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‘Duffy’ faced the media ahead of Barnsley’s trip to South London on Saturday.
A POOR SHOWING IN THE FA CUP
Duff began the press conference by addressing Barnsley’s embarrassing display against Derby County last Sunday.
Duff put the defeat down to Derby’s Championship experience, and Paul Warne’s side boasting “a lot of know-how”.
“If you look at (Barnsley in) the first 15 minutes, and the final 15 minutes, you wouldn’t believe it’s the same day and the same team.’ Duff was quoted saying.
Duff also acknowledged that Barnsley themselves were their own worst enemy. “We had good shape, but we kept turning the ball over. So, when you keep giving the ball away, it’s not ideal. Then, give really poor goals (away). But we didn’t cover ourselves in glory with any of the three goals.”
“When you watch it back (the game), it’s not as bad as you think. It’s the turnovers, and giving the ball away far too many times. You can’t keep doing that against good teams.”
FOUR PENALTIES IN A ROW
Duff also addressed Barnsley’s unfortunate run of four games in which the opposition was awarded a penalty (a club record!). As Duff alludes, despite a few of them being ‘soft,’ there was no questioning the penalty against Matty Wolfe on Sunday.
“I think we’ve been on the wrong side of a couple of dodgy ones. Wolfie can’t explain why he did it, it’s just one of those things. It’s frustrating, he’s as frustrated as anybody else.”
..adding:
“Hopefully it’s an anomaly, and we don’t make it five.”
AN UPDATE ON MAX WATTERS
Max Watters joined Barnsley last week, which seemed to be a shrewd acquisition for the Tykes.However, it has been revealed that Watters isn’t fully fit yet – and will need a few weeks, which caused uproar with fans on social media.
“He (Watters) will be involved on Saturday, but he’s not fit to start. He’s been short of football, and he’s not had a lot of minutes anyway, but he’s been ill and injured for the past month.”
Duff commented on Watters’ as a player
“In the bottom two divisions, his goalscoring record is as good as anybody’s. He had the big money move, and what for whatever reason, it’s not quite worked at Cardiff, but that doesn’t mean to say he’s done at Cardiff. I think he just needs to get away, hopefully if he does well for us, and he can go back and get in Cardiff’s team next year.”
THE TRANSFER WINDOW
Obviously, the main talking point will be the transfer window, which Barnsley have been relatively slow in so far (only bringing in Watters). Duff confirmed that nothing was close, and nothing would be done by Sunday.
“There’s a big meeting this afternoon (12/01/23), with the recruitment team, Khaled and the staff, to see where we are with things. There’s lot of plates spinning.”
When asked whether Barnsley are preferring a loan, or a permanent transfer for future signings, Duff said this.
“It depends what there is out there. I think the club has always shown that if there is value in a player, they’d rather buy someone who is your own.”
Duff confirmed that Barnsley weren’t currently looking at Manchester United youngster Charlie McNeil (a name that has been doing the rounds in recent days).
“We’re only looking at two or three, that might go up to three or four now due to the Tom one (Tom Edwards’ injury). We’ve never been looking to remodel the whole squad again. We’ve just gone two months unbeaten, there is some good players in the building.”
More positively, Duff was confident that Barnsley won’t lose a key player in January. Duff would later say that he “doesn’t know what the budget is” and keeps himself out of that department.
THOUGHTS ON CHARLTON
Barnsley will look to return to winning ways at the Valley on Saturday afternoon. Duff was full of praise for the Addicks.
“They’ve always had good players. I know Dean (Holden) really well, (he’s a) really well respected coach. We know we’re in for a tough challenge, they’ve had two good results in the league. (They’ve) got real strength in wide areas, which is probably their strongest area.”
..adding:
“They’ve spent a long time in the Premier League.”
EDWARDS’ INJURY UPDATE
On-loan centre-back Tom Edwards fell victim to a horror injury on Sunday. Duff gave the press an update on his fitness.
“If you watch it back on the video, it doesn’t particularly nice at all. I think he’s done well not to completely rupture everything in his knee, the way the joint has opened up. It’s unfortunate for him and unfortunate for us.”
Duff then confirmed that Barnsley were looking for a right-right as well as centre-half, following Edwards’ injury.
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