CONOR Hourihane admits Barnsley’s defensive woes were ‘driving me mad’ during his season as head coach and he will have to improve on that to have a successful coaching career.
The Reds conceded 99 goals in all competitions in the 2025/26 campaign, 73 in League One which was the second most and kept only five clean sheets including a club record 26 games without one.
After his final game, Hourihane told the Chronicle: “It would be a real reflecting moment for me on how to improve on that.
“Have I tried to improve on it so much that it’s become psychological? Maybe.
“But that’s something, moving forward into my next job, that needs to be a lot, lot better.
“We’ve had so many meetings on defensive displays, so many training sessions, there’s so much individual work we’ve done on it, so much defensive unit work.
“The change of goalkeepers didn’t help in January, maybe a permanent one is maybe something that the club may look at moving forward.
“There was a little bit of change with Eoghan O’Connell coming in and he’s done very, very well.
“There’s loads of bits that I need to think about and learn from moving forward. I’ll be still thinking about how we can score more goals and how I can get better from all areas, whether it’s set piece or goals conceded.
“But there’s no doubt that I am holding my hands up and knowing that that was a real negative.
“It is a frustrating one for me because, when you work so hard at something and it just, for whatever reason, doesn’t click, that’s the thing that drives you mad.”
Saturday’s loss to Stockport was Hourihane’s final game after he agreed a mutual exit.
“Done and dusted, desk cleared and away we go.
“Usually it will be a case of ‘everyone in Monday’ to have end of season conversations or whatever, but it’s not the case this year because that’s me done.
“I want to wish everyone all the best moving forward and I want the club to do well.
“Hopefully, whether I’m in a job or not in a job, I’ve already said to Jean and James (Cryne, part-owners), I might come back for a game next year and see how everything’s going on.
“It’s a very clean break and that was really important to me.”
Hourihane applauded fans who stayed behind on Saturday during a lap around the pitch.
“That was brilliant.
“It was really amazing and thanks to the fans. It was not the season that we all wanted in terms of table position.
“There didn’t need to be that many fans and them showing that appreciation to me and the players and the rest of the staff, knowing that we gave everything that we had this year.
“That was a nice moment and thanks to them for that.”
