important balls in the centre."
Barnsley's players looked dejected for much of the game once they went behind. Schopp said: "The lads are disappointed because they know they have the chances to turn all the games in a different direction and if you always get punished it's not easy. They feel it is not that much what is missing. If you have one or two games this way it is different but in our case it is a long time. It is not that we are not doing good work, it is that we are making big mistakes."
