Daniel Stendel says a point at Portsmouth is ‘OK’ and praised his goalkeeper Adam Davies for saving a second half penalty.
The result leaves Barnsley, who are second, five points clear of fourth-placed Portsmouth and just two ahead of third-placed Sunderland who have a game in hand. Head coach Stendel said: “A point is OK for both teams but for us more. Both teams deserved one point. A draw was the minimum that we wanted. We have everything in our hands now with 12 games including a home match against Sunderland.
“It was a hard game which both teams wanted to win. There was so much pace in the game. Both teams wanted to play with counter-attacks and we did not have time to play with control. It was not a boring game, there was a lot of action all the time.
“We were not so fresh on the counter-attack and we didn’t play the last pass so well. We had lot of pressure in the last 30 minutes but it was not so easy to score. I think we had the biggest chances after the penalty with Dani Pinillos, who was free in the 18 yards box, and Jacob Brown who hit the bar.”
Davies saved a penalty on 60 minutes, diving to his right to deny Omar Bogle after Dimitri Cavare had committed a foul on the edge of the box. Stendel said: “We are very happy that he saved the penalty and it was a very good performance. It’s important that he is there when we need him which was the case today. We have very good players for all positions including our goalkeeper who helped us today.”
Davies said: “I had an idea of where he was going to go. I backed myself, he went the way I though and I saved it. I know it was a bad tackle but apparently it was outside the box so it’s frustrating that they got a penalty.
“I thought we were the better team in the first half. They only had one chance which was a mistake from us. In the second half they were probably the better team so it’s probably a fair result in the end. It’s a tough place to come, a sold-out ground against a good team. We wanted to win but, as the game goes on, I was happy to take a point.”
