Daniel Stendel has praised goalkeeper Adam Davies for helping Barnsley beat Shrewsbury Town and stay in League One’s second promotion place.
The Wales international made a series of excellent saves, including three one-on-ones, as the Reds won courtesy of goals by Alex Mowatt and Jacob Brown. Head coach Stendel said: “We won the game because we scored two times, one more than Shrewsbury, and because we had the best goalkeeper in League One in our goal today. He was excellent.
“It was a tough game, like the first game in Shrewsbury (a 3-1 loss in October). They were very physical and direct and they gave us a lot of problems. They were better today and had three or four big chances to score. We have won two games in a row now and it is the best time of the season to have a good run.”
Brown added: “We’re massively grateful to him (Davies). He’s top class. Throughout the whole season he’s kept us in a lot of games and won us a lot of games.”
Stendel would not talk about the injuries he received after last week’s incident in the tunnel, allegedly involving Fleetwood Town manager Joey Barton.
“All I can say is I am very happy about the reaction from a lot of people and supporters in the last week. Thank you for that. It has been easy to concentrate on football and our goal of promotion. We had a really good week in training and the focus has only been on Shrewsbury.”
Barnsley’s top-scorer Kieffer Moore came off the bench after an 11-game absence due to a head injury. Stendel said: “We are all a little bit surprised that he can play. We got the information last week that he can try to train and the training was good. We are all happy he is back and you can see it gives the supporters a good feeling. It gives us more options in offence for the last three games.”
Brown added: “Last night when I saw the video on Twitter of Kieffer being in the squad that was the first I knew of it and I was buzzing. It’s great timing and a massive boost for us.”
Brown’s goal was the winner and his seventh of the season. He said: “Mike (Bahre) did well in the area and cut it back then I just saw one little gap in the goal and I got it in. I slipped at the same time, saw it go in and just went mental round the back of the net.
“We put in a fairly good performance but we’re not going to play at our best every week. At this point in the season, all we need to do is go out and get the three points and we did that today.”
