Ex-City defender Paul Heckingbottom has been absolved of blame for the goal which put Barnsley on the back foot in their League One play-off tie with Huddersfield.

Ex-City defender Paul Heckingbottom has been absolved of blame for the goal which put Barnsley on the back foot in their League One play-off tie with Huddersfield.

Heckingbottom and goalkeeper Nick Colgan made a hash of a routine clearance to allow Gary Taylor-Fletcher to score the only goal of their semi-final first leg tie on Thursday, but manager Andy Ritchie refused to blame his players.

“The two boys who were going for the ball could not get out of the way of each other,” Ritchie said. “These things happen, but we're still in there. It's only half-time and we'll be ready for Monday.

“It was a scrappy goal from out point of view. We should not have let them get the ball down the line for starters.

“Our defenders thought he wasn't going to get to the ball to cross it and that's disappointing. But the two have just banged into each other. The goal did not befit the game.”

Heckingbottom, who made 16 Norwich appearances in the 2002-03 season, has the chance to atone in the second leg at Huddersfield on Monday.

Huddersfield manager Peter Jackson was quick to point out the job was only half done, but was full of praise for two of his older players.

“When you look at the performances of Martin McIntosh and Andy Booth, they were the two key players that I rested at Swindon and they were both excellent and it looks like the rest did them good,” Jackson said. “I thought all the players worked extremely hard. We knew we had to compete with them and the attitude was excellent.

“We knew we would have to close them down and we did that well.”