Under-pressure Barnsley head coach Markus Schopp says his team need to ‘stick together’ after their late 1-0 loss to Millwall at Oakwell.
Murray Wallace headed home in the 88th minute to give Millwall all three Sky Bet Championship points and leave the Tykes in the relegation zone.
Schopp said: “It’s a tough situation. Losing a game like today; it’s probably the hardest one.
“It’s a situation that we have to go through, and it isn’t easy for us, and it isn’t easy for the fans. We can only stick together.
“We are absolutely clear that this must be better, and I will do everything to make sure it is better as soon as possible.
“For us, it’s important to understand that we have to do more to get the three points.
“I saw a Barnsley team that for 45 minutes that were really ready for competing.
“For the lads, after two games [without a goal], it would be so important psychologically to get a goal. It didn’t happen and we have to find better solutions.
“A young team need a certain consistency and we don’t have that. We have to recover now for a couple of days and then it’s all focused on the next block of games.”
The Lions should have led early on. Sheyi Ojo’s low drive was spilled by Brad Collins before Wallace’s rebound was turned around the post by the Barnsley goalkeeper.
Devante Cole robbed Millwall captain Shaun Hutchinson of the ball and barrelled down on goal, only to be denied by another good save from Bartosz Bialkowski.
Collins was pressured into conceding a corner at the start of the second half and the resulting set-piece was eventually headed over by Wallace.
Schopp had made all three of his substitutions with 20 minutes to go and Lions boss Rowett immediately responded as Tom Bradshaw and Billy
Mitchell replaced Ojo and George Evans.
Bradshaw immediately sought to make a difference but Collins was alert enough to gather his goalbound header, before later being denied again by the Barnsley keeper.
The hosts’ best chance of the second half came with four minutes to go. The
ball was well worked to Callum Brittain but the midfielder could not keep his
shot on target.
Then, with time running out, Wallace won it with a powerful header at the back post from namesake Jed’s corner.
Lions boss Rowett said: “I’m really pleased. It’s seven unbeaten for us – won three and drawn four.
“For us, part of the challenge is turning some of those drawn games into games that we win.
“We knew it was going to be a difficult game coming to Barnsley.
“For the majority of the game, it was just about if we could find that quality moment. We’ve created some good opportunities.
“It looked at one point as thought it might end up a draw, which I would have been disappointed with.
“Murray Wallace comes up with a fabulous header to win us the game. I though he was fantastic today, he’s been fantastic all season.
“Someone told me it was my 100th game as Millwall manager today. It wasn’t really something I had thought about.
“It was just trying to give those away fans something to cheer about. They were brilliant and it gives them that lift to see their team win two games in a week.”
