Steven Schumacher admitted his side deserved nothing for the first time on his watch as Wanderers’ play-off hopes took a hit, writes Pete Oliver.
A 4-1 loss at Barnsley saw the Whites slip to eighth in the League One table – three points off the play-off places with an inferior goal difference to the sides above them and with just four games to go.
Wanderers have hit a lean spell at just the wrong time and were out-played by a Barnsley side without a win in their previous seven games to suffer a first loss by more than a single-goal margin since Schumacher took over at the start of February.
“It's the first time I've said we were nowhere near it. We were miles off today,” said the head coach, who made three substitutions in the first half and a fourth at the break following an injury to Josh Sheehan in a bid to stem the tide.
“We've lost games before this season when I felt we played well and deserved something from the game but today we didn't, especially in the first half.
“The way we started the game was poor. We were flat and we got punished. I said every time Barnsley went forward in the first 10-15 minutes I thought they were going to score because we didn't tackle, we didn't compete, we didn't do the basics well enough.
“It wasn't a great start for the two goals and I had to change it because if we didn't, it would have been game over before half-time. We made the changes and finally we made a tackle. Jay Matete made a tackle and we get a chance (for John McAtee) from it. We should score and Aaron Collins had a chance as well before at half-time.
“For how bad we were it could have been 2-2. But in the second half it was better. It was better for 20 minutes and then Jordy getting injured and us going to down 10 men, sort of killed the game off.”
Wanderers were 3-0 down before Collins pulled a goal back with his 19th goal of the season but despite an improved second-half showing the Whites had left themselves too much to do and must now try and hit back at home to third-placed Wycombe on Friday to revive their flagging hopes.
“Occasionally you get a performance like that,” added Schumacher. “It's probably happened too often throughout the season. Today was the first time it's happened since I've been here. I'm disappointed, especially for what's at stake because we're trying to get promoted, we're trying to get in the play-offs.
“We looked nowhere near like a play-off team today. If you look at it in the cold light of day, to lose four games out of six is not promotion form. The other three games that we've lost, as I've just said, they were all close games.
“Maybe we shouldn't have lost them but you get what you deserve in football quite often, and today we deserve nothing.”
As well as a game-ending knock to Osei-Tutu, Wanderers also lost the services of midfielder Aaron Morley, whose ankle injury will be assessed after he was stretchered off and left Oakwell on crutches.
Watch the full post-match interview with the head coach on Wanderers TV