Barnsley players’ focus on making their points

BARNSLEY striker Conor Chaplin insists that he and his teammates are ready to resume the Championship season on June 20 – and are not focusing on any ‘distractions’.

On Sunday, the EFL announced that the Championship could provisionally restart in just three weeks time, with some second-tier clubs being vociferous in their criticism.

QPR chief executive Lee Hoos said the West London club are “vehemently opposed” to the proposed resumption and stressed that he was “appalled” by the lack of consultation regarding the announcement by the EFL.

Hull City vice-chairman Ehab Allam has expressed strong reservations about the second-tier returning this season on several recent occasions.

Meanwhile, Barnsley co-chairman Paul Conway has said that the club will consider legal action if they are relegated in 2019-20 and clubs found guilty of breaching EFL sanctions are allowed to start next season on minus points.

The rock-bottom Reds – seven points adrift of safety with nine games remaining – have written to the EFL calling for a one-off £7.4m payment if they are “unfairly and unlawfully relegated” from a restarted Championship.

But as far as the Reds players are concerned, their only focus is purely on matters on the pitch.

Chaplin said: “It is black and white and the only thing that matters at the end of the day are those nine games and 27 points and picking up as much as we can, which will hopefully see us out of the relegation zone.

“That is what everyone is striving for and there are no distractions and no thinking it could be this or that and everyone is tuned into it.

“Fingers crossed, it is June the 20th or whenever it may be. The lads will be ready and raring to go.”

Admitting that the club’s return to training – initially in small-scale groups – has gone relatively smoothly since May 25, the forward added: “Everyone is in the same boat and has embraced it really well. Everyone wants to crack on with training and keeping their levels up and making sure we are 100 per cent going into those last nine games.

“It has been really smooth and quite easy in terms of getting used to things. We have all been tuned into a new normal.”