Daniel Stendel proud of Barnsley side despite defeat but admits Leeds United showed promotion credentials

While he admitted Leeds were the better team in their 2-0 Oakwell win, he was proud of the way his players matched up with the promotion hopefuls.

"The main point, I'm proud of this performance," he said.

"We played what we can play.

"When you create so many chances against Leeds, a really good game, it's not easy, you need to take your chances in the right moment to score. It's not happened today.

"In the second half while the pressure from Leeds is high, after 50 minutes we have two or three big chances to go in front."

The goals didn't come until the final six minutes of the match, Eddie Nketiah and Mateusz Klich putting Leeds back on top in the Championship.

Stendel ruled the moments that took the game away from the hosts.

Kalvin Phillips' swung in an inviting free-kick that Nketiah hammered home at the far post, before winning a penalty that Klich calmly slotted home.

He feels if Barnsley can play like they did today, every week, they'll stay in the division.

"Ten minutes, we missed 10 minutes to take one point," he said.

"I think you can see why Leeds have ambitions to get promotion this year.

"We are disappointed, but this is the performance we need every week, and score, then we'll win points we need to stay in the league.

"I want to have the feeling when I stand on the side that we can win the game, we want to win the game, that we play with courage, then I can accept it if we lose the game.

"I think in the end it was the better team, but for our effort we deserved one point today.

"The worst thing I thought in this moment when we conceded this free-kick. They had chances before to score. We needed to change something to get a little bit more pressure. In the end it was the free-kick and the penalty that decided the game. If we don't score, we can't win."