Barnsley FC adamant they will not change course over transfer policy

Head coach Gerhard Struber made no bones about the importance of the game, labelling it as an ‘A-level examination’ – having seen enough of this division since November to know these are the ones which reveal a lot.

His comment was nothing to do with the footballing excellence of Cardiff either, but everything to do with their organisation, physicality, mentality and degree in the streetwise arts of second-tier life which sides usually require to survive at this level.

It is a division which is about finding a way. It is about winning games when you do not play particularly well that matters.

The Cardiff team who started the game at Oakwell and went on to triumph 2-0 had an average age of 27.27 and stacks of miles on the Championship clock.

By contrast, the average age of the Barnsley side was just 23, with little substantive experience of the second-tier aside from Alex Mowatt and Cauley Woodrow.

There will be times before the end of the season – as there have been already in 2019-20 – when Barnsley’s high-energy gegenpressing style led by its young, dynamic core will secure points. Whether it is enough to keep their divisional status is a moot point.

Should Barnsley go down, the finger will be firmly pointed at the club’s recruitment policy as the chief reason by supporters.

But the club model of buying young, up-and-coming players with potential sell-on value down the line is firmly established and it is one which the club will not deviate from – give or take the odd exception or ‘special circumstance’ as chief executive officer Dane Murphy puts it.

That was the thinking in letting Struber sign two senior players – albeit from the Austrian Bundesliga – in midfielder Marcel Ritzmaier, 26, and defender Michael Sollbauer, 29 – in January.