Barnsley head coach Conor Hourihane is hoping to keep his star men at the club beyond Monday’s transfer deadline after Davis Keillor-Dunn’s brace inspired a 3-1 win at home to Stevenage.
Dan Kemp had halved the deficit after David McGoldrick and Keillor-Dunn put the Reds 2-0 up but the sought-after Barnsley striker scored his 13th league goal of the season to seal the victory in the second half.
Hourihane said: “First half I thought we were outstanding – the best we’ve been for a little bit. I think it could have been 3-0 or 4-0 by half-time.
“We gave a poor goal away and it lets them into the game. But I thought we played really, really well.”
McGoldrick made it four goals in three games 14 minutes in, capitalising on some poor defending from the usually reliable Carl Piergianni.
The Reds should have doubled their lead just moments later thanks to a well-worked corner routine but, after Keillor-Dunn laid it on a plate for captain Luca Connell, he could only fire wide from inside the area.
Reyes Cleary and Keillor-Dunn combined well again as the latter fired in off the post to double Barnsley’s advantage in the 31st minute.
Connell, who was partially at fault for three of Cardiff’s goals in the 4-0 loss on Tuesday, saw his pass cut out by Jamie Reid who played it to Kemp to halve the deficit.
But Keillor-Dunn restored Barnsley’s two-goal lead five minutes into the second half, knocking it past Filip Marschall in the Stevenage goal who found himself in no man’s lad before tapping into an open net.
Asked if both Cleary and Keillor-Dunn will remain at Barnsley for the rest of the season, Hourihane said: “We’re really hoping so. There’s a lot of talk going around now.
“From my point of view it was really important to settle things down with a win and that’s what we’ve gone out and done.”
The result pulled Barnsley five points clear of the drop zone while Stevenage dropped to eighth, six points outside the play-off places.
Stevenage boss Alex Revell said his side need to learn from the performance and the result.
He added: “It was a performance littered with mistakes. The first goal is a huge error and you get punished against a team that’s got good forward players.
“At half-time I said a few words in terms of the performance and getting rid of those errors but then you concede a goal straight away.
“Ultimately, you can’t play in any game where you make as many mistakes as we did and expect to win games.
“Today wasn’t good enough. But we have to, again, learn from it and get better for next week.”
