BOSS Mark Robins says that consistency and belief are now the key to Barnsley's ambitions for the rest of the season. The excellent 4-1 win at Preston lifted them to 11th in the table, just four points off the play-offs. "We are in a good position considering where we were at the start of last season but all we are focussing on is getting more points on the board by beating Watford on Saturday," he said.

BARNSLEY boss Mark Robins left it late before managing to ‘freshen things up’ at Oakwell. The clock was ticking down towards Monday’s 5pm transfer deadline as Robins landed two new players on loan. The Reds chief said he had been keeping tabs on both Burnley’s Jay Rodriguez and West Brom midfielder Filipe Teixeira for ‘quite a while’.

JAY Rodriguez admitted it was a dream come true to score on his Barnsley debut – with his first touch! Rodriguez, 20, who is on a month’s loan from Burnley, came off the bench to bag the fourth goal in Tuesday’s trouncing of Preston. Said Rodriguez: “I knew I was joining a good club anyway, but I thought the display on Tuesday was tremendous. It was certainly good to watch from the sidelines!"

AZEEM Rafiq has put the disappointment of a quarter-final exit at the Under-19 World Cup behind him. The 18-year-old has just returned from the tournament in New Zealand in which England finished eighth and is taking positives out of the experience of captaining England in the competition. The Barnsley boy led his team through their group with three wins including a excellent victory over 2008 champions and top seeds India. England then lost to the West Indies in the last eight but the all-rounder says the tournament was a great experience overall. “It was absolutely awesome,” he told the Chronicle. Read a full interview with the Barnsley CC and Yorkshire star in this week's Chronicle.

JOSH Wale believes he boxed his best ever fight as a professional in his super-bantamweight victory over Marc Callaghan on Friday night. The Brampton boxer only arranged the match the weekend before but comfortably won after a some powerful punches early on left his opponent with several cuts. Londoner Callaghan, who had not won in seven fights, fought on for two rounds before retiring at the end of the fourth. It was the first time the Brampton boy had stopped an opponent.

BARNSLEY Lawn Tennis Club have completed a sucessful first season in the Sheffield and District Winter Mixed Doubles League. The team have enjoyed a wonderful campaign. After suffering their only defeat of the year in the first match they then won their remaining nine fixtures to finish top. They comprehensively defeated Brentwood without dropping a single set in their four games last Saturday to gain promotion to Division B.

POLE VAULTER Luke Cutts began the indoor season in style as he finished second in an international event. The Dearneside High Athletics Club represented the Commonwealth Select Team in a competition which also involved Great Britain and Northern Ireland, USA, Sweden and Germany. Steve Lewis was preferred to Cutts in the GB squad but the Thurnscoe athlete pushed his countryman all the way at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall. Cutts cleared 5.50 metres, the same height as Lewis, and only lost out on count-back.