Ethan Pinnock says Barnsley need to be more streetwise after their ‘unacceptable’ display at Shrewsbury in midweek.
The centre-back believes teams will regularly try to knock the Reds out of their rhythm with physical play and they need to find an answer. He said: “We all know it wasn’t good enough, the fans paid a lot of money to get there and it wasn’t an acceptable performance.
“We only turned up in the second half and it was too late. We need to be more streetwise, there were some pretty bad challenges but we need to stand up to it and give a bit back. Teams won’t let us play how we want from the start, we need to earn it. We haven’t been good enough this week but we want to put it right on Saturday. We’re still confident.”
Pinnock, 25, has played every league game for the Reds this season, already surpassing the amount of league appearances he made in the Championship last campaign after moving into league football from Forest Green Rovers having only previously played in non-league.
He said: “All footballers want to play week in, week out and that was my focus for the season – to be a mainstay. I need a big improvement in my performances from the last few games but, overall, I think I have played well this season.”
Pinnock got his first goal of the season at Shrewsbury, tapping in from a corner. He said: “It’s always nice to get a goal but it didn’t really make a difference. We have some big lads in the side and we need to make set pieces count.”
The Reds have conceded seven goals in their last three matches, doubling the total let in during their first 11 games of the campaign. Pinnock said: “We can get back to being solid. We know that teams will try to stifle us and counter what we are doing and we need to come up with ways to overcome that and win.”
