Ian Baraclough was fuming as his Scunthorpe team went down 2-1 at Barnsley further dashing their hopes of avoiding the drop. Victories over Nottingham Forest, Sheffield United and Swansea in recent weeks had given the Iron's hope of staying in the Championship, but they now find themselves four points from safety.

"We've lost a game which I thought, if we'd taken it by the scruff of the neck in the first half, we could have come out of as victors," said Baraclough.

"The first half set the tone for me. I thought we could have stamped our authority if we'd got tighter to people and if our passing had been brighter. That wasn't good enough

"Barnsley showed a little bit more urgency to close the ball down and we gave them time to pass the ball.

"We made them look an excellent side at times. It was an evenly matched game but they showed more urgency.

"You can't waste opportunities like this. It was a good chance to impose ourselves on Barnsley and we had the armoury to beat them."

By contrast, Barnsley manager Mark Robins saw his outfit put 12 points between themselves and their third-bottom opponents.

"I'm pleased because it's all about the result tonight," he said. "It was a difficult one for us because we were expected to win.

"I thought we controlled the game for most of it. Scunthorpe decided to sit in and try and make it difficult for us to break them down, which they did well. Then we got a bit of a rub of the green."