Barnsley boss Gerhard Struber was left disappointed with his side’s performance after Saturday’s defeat to Cardiff City.

Second half goals from Will Vaulks and Calum Paterson condemned the Tykes to back-to-back defeats following the defeat at Reading. Barnsley will have felt that they matched the visitors in the first half, but their second half performance allowed Cardiff to gain control which would inevitably punish Struber’s side.

Struber told Barnsley’s official website: “We’ve shown two faces today, the first half wasn’t special, but it was okay. In the second half, we completely forgot our plan.

“Cardiff like to play a lot of long balls and we ended up doing the same. When you try to play the same as them, you have no chance.”

Struber was disappointed with the two goals that his side conceded with both goals seemingly preventable from his side’s point of view, he continued: “We didn’t defend well for the goals. We gifted them too much space. But the whole second half was not enough from everyone, to either earn a point or win the game. Today we did not go out our comfort zone, it was too easy for them.”

The result saw the Tykes drop to the bottom of the Sky Bet Championship with other results on the weekend firmly going against them. The gap between themselves and safety has grown to seven points following Middlesbrough’s away win over Charlton Athletic with Hull occupying the final spot outside of the bottom three.

Struber will have a difficult task to try and keep Barnsley in the Sky Bet Championship this season but must remain confident with their upcoming run of games. Barnsley are still to play fellow strugglers Stoke, Luton and Wigan, should Barnsley pick up a respectable point tally from those games they could see themselves out of the bottom three.

Barnsley will be looking to kick-start their survival bid this weekend as they travel to the capital to face Queens Park Rangers and will be looking to complete a double over their London counterparts - a thrilling 5-3 win in December courtesy from a hat-trick from Conor Chaplin as well as goals from Cauley Woodrow and Bambo Diaby.

The Verdict

It is easy to see why Struber was so disappointed with his side’s performance on Saturday. The Tykes showed a real lack of cutting edge and ability to defend on several occasions during the clash and deservedly lost the game in the second half. Barnsley have been known for the last 18 months as a side that like to play their football on the deck with slick and precise passes to open up a back line. When they reverted to going long against Cardiff, a side who are far physically superior, it was no surprise that they struggled.

Struber also has a point regards the defending that saw them concede two very soft goals in the space of two minutes. For the first goal, Barnsley had several points in which they could have put their foot through the ball and cleared it, but the goalmouth scramble fell unfortunately to the feet of Vaulks. The second goal was far worse as Paterson is given all the time in the world to pick his spot and slot home. If Barnsley are wanting to be a Sky Bet Championship side next season, their defensive cohesion needs to vastly improve before May.