David Flitcroft says getting Barnsley FC out of the mentality of being ‘victims’ has been crucial to his success after taking over as manager from best friend Keith Hill.
The Reds were bottom of the league when Flitcroft became caretaker but have won six of their last seven games in all competitions and are now only in the relegation zone due to an inferior goal average to Tuesday’s opponents Wolves and are in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
Flitcroft’s start has been statistically the most successful for any Barnsley boss since Allan Clarke led the Reds to promotion in his first season in 1978-79. It has been an extraordinary turnaround following a difficult 2012 which yielded just ten wins and was one of the club’s leanest ever years. While Hill used to bemoan the club’s lack of wealth and regularly hit out at fans during his early months in the job, his successor has taken a much more positive approach.
“We were turning into victims as a club but I have been able to arrest that,” said Flitcroft.
“We’re not victims. We can lose John Stones from the family but move on, recreate and do something different. We lost Craig Davies but we moved on. There’s nothing you can do. I’m very good at moving on quickly.
“You have got to adapt and overcome and that’s what I have been telling the players and I’ll keep telling them that until the end of the season. We’re not looking ahead to games in trepidation any more.
“I think in the first interview I did as caretaker manager I said that we needed to be more streetwise and we’re getting that now. We’re able to see games out.“I am managing a different way to what Keith did.”
© 2013 Barnsley Chronicle Ltd