Barnsley: Ecstatic Alfie sets sights on Wembley

A battling victory away to Wigan Athletic at the weekend saw the resilient Reds book their place in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Northern Area semi-finals.

And Mawson, who scored from the spot in a dramatic 4-2 penalty shoout win over the Latics at the DW Stadium, knows two more solid performances against either Morecame or Fleetwood Town, who play tonight, could yield a mouth-watering trip to the capital to try and win some silverware.

“We’re two games away from Wembley – and that’s what you dream isn’t it? It’s brilliant,” said Mawson.

“We feel getting to the semi-finals is a bit of justice because our results in the league haven’t been a true reflection of how well we’ve been playing.

“It’s not right. We feel as if we’re in a false position.

“Mistakes are mistakes at the end of the day and goals win games, but we know that if we are bit more ruthless then we’ll climb up the table.

“Hopefully we’ve had our turn now and things start to change. It was a massive win for us, I thought we played really well.”

Victory for the Reds was much-needed, especially with the club rooted to the bottom of League One.

And that’s now just one defeat in their last four outings as Mawson and his equally-frustrated teammates start to put things right after an alarming run of eight defeats in nine games.

“At least the fans are behind us; it means a lot to these fans,” added Mawson.

“I can’t blame the fans for being and angry and annoyed with us because of our league position.

“But I’ve kept saying to them ‘be patient, be patient because things have just not been going our way.

“And to be fair to them they have – and we respect that massively. We feel that [extra] push to get us the table.”