Luca Connell looks likely to return from injury for Barnsley’s final league game of the season, with nothing more than three points and a play-off place on his mind.
The midfielder, who starred last season for the Reds, has missed chunks of this campaign with illness and injury – the latest being a slight groin problem which ruled him out of the last three matches. It is not 100 per cent definite that he will play against Northampton tomorrow lunchtime but he did the pre-match press conference after training this week.
Connell told the Chronicle: “It was frustrating. I was putting a good run of games together so it wasn’t ideal. But you just don’t want to do anything to make it worse. It was a case of being out for a few weeks instead of a few months maybe.”
He added: “Every player wants to play as much as they can. This season hasn’t worked out for me. But 70 games in two years, I would have taken it. I wish I had played more and maybe we would have picked up more points.”
Connell played in a more attacking role before his latest injury, having previously been a holding midfielder.
“I really enjoyed it. I got the ball a little bit more. I had the license to get forward and get crosses in and I got a goal as well.”
Neill Collins was sacked as head coach on Monday which Connell said was a ‘massive shock’ but they have to focus on the upcoming game.
“When you’ve got that many games in the season, you have to move on quickly. We just have to forget about everything. It’s just about half 12 on Saturday and getting three points.”
How has he found working with caretaker Martin Devaney this week?
“There are a lot of players still here from last year. We had Davvers last year and he’s been working closely with us this year. There’s not too much different.”
Barnsley, last season, qualified for the play-offs with games to spare whereas this time it has come down to the last day.
Connell said: “If you gave us the choice to be in the play-offs six games ago we would have taken it. But this is the position we’ve got ourselves in and it’s a big game.”
