Paul Heckingbottom believes Huddersfield Town’s next opponents Barnsley have already shown they are worthy of a place in the Championship.
His side arrive at the John Smith’s Stadium on Saturday seventh in the table after successive home wins over Derby County and QPR.
The Reds, promoted though the League I play-offs, have rattled in seven goals in three league games.
Now they are seeking a first win at the John Smith’s Stadium since 2006 and only an eighth in 36 visits overall.
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“We’ve proven we deserve to be at this level,” said manager Heckingbottom, whose squad includes Town old boy Adam Hammill.
“We’ve learned that our players are good enough, that they belong here and enjoy it.
“There’s definitely a step up in quality in regards to the players we’re coming up against.
“We want to play like we did against Derby and QPR every week and the players want to play like that every week as well.
“We worked our socks off last season and we’ve gone up another level and we’ll have to factor that in, too.
“Probably we won’t know the effects of how hard we’re working until we’re a few more weeks into the season.”
Ex-Reds player Heckingbottom wants to bolster his squad before transfer deadline day.
“To keep doing that near the end of the season we may need to change the way we do things,” he added.
“We need to give ourselves that luxury to change players around every now and again.
“It’s important we have options either as backup or to improve the XI who start the game.
“When things are getting tough and the players have been exerting themselves we want to make sure we can keep that intensity up.”
