Ritchie set for Oakwell

Andy Ritchie is set for further talks with Barnsley chairman Gordon Shepherd about taking over permanently as boss.

Former Oldham manager Ritchie has impressed since Paul Hart's departure from the Oakwell hotseat in March.

The Reds lost only two of their last 11 games of the season under the 44-year-old, earning him the March manager-of-the-month award.

"I'm due to have talks with the chairman and we will see what can come out of that," he told BBC Sport.

"I'm very pleased with the way it's gone, we've had a great response from the lads, the board have been great and the fans have been superb.

"The results have been good. We lost two games but one of those was against Hull, who were promoted, and we should have got something out of that too."

Former Nottingham Forest boss Hart parted company with the Oakwell side after just two wins in 13 league matches.

We've just got the lads to express themselves and enjoy football

Andy Ritchie

"We didn't have a good start, we had a hell of lot of new faces thrown together for the first time and they didn't gel as we'd expected," Ritchie explained.

"We drew too many games when we got a semblance of form going, we couldn't convert enough of them into wins - if we had done that in four or five more games we could have been in a play-off position."

Ritchie was first-team coach at the time after initially being brought to the club to run the academy side.

He says their success since he took control of the team is down to creating a positive outlook among the players.

"We've just got the lads to express themselves and enjoy football," he said.


Ritchie is keen to snap up Nardiello

"We needed to get their spirits up, we did that and we've reaped the rewards. We just need to push on next season - if I'm here."

Among the cornerstones of that revival were on-loan strikers Michael Chopra and Daniel Nardiello, who netted 24 goals between them.

Chopra is back at Newcastle and unlikely to return, but Ritchie is hopeful of completing a deal to sign Nardiello on a free transfer from Manchester United.

"Michael played all season and did well, while Danny scored a hell of a lot of goals considering the number of starts he had," Ritchie added.

"Hopefully we can keep him, we are in talks with him and we're looking to get at least another striker in.

"In midfield we need someone to get a couple more goals because we didn't produce enough from there.

"We've leaked goals too, but I'm not certain if that's down to a lack of organisation or the players."