Barnsley U23s coach Paul Harsley was full of praise for Victor Adeboyejo following his side’s 4-2 victory over Bristol City on Friday.
The young striker scored twice to take his tally to 18 for the season as the Professional Development League campaign drew to a close.
“I’m over the moon for Victor because he’s a young player who we brought in at the start of the season - he came in and did fantastically well,” said Harsley.
“He hasn’t had as much first team action as he would have liked, and perhaps we would have liked. He had a bit of a dip but he’s come back really strong and shown what he’s about and his 18 goals this season is an excellent return for him.
“I hope he pushes on from here, I really do, because he’s got great character, he’s a good kid and he gives everything he’s got.”
The young Reds finished the campaign with back to back wins - scoring nine goals in the process - after an 11 game winless run.
Harsley will be looking to use these positive results and performances as a springboard for next season as he continues to develop his young squad.
“It’s gone well in the last two games - we had a couple of good results and the lads have done really well to finish the season off like we asked them to,” continued the coach.
“It’s been difficult since Christmas with the players going out on loan and having such a small squad, relying on a lot of youngsters and having a lot of trialists in too.
“This means we can go into next season with the players that are here, knowing that we can build on this. This season hasn’t finished in terms of training but, as far as competitive matches then it’s done.
“It gives the players a bit of a lift compared to where we were at three or four weeks ago where it was really tough on them. It gives them a bit of encouragement and desire to go on again next year.”
Barnsley were particularly lethal on the counter attack in Wiltshire - a tactic they used to devastating effect in the 5-1 win over Coventry City on Monday.
The final margin of victory against Bristol City could have been far greater had it not been for the heroics of Robins’ goalkeeper James Carey.
“We set-up for that and knew that our best way of scoring was on the counter attack,” said Harsley. “We could have scored more goals; I think we had more opportunities to score.
“We spoke to them at half-time about getting in behind the opposition quickly, and they did it more than the goals that we scored. It was always key controlling that middle third to intercept and go on the counter.”
