Sabri Lamouchi was left exasperated after his Nottingham Forest side were denied a confirmed play-off place by a Barnsley team which “wanted the win more”.

Forest only needed a point against the Championship’s bottom club to make sure of their spot in the play-offs, but must now get a result on the final day after a 1-0 defeat.

Patrick Schmidt scored the injury-time winner, which was nothing more than Barnsley deserved as they dominated possession and had the majority of goalscoring chances.

Lamouchi’s team has been praised this season for their fighting qualities but they were in short supply in South Yorkshire in a very underwhelming performance.

Barnsley ‘ran more and fought more’

The Forest head coach was left concerned by the lack of desire from his team, coming up against a Barnsley outfit who needed the win to avoid seeing their relegation confirmed.

Lamouchi said: “The desire of Barnsley was important and they deserved to win. Unfortunately they deserved to win because they wanted the win more than us. They ran more, they fought more, they won the duels.

“It was not a surprise for us. We saw the game for Barnsley (against Leeds) a few days ago and they were so aggressive and so positive.”

Lamouchi tried out a different formation, swapping the usual 4-2-3-1 or 4-1-4-1 for a 5-2-1-2 which seemed ill-suited to the team’s playing style in the absence of Joe Lolley and Sammy Ameobi.

The boss was adamant that this switch was not the reason for their defeat, saying:

“It was system against system, but the desire from Barnsley players was higher than us. We didn’t play well.

“We can talk about the system but we’ve changed system many times this season. I think we should talk about animation, about spirit. In any system you play, if you don’t fight, if you don’t win the duels or the second balls, it is difficult.

“Have a look how many defenders we had at the end of the game. A goal from a cross, a challenge (and) a second ball in our small box. That’s not about the system.”

Result needed against Stoke

The Barnsley defeat means that in the final match of the season, Nottingham Forest still need a point at home to Stoke City to be sure of their place in the play-offs, with Swansea City three points behind them.

“The next one, the last one, is the final,” he said of this fixture. “If we want to play in the play-offs it is in our hands.

“One point or win and we will be in the play-offs but we need to play this game against Stoke, a fantastic team with good organisation. They will come and try to plan and win for sure.”

Lamouchi knows that his side will have to improve on their most recent performance to ensure they do not throw away a golden opportunity.

“So we need to recover and have a good rest, and Wednesday (we must) play a clever game. We didn’t play clever and didn’t play well, and it wasn’t enough for the points.

“I know my players deserve to play in the play-offs, but that is not enough. We have to show more than that, we need to be more concrete, more bright and more clever. The reality is we need our feet on the floor and to be realistic.

“We need to fight until the end, we need to suffer until the end, and we will see what happens. My players want to play in the play-offs and we will do everything.”