BARNSLEY will come up against a familiar face today when they travel to Jonathan Greening’s Scarborough Athletic in a pre-season friendly – and the ex-Red has high hopes for former player Callum Hudson.
The Reds have had a mixed pre-season in terms of results so far, losing 3-0 against Blackburn and 2-1 at League Two York City, while beating Matlock Town 2-0.
Scarborough are in the National League North and managed by former Red Greening who made six appearances for the Reds in an emergency loan back in 2012.
He worked closely with new signing Hudson during his spell in North Yorkshire and believes he has what it takes to play professionally.
Greening told the Chronicle: “I’ve known Cal for a while.
“He was at a company called i2i where I used to coach so I’ve known him since then.
“I’ve known him quite a while.
“We brought him into the Scarborough set-up and he played quite a lot of cup games with us.
“He was training with us and doing really well but probably not ready for the first team at the time because his body was still developing and there’s some big lads in our league.
“He went to Tadcaster for a bit and then Guiseley and he got better and better and better.
“He’s only a young kid but he’s a great lad who wants to learn.
“He wants to get better and he’s beefed himself up a bit.
“He’s a great talent.”
Greening added that he’s hopeful he will kick on and have a good career in the professional game.
“He needs experience,” he said.
“He’s very calm on the ball, can see a pass, switch play and be aggressive.
“Training full-time everyday, video analysis and things like that which he’s probably not used to will help.
“Hopefully he can kick on and have a really good career.”
Hudson has followed a similar path to Jack Shepherd who came from non-league before becoming a mainstay in the team last year.
Greening is hoping Hudson can have the same journey.
“It’s great that Barnsley have the belief in young players to take them from non-league because I don’t think it’s done enough,” he said.
“Firstly, you want them to do well for your first team and have a good career in your first team, but if they can do really well and kick on and you can make a little bit of profit out of it, it’s a good business side to it as well.”
He’s expecting a ‘big test’ during tomorrow’s game but is looking forward to coming up against his old side.
He added: “It’s a massive test for us – we’ve only got a small squad as it is.
“I’m sure Barnsley have got a bigger squad and might be able to play two 11s each half and just get fitness into certain people.
“We probably have to play the majority of the players a good 75, 80 minutes because we’ve only probably got maybe 13 outfield players fit for Saturday.
“It’ll be great for us to test ourselves against a really good and really strong team that are quite a few leagues above us.”
