Patience key as Town beat Tykes

After a lacklustre opening 45 minutes in south Yorkshire, Town went to record a 3-0 win and move up to third in the League One table with goals from Nathan Byrne, Jake Reeves and Andy Williams.

What pleased the Swindon boss the most was the patience and maturity that he young squad showed.

“That was the key,” Cooper told the Advertiser. “We said at half-time they had devoted the whole plan to stopping us play, it was important that we didn’t give them any encouragement. In the second half when they did start to tire we were able to pick them off.

“We have made some good additions to the squad which have really helped us kick on a bit and that was important.

“The players are year wiser, a year older and they are getting that experience now.”

Barnsley – like so many other teams this term – changed their formation to try and combat Swindon’s flowing football.

Tykes boss Danny Wilson employed a three-pronged front-line to quell Town’s back-line from pushing forward.

“We weren’t to sure how they were going to approach it, but they hit us full on and pressed us. (They) put three against our back three and stopped us playing out,” Cooper said.

“We knew that at some point in the game that it would be difficult to sustain that pressing for 90 minutes.

“It was important that we kept playing and kept the back door shut and waited for that moment. Once that happened and once we got that first goal it was a good performance in the second half.”

Cooper will be hoping that the news is not as bad as he first feared when they get the results back from Jon Obika’s scan today.

The striker went off early in the first half at Oakwell clutching his shoulder “We don’t know yet,” Cooper said on how bad Obika’s injury is. “We think that it is not very good.

“It is his shoulder, a shoulder displacement of some kind, he will be scanned on Monday, but the first signs are not great.

“I think that the ligament that holds the shoulder in place might have gone.”