Over-celebrating Barnsley FC players ordered to focus on the task by Michael Duff

The good news was that his side recorded an eighth successive league win at Oakwell - the first time that has happened in one season since 1954-55 - as the Reds maintained their outside hopes of gatecrashing the automatic promotion positions in League One.

The Reds chief admitted his side were too ponderous for swathes of their 2-1 win and got drawn into a scrap on the resumption.

What he did not particularly like were the scenes at the end of a tetchy contest on a day when a player from each side received their marching orders. A number of players from each side briefly converged after the final whistle and some raucous celebratory noise on the back of that in the home dressing room was not to his taste either.

Duff said: "I don't like 'whooping it up' in the dressing room. If you are used to winning often enough, you don't need to celebrate like that.

"You don't need to wind people up, because you just go 'well, we've won' and crack onto the next one. That's what I told them. At the end, I told them in no uncertain terms that it was not for me, that (scenes after the final whistle). Whether it was us winding them up or them winding us up, walk off the pitch, we have just won a game. You don't need to get involved.

"There were some strange decisions in the game and it escalated into the mess that it was in the end.

"The tackle on Luke Thomas which started the melee, I thought he was out of control with that one, both feet were off the floor. We weren't quite at our best, but won."

Barnsley won despite the best efforts of a niggly Shrewsbury side who made the game edgy and stop-start throughout.

Keeper Harry Isted continued: "That's all you can ask for - try and match them, whatever they bring. That's what we did. It was just about seeing the game out and doing our jobs. They got one back which would normally send a few teams to panic stations, but we know our roles. All they did was get balls into the box and you have to stay strong. If you have to manage the game and waste a bit of time, you do that, yes."