Robins' Reds Were Poor

A frustrated Mark Robins gave his thoughts after a very disappointing defeat to Burnley at Oakwell on Boxing Day.

He told the BBC: 'It was poor. We were miles off in the second half and we didn't respond.'

The Reds took the lead in the first half through Adam Hammill, who latched on to an excellent through ball from Goran Lovre and finished at the second attempt, but Burnley hit back with two goals in the first ten minutes of the second half to turn the game on it's head.

Robins fumed: 'I've asked the players what they're frightened of. As soon as we get in touching distance of the right end of the league we end up falling flat.'

Barnsley have had a couple of games postponed in recent weeks but were still within a few points of the Play-Offs before Sunday's defeat, despite having played one or two games less than some teams in the league.

Robins was disappointed with his side's efforts in the game and clearly isn't happy with the performance or the result: 'There's no excuse for it. We didn't pass the ball properly. We gave it away too much. We didn't really create any chances. I think it was work rate. They didn't work as hard as the Burnley players did in the second half. That's something that is very uncommon for one of my teams. They generally work hard.'

Robins was also critical of the lack of attacking from his team: 'We missed Garry O'Connor massively. I don't think we had any impetus going forward. It was difficult and the majority of those players have played in the last five games and done very well. One change and it becomes very different. I need more from one or two areas. The players that I'm talking about know about it and have been told.'

One assumes in this case that Robins is speaking about Andy Gray, who came in for Garry O'Connor who is ineligible to play until January.

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