Liverpool loanee Ryan McLaughlin enjoyed his first professional game for Barnsley at Oakwell on Saturday, helping the Reds to a 2-0 victory over Blackpool.
The Northern Ireland youth international played 90 minutes for his senior début for Danny Wilson’s side, who bagged their third league clean sheet of the season - and second since Danny's return.
“I’m very happy and all the team are buzzing that we’ve got the three points,” said McLaughlin.” Hopefully we can push on and get out of the relegation zone.”
McLaughlin, who only turned 19 in November, put in a solid shift at right-back against the Seasiders, with Chris O'Grady netting both goals either side of half time.
“We couldn’t change our mind-set and sit back and defend,” he added. “We showed when we came out and scored again quite quickly after the second half started. That gave us an advantage.
“We were still creating chances and had a goal disallowed so I’m very happy with the way we played and how we took our goals.
“I hadn’t played a game since late November, this was my first game since then. It was just great to play 90 minutes.”
“It’s a great move for me to have a chance to play in the Championship,” continued McLaughlin, who joined on a 28-day loan from Liverpool.
“I was just thinking it would be a great experience for me. When I came in the lads were very welcoming. Maybe at another team in the relegation zone the lads might have been down, but that wasn’t the case.”
