Paul Heckingbottom 'would have snapped your hand off' for the start Barnsley have made to this Championship campaign if he had been offered eight points from nine games in pre-season.
But the head coach knows that a first away win of the season at Millwall could be vital for sending his side, currently just one place above the relegation zone on goal difference, into the two-week international break on a high.
The Reds have not won any of their last four league matches, with two wins and two draws, since beating Sunderland 3-0 before the last international break on August 26. Their 1-1 draw against Queens Park Rangers on Tuesday ended a run of three successive losses including the Carabao Cup defeat to Premier League Tottenham Hotspur.
Heckingbottom, who admitted this week that he walked out of a training session during the pre-season tour of Hungary in disgust, is pleased with the season so far considering he signed 15 new players during the summer, many late on, and most of them have very little experience at this level.
He told the Chronicle: "I would have snapped your hand off for this situation. I am proud of everyone – the players the fans and the staff who have all bought into what we are trying to do. There is loads more to come from this team and squad, loads more.
"It's going to be a slow process. Not only have we got a lot of players making their debuts in the Championship but some are making their debuts in league football and acquitting themselves very well. There is a bit of naivety and some game management issues. It's all brand new to lots of players. But we're doing well.
"I look at the first game of the season (a 3-1 loss at Bristol City) and then I look at where we are now and we're a million miles further on towards where we want to be. The fact that the lads are disappointed that we haven't got more out of games against Spurs and Wolves and with the way we played against QPR, that is a drastic, drastic improvement."
He added: "We're in front of where I thought we would be. I look back at the group that went to Hungary with no centre forwards so we played four at the back and six in midfield which we were never going to do in a real game.
"I lost my head in one of the training sessions and walked off. Claps (assistant Jamie Clapham) finished it off and I just started writing down what we needed to do on and off the pitch. That was a big moment and from there to how we are competing now, we are so much better. The players have responded really well but we have to keep improving."
One of the the improvements Heckingbottom knows his side must make is not conceding late goals as they did at Wolves on Saturday, where they levelled in the 91st minute only to lose in the 93rd, and at home to QPR who netted in the 88th.
"Hopefully in a few months we will be able to see those games out or score more goals so we win easily. It's a naivety and a by-product of the youth and inexperience in the squad. There are tiny little things to do to slow the game down but we are still bombing forward when we don't need to. You only learn not to do that when you have played lots of games and we only have maybe four players who have the experience to do that."
Full Millwall preview in this week's paper.
