Cauley Woodrow is pleased to have proved his doubters wrong this season while he believes that, if Barnsley regularly repeat their performance at Fulham on Saturday, Championship opponents ‘won’t stand a chance’.
The 25-year-old netted twice in the 3-0 win at his former club to take his tally for the Reds to 33 in 65 Reds games, while he has 14 in all competitions this season and is the joint sixth top-scorer in the Championship. Woodrow told the Chronicle: “My job is to score goals and it was important to carry on from a good season last season and answer those people who were saying: ‘can he score goals at Championship level?’ I have managed to do that but I need to get more goals to help us stay up.”
Woodrow’s first goal was a penalty, at the club where he spent eight years before moving to Oakwell last season. He said: “I was nervous, I always am when I take a penalty and even more so against my old club.”
Woodrow has been used behind the strikers in attacking midfield since head coach Gerhard Struber arrived in November. He said: “I like playing there. The manager put me there on the first day of training. He had obviously watched games and thought I could do well there. I am comfortable with the ball at my feet and this system suits me really well.”
Although he did not celebrate his goals against his former club, Woodrow was pleased to stun the promotion-chasers and hopes that result will lead to a run to safety. He said: “No one expected us to win so there was no pressure. “But we performed fantastically and, if we do that against the other teams in this division, they won’t stand a chance. We’re never going to give up, we can’t afford to do that because we are all young players who are trying to prove ourselves. We have 13 games to pull ourselves out of it and we will have a right go at it
"We could win all 13, then we will be well out of the mess we are in. We’re realistic and we know we probably won’t do that but, if we play like we did at Fulham, we will have a fighting chance. “We have a mini season now – we just have to keep working hard in training, do our best and see what happens.”
