Conor Hourihane praised his Barnsley team’s ‘brilliant’ performance after a 4-2 win at Reading on the final day of the season.
The Royals – after an announcement that a sale of the club has been approved – could have finished in the play-off places if they bettered Leyton Orient’s result but the London club won at Huddersfield. But the Reds went 2-0 up just after the interval then, after the hosts replied, added another two.
Hourihane said: “We were really good. We had to come here, the atmosphere was up, they had the takeover announcement this morning. They had big energy in the team and crowd and we did really well.
“They were really open in transition and their line was really high. I said at half-time we just needed to be more calm and pick the right passes in the final third.
“We tweaked one or two things in terms of decision-making.
“It’s brilliant to finish on a positive for the fans. I wanted to do it last week at home. But coming here and putting in that performance is brilliant. We have to take that into the summer and come back flying. I have to be honest, I would have liked the clean sheet, though.”
He added: “I told the lads the ball was in their court. It was like Championship game – big crowd, in the sunshine. Do you want to finish on a positive note? Or do you want to have the mentality I have questioned, and you will end up getting beat. They played with energy and intensity and played the attacking football I want.”
There were 630 fans in the away end. Hourihane said: “I want to say thank you to the fans. They came in good numbers, with nothing to play for, sang and had good energy. They have been brilliant with me, singing my name.
“Hopefully that can be a little bit of glimpses for them in terms of how we want to play moving forward.”
Davis Keillor-Dunn scored the last two goals, taking him to 19 for the season. Hourihane said: “I could tell he was getting frustrated in terms of decision-making around the box, but he sniffs out opportunities and he was great.”
Stephen Humphrys got the opening goal, making it five in five. The club have an option to extend his deal for another year. Hourihane said: “Let’s see how it goes. There is obviously a contract decision. He’s done great. I wanted to play with wingers and he was at the forefront of my thoughts. He’s repaid me with good performances. I still think he needs to get fitter but he didn’t have a pre-season.”
