CONOR Hourihane is looking forward to beginning his first full season as a head coach where his playing career began 14 years ago.
Barnsley visit Plymouth Argyle for their League One opener tomorrow at 3pm.
Hourihane played 142 games for the Devon club, scoring 16 goals, between 2011 and 2014 – captaining them in the final two seasons despite being in his early 20s.
He made his professional debut for the Pilgrims having previously been at Ipswich and Sunderland, then was bought by Barnsley whom he captained to promotion in 2016.
Plymouth were in League Two during his spell there and initially in financial peril after being issued with a winding up order the previous season.
Hourihane told the Chronicle: “I had an amazing time there. I loved it.
“It’s a great place to live, and the club has great fans. When I first went there, the club was in a bit of trouble.
“They were in administration. There were only seven or eight players signed.
“The three years I had were an experience. But it finished up with me being club captain and getting sold.
“It was a time in my career I remember very fondly.”
Argyle won League One in 2022/23 then stayed in the Championship by a point, but they finished second-bottom last season and were relegated. They are managed by former England midfielder Tom Cleverley who replaced Miron Muslic after he moved to Schalke 04.
Plymouth have been one of the more active League One clubs in the transfer market, reaching double figures for incomings having sold a series of players to Championship clubs for significant fees.
They loaned left-back Nathanael Ogbeta to Barnsley but he is ineligible to play against his parent club.
Hourihane said: “They’ve been relegated under a different manager and now have a new manager with a new way of playing and how he wants his team to go about their work every single day.
“We’ve had a look at them over pre-season, in certain games.
“They will have fresh ideas and it will be interesting to see how they set up and how they go this season.”
The journey to Plymouth will be Barnsley’s longest of the league season.
“It’s a long trip but we’re fully prepared and ready for the planning and organisation around that.
“I think it’s close to a thousand fans going down which is amazing.
“Hopefully the journey will be worthwhile and we can put on a performance that they can be very very proud of.
“There is always a good atmosphere at Plymouth, as I well know, with a high number of home fans. Everyone wants to get a good start and fingers crossed we’ll have something to shout about.”
The two clubs have met 69 times, with Barnsley winning 19 and losing 31.
The last meeting was in March 2023 in a promotion showdown when the Reds won 3-0 at Oakwell thanks to goals by Adam Phillips, Mads Andersen and Nicky Cadden.
Saturday’s game will be the second time in four years that Barnsley have begun their campaign at Home Park, having lost 1-0 on the opening day of the 2022/23 campaign.
The Reds have only won six of their 36 games at the Devon club, but three of those were in the last six attempts – a 4-2 victory in March 2007, a 2-1 success on the final day of the 2008/2009 season and a 3-0 win on Easter Monday 2019.
