The Championship table can change quickly, and a first victory of the season, 2-0 against Derby, has not only lifted the Reds but will also have inspired Oakwell hopes of a significant revival over the next month.

For all of the club's matches in this period are against teams who are close to them in the table. Blackpool, next Saturday's opponents, have only one point more than Davey's men so are only three places above them.

After that come Cardiff, who are only two points better off than the Reds; then three outfits who have the same three-point tally, Southampton, Norwich and Ipswich.

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Davey and his players will find it easy to imagine that in a traditionally tight division the table could have a different look in a few weeks' time.

That first win should also give the club a psychological boost as well as a platform on which to build.

The Barnsley boss takes more significant encouragement from the prospect of having Heinz Muller, Anderson de Silva, Jamal Campbell-Ryce, Hugo Colace and Maceo Rigters coming into his squad in the near future.

It was the knowledge that he would have those five eligible soon that allowed Davey to stay out of the deadline-day rush on Monday.

"Those five players could all, arguably, be in the starting 11 so we did not need to go and get anybody else," he says. It was the first time in his two years as manager that he was able to stay out of the deadline-day market. He would only want to bring in somebody who was going to improve the squad, and his delight that he will soon have an extra five players fit and available appears to reflect a confidence in the current squad.

He did have many agents ringing him before the deadline to see if he wanted their players but he felt there was nothing that merited his interest.

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