Barnsley FC v Cambridge United: Neill Collins draws on Sheffield United experience amid tense run-in

Fifth-placed Barnsley’s hopes of a top-two finish have been jolted by a four-match winless sequence.

But amid a compelling automatic promotion race, several teams still have to play each other and twists and turns still lie in store and the Reds chief is maintaining the faith. It’s not over until it’s over.

Collins said: "You never know what is around the corner. You might go on a five-match winning run and promotion push.

"The biggest thing is that (just) we are there with an opportunity to do that. We’re not sitting seventh or eighth and really thinking we are in and among three or four teams trying to (just) get in the play-offs.

"It’s making sure we do that (first), but it’s what is ahead of us. In this short period of time, things can happen very quickly.

"I’ve been there and I always remember we were at Sheffield United (in 2013-14) when we were in a terrible position and of a sudden, we reeled off a couple of wins and before you know it, we’d won seven on the bounce and didn’t concede in eight and it just came out of nowhere."

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One player who won’t be involved in the run home is central defender Donovan Pines, out for the rest of the season with a thigh injury which will require surgery. It is not thought to be ‘majorly serious’ according to Collins.

The US international has started just three games for the club and picked up the injury in the game against Bolton on March 5.

Collins said: "You always feel the victim. We sign someone who we think will be really important, then he picks up an injury. It’s football. It happens across the board.

"We had built him up but one thing you can’t quantify is that it might be (only) the third or fourth time in Donny’s career that he has played Saturday then Tuesday.

"You are never sure how the body reacts to that. You never get 100 per cent right. We have got a lot more right than wrong. No one could have foreseen him picking up the injury in the way he did."