Grayson has End in sight
SIMON GRAYSON said he still has hopes of reaching the play-offs despite this stalemate at Oakwell.
The point leaves Preston seven points off the play-off places, while Barnsley are four points off sixth.
Tom Bradshaw went closest for Barnsley, who themselves drop down to ninth, seeing a close-range effort cleared off the line in the second half.
Adam Davies denied North End a win at the death. Jordan Hugill rose highest to meet a free-kick but the Barnsley keeper clawed the ball out of the top right corner.
The result means that Preston have failed to score in successive league games for the first time since March 2016.
Grayson said: “There are plenty of games still to go, and there will be so many twists and turns from now until the end of the season. We will just keep plodding along as we have done all season. We have aspirations to try to get to the play-offs, but obviously we will need to turn these draws into wins if we are going to make up the ground on teams that are up there already.
“I think it was probably a fair result. I don’t think either team really created too many clear chances.
“Neither side really had that cutting edge to go and break down two resilient defensive performances today.
“These games just hinge on a little bit of magic from somebody, and we never really had that little bit of quality.
“I think anybody who looked at this game beforehand would have thought there would be goals, and to everybody’s surprise there are two clean sheets.”
Barnsley boss Paul Heckingbottom said: “I was pleased with how we coped with their threats, but I didn’t feel that we did enough to win the game.
“I don’t even speak about the top six. It is about winning the next game, so it has not even entered my head. I just know how much work we’ve got to do with the players we have got here.” Possession Shots On Target Shots Off Target Blocked Shots Corners Fouls Conceded Offsides Yellow Cards Red Cards 51% 49% 4 2 5 2 2 3 6 3 12 15 2 1 1 4 0 0