Call it a Barnsley charm offensive

PERHAPS it’s down to managing teams that seem to be perpetually struggling against high expectations but, now well into his sixth decade, Mick McCarthy is showing no signs of mellowing.

He had insisted that he was not feeling the pressure ahead of the trip to Turf Moor, maintaining he was not deluded in believing in his team and that their luck would change.

But even after this victory, which saw his team largely rely on that change of fortune to come out on top against a team that has won just once in the equivalent of half a season’s football, he was pricklier than he might have been and, as always, seemed to take issue with any type of question thrown at him.