Conor Hourihane was ‘over the moon’ with Barnsley’s last-gasp 2-1 win over Blackpool and praised David McGoldrick for scoring twice as a late replacement for the unwell Davis Keillor-Dunn.
McGoldrick opened the scoring then, after a 75th-minute leveller, won it deep in injury-time from a fine Patrick Kelly assist.
Hourihane said: “I’m over the moon. I don’t think we’ve had a late winner like that for a while off the top of my head. You can’t beat them. It gives you an extra buzz over winning a normal game. We kept the buzz and momentum going that everyone had since Liverpool.
“It looks like everyone has a spring in their step and can we keep it going?
“I thought we defended our box really well. Earlier in season we maybe lose that 2-1 or 3-1. We had that moment at the end with the quality of Pat and Didzy.”
He added: “The lads are giving me everything. There has been a lot of emotion after Liverpool and a lot of energy being used but we tried to look after them as best we could.”
Top-scorer Keillor-Dunn pulled out of the game with illness in the morning so McGoldrick started.
“He’s done it all his career. He put in a good shift and scored two important goals. He wasn’t going to start but Davo was ill late in the day so Didzy had to be ready and testament to him, he’s 38 years of age and ready no matter what. He trains so well every day, the young lads in the group need to look at his professionalism and know their opportunity could be around the corner.”
Hourihane praised debutants Owen Goodman and Eoghan O’Connell as well as Corey O’Keeffe who started at Oakwell for the first time this season after a loan at Stockport.
“Eoghan was nice and calm on the ball. The only lapse was in the first half but Goodman makes a big save. The two debut lads were really solid, calm and assured – exactly what I wanted to bring to the back line.
“Owen was really good. People are so quick to judge – he got sent of here and lost his position to (Lee) Nicholls at Huddersfield. He’s a good ‘keeper, trust me, I wouldn’t have brought him here if he wasn’t.
“All three new lads have something to prove. Owen Goodman that the first half of the season was just a one-off, Eoghan O’Connell why Wrexham shouldn’t have let him go and Corey wants to show Stockport that he should have played more.
“The lads love Corey, he trains really well and brings an extra edge.”
Hourihane said he was ‘really hoping’ for more new signings this week and added: ‘the sooner the better.’
He confirmed Marc Roberts was not fit enough to play due to injury and Fabio Jalo had a knock to his knee.
Hourihane also said he would have put one of the under 21s on the bench instead of having six substitutes but Keillor-Dunn pulled out about 10.30am when the development players had already had an intense training session.
