Bristol City boss Gary Johnson is adamant his team deserves to be near the top of the Coca-Cola Championship.

Victory over Barnsley at Oakwell on Saturday – City's first away win in the league since February – propelled the Robins into the play-off places and served to further strengthen their position in the second tier with nearly a third of the season gone.

Unbeaten in their last five outings, Bristol City are up to fifth in the table. Perhaps more significantly, they are just three points off leaders Newcastle and two behind Cardiff, the clubs currently occupying the two automatic promotion places.

"We deserve to be where we are," said Johnson, who saw his resurgent side beat Barnsley 3-2, courtesy of goals from Nicky Maynard, Evander Sno – his first for the club – and Marvin Elliott.

"If you look back over the season so far, you will see that we have been competitive in virtually every game we have played. Losing 3-0 at Cardiff was the only exception, the only debacle.

"We've got there by playing some of the top teams and we've beaten the likes of Middlesbrough and QPR and gone to Newcastle and Preston and held them. I think we've done it the hard way."

He added: "There have been some negative things said, but we've got a few monkeys off our backs in the last couple of games.

"People said our defenders and midfielders were not scoring goals, but we've scored six in two games and they've been shared around.

"They then said that we were not scoring from set-pieces, but we put that right when Jamie McCombe got his header against Plymouth last week.

"And people said I was wrong to change the side and rest players. I made three changes against Plymouth and we won 3-1 and I made another three against Barnsley and we beat them as well. It could have come back to bite me on the bottom, but it hasn't.

"I don't want to hear people say we could have had an extra five points if we had not let in late goals, because that happens. It's nice to be the play-off positions this early in the season and I think we've earned the right to be there."

Bristol City became the first team to win at Oakwell since Mark Robins took over as Barnsley manager earlier this season and Johnson afterwards insisted he was proud of his players.

He said: "We showed good character to win, because this is a hard place to get a result. Good teams, including West Brom, have already been beaten at Barnsley.

"They have a new manager and new ideas and we knew we would be in for a battle. I thought the lads battled all the way through. Apart from the free-kicks we conceded early in the game, which allowed them to get the ball into our penalty area, I thought we dictated and controlled the game for long periods.

"Not only that, we looked very dangerous as the away team. Our front two looked effective and we fed them very often, both from midfield and defence and created a lot of chances."

Although impressive in the main, Bristol City were far from perfect and would have won by a wider margin had it not been for an uncharacteristic mistake by goalkeeper Dean Gerken, who fumbled Daniel Bogdanovic's 61st-minute shot to hand the Tykes a lifeline.

Johnson said: "We'll forgive Dean his mistake, because he made a fantastic save early on to keep us level. I've told him not to think about it and to just forget it.

"If he's going to make a mistake, then it's good that it should come in a game we have won. He knows it has not cost us any points and that will help him get over it."

Wing-back Jamie McAllister spoiled an otherwise exemplary performance when his 73rd-minute penalty was saved by Luke Steele. Elliott may have netted City's third goal from the rebound, but Johnson is now considering a change in penalty taker.

He said: "Danny Haynes wanted to take it, but we'd already decided that Jamie would have that job if we won a penalty. He let me down a little bit and told me later that he'd changed his mind when the keeper moved at the last minute.

"I don't want people changing their mind, I want them to go up there and smack it. Maybe Danny will get his chance next time."

Right-back Bradley Orr limped off after 18 minutes with a calf strain, but is expected to recover in time for Saturday's home game against Sheffield Wednesday.