Following an impressive individual display in our U18s’ magnificent 4-1 victory over Cardiff City, an elated Josh McKay spoke about how pleased he was with his team’s never-say-die attitude.
The young Reds clinched a first-ever Professional Development League North title – a just reward for their incredible performances since a ball was kicked back in August.
“We’re history makers and I’m buzzing about it,” he beamed. “Winning the league has been our goal all season. We’ve fought hard to achieve this title and I’m so proud of the boys.”
The wing-back’s crossing ability has been a vital component to Barnsley’s success throughout the campaign and has helped them to achieve such a positive finish.
McKay continued his applaudable form by registering two impressive assists, exposing the Cardiff back line on both occasions. However, it should’ve been three, and it would’ve been if a teammate had turned home his cross instead of an opposing defender.
“Individually, I thought I had a good game,” he stated. “It was a great feeling to contribute to a lot of the goals, but I’m a bit gutted I didn’t get an assist for the second one. I was hoping it would be classed as my assist, but it ended up going down as an own goal, so I didn’t get it.”
Emmaisa Nzondo added a fourth to Barnsley’s lead late on before the hosts netted a late consolation through Louis Phillips deep into injury time.
Although it had no bearing on the outcome of the game, McKay is keen to ensure that he and his teammates are switched on until the final whistle in their remaining fixtures to give them the best chance of winning the play-offs.
“We were a bit unlucky to concede at the end,” he discussed. “We can’t afford to switch off like we did but other than that, it was a great performance from the lads.
“We’re all confident going into the play-offs, but we’ve got two games before them that we’re hoping to win.
“We’re going to remain focussed and aim to be relentless in these two games. After that, we can focus on the play-offs. We want to make even more history and there’s no reason why we can’t.”
