Tykes boss thrilled after weathering the storm

Barnsley head coach Paul Heckingbottom felt his side finally got what they deserved in their 3-0 dismantling of Sunderland at Oakwell.

Both sides went into the game with underwhelming starts to the season, seeing them in the bottom half of the Sky Bet Championship table, cut Barnsley turned their fortunes around with goals from Ike Ugbo and Harvey Barnes, in the first half, and George Moncur, in the second.

And Heckingbottom (pictured) said: “I’m very happy and I’m pleased for the players because they’ve deserved it. I think it’s been coming, to be honest. It gives them confidence

“We have to play to our strengths and try and hide our weaknesses and I think we did that. “The biggest thing for me was that we weathered the storm at the beginning. “Sunderland did start really quickly and they put us under pressure. We defended really well, though, and we blocked tackles when we had to. “We didn’t panic neither, which was another main thing for me.

“We played our way back into the game, got the goal, and, from that point, there was only one team in it.

“We managed the game, and we’re showing a bit more maturity which is also pleasing.

“It was a much more grown-up performance as the game went on.”

On selecting youngster UgbooverregularstrikerTom Bradshaw, Heckingbottom said: “I was pleased with him. We had a training game and he scored four the other day.

“He showed his qualities and his challenge is doing that in the Championship this season.

“The most pleasing thing about the win was the storm we weathered at the beginning. A lot of it was our own doing and things we were getting wrong.

“But we defended our box really well, made blocks and tackles when we had to and didn’t panic, which was the main thing.”