Barnsley interim boss Martin Devaney took over for the final game of the Tykes’ season after Neill Collins’ sacking prior to facing Northampton.
In the end they limped through to the play-offs courtesy of a 1-1 draw with the Cobblers and narrowly avoided missing out on a top-six spot altogether having initially challenged towards the top of the table earlier on in the season.
“Last week in the game there was a lot of pressure around it. Ultimately, we did what we wanted to do which was to get into the play-offs. It was objective reached and completed,” Devaney told BBC Radio Sheffield.
“This week there’s been a real positive vibe with the players and they feel like the pressure’s been taken off a little bit.”
Barnsley’s meeting with Bolton is also just the third time that three teams have played in the play-offs in a division in successive seasons.
Barnsley, Bolton and Peterborough enter this season’s play-offs while Bolton, Ipswich and Birmingham made the 1998-99 and 1999-00 play-offs and Bolton, Bury and Tranmere took part in 1989-90 and 1990-91.
Despite their poor end to the season, the fact the Tykes know their opponents so well could play into their favour according to Delaney.
“We seem to have done well against the bigger clubs, so to speak, in this league and we’ll have to replicate that again in these next two games,” he said.
“We know Bolton are a good side in this league and have finished just outside of those automatic spots.
“We know each other quite well. We know what we need to do and we’ve planned for that this week and we’ll be ready to go.”
