There will come a time when Steve Cooper will expect more goals from his Forest side on a consistent basis, the East Midlands outfit netting just six times in as many matches in all competitions.
More importantly, however, Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Derby County was their second win in succession, extending another run to five triumphs from seven outings.
Such is the competitiveness of the Championship that they remain four points adrift of the top six, but Cooper and his squad appear to be grinding out more second-half victories than their rivals.
In the closing months of the campaign, that will be an important trait, as will Forest rebuffing any attempts from Brentford to sign Brennan Johnson.
The 20-year-old ended a four-game wait to score his sixth league goal of the campaign versus the Rams, a strike which followed Lewis Grabban getting on the scoresheet for the third match in succession.
While Barnsley still have 21 games to retain their second-tier status, Saturday’s 2-1 reverse at Birmingham City was their ninth successive league game without a win.
The fact that it is still well short of their longest period without a victory this season tells you everything that you need to know about the fortunes, and Poya Asbaghi knows that he can ill-afford many more games without breaking their current streak.
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Coronavirus-related postponements have prevented the Tykes from generating any kind of momentum, but they cannot be used as an excuse with many other teams facing the same predicament.
To their credit, their last three defeats have only been by a 2-1 scoreline, all coming away from Oakwell, so Asbaghi will still feel that he has something to work with providing that his squad can turn the corner.
Nevertheless, Barnsley are yet to win on their travels all season, collecting just four points and scoring only nine goals during their 13 matches
