Barnsley 'not good enough for the Championship - yet'

Boss Daniel Stendel admits his Barnsley side are not currently good enough for the Championship.
Barnsley's manager Daniel StendelBarnsley's manager Daniel Stendel
Barnsley's manager Daniel Stendel

The Reds' return to the second tier has got off to a terrible start as they are without a win since the opening day of the season – a run of 10 games – and are sat in the bottom three.

A disappointing period bottomed out on Saturday when they conceded four second-half goals to go down 5-1 at Preston.

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Stendel, who has built a youthful squad but one without much second-tier experience, is concerned at what he is seeing.

He believes his side are low on confidence and not looking up to the job so far.

"The players want to fight and never give up but after the games we have lost we have lost a little bit of confidence,” he said.

“You can see each player has a problem with himself.

“It's very difficult when another player cannot help when one makes a mistake.

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“Every player had a lot of problems and Preston played well.

“At the moment we are playing like a team that is not good enough to play in the Championship.

"We are all really down after the game and it is not easy for us to play our game at the moment. The changing room was very quiet.”

Stendel and his players do at least have a fortnight to pick themselves up as the Championship goes into shutdown for the international break.

Things do not get much easier for them once the action gets back under way as they host high-flying Swansea.

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