Barnsley head coach Darrell Clarke heaped praise on two-goal Adam Phillips as the Tykes produced a confident display to beat Crawley 3 -0 at the Broadfield Stadium.
After defender Donovan Pines had headed Barnsley in front after 13 minutes, attacking midfielder Phillips burst through to double the advance before converting a penalty in first-half stoppage time having won the spot-kick.
The victory extends Barnsley’s unbeaten league run to four games and Clarke felt his players stuck to the game plan in fine style.
He said:” Phillips is a quality player and he’s got three goals already this season, after getting eight last term, and I’m confident he’ll get more.
“I’m really pleased with the performance; we scored three goals, got a clean sheet and we executed the game plan really well.
“We looked a danger all the time. We didn’t have a lot of the ball, but we controlled a lot of the play without it.”
Barnsley conceded two late goals to drop two points in their previous league game against Northampton and Clarke was delighted with the game management displayed.
The Tykes also suffered an early injury blow when former Crawley striker Max Watters was forced off and Clarke said:” Aiden Marsh came on for Max and was superb in everything he did.”
Crawley boss Scott Lindsey felt it was a case of his men “losing the game in the first 20 minutes” and admitted the Red Devils were “ miles off it” as they suffered their first home defeat for five months.
The former Swindon manager said: “You can win a game in the first 20 minutes and you can also lose one in the same time.
“Barnsley came with full respect for us and sat off us at first, but we made mistake after mistake and they stepped forward and smelt blood.
“We had to do something different in the second half but, at 3-0 down, it was out of control football.
“We can’t start the game like that – some players were still in bed.”
Lindsey admitted that after getting credit for the way they played at Brighton in the Carabao Cup, some of his players might have got too carried away.
He added: “All of a sudden you think you’ve arrived. But you have to focus on the here and now and we didn’t do that.
“You have to remember that we are a work in process; we can’t be expected to be the finished article. The reality is that this team is new.”
