ALL players are motivated for the first game of a season but tonight’s opener carries extra meaning for Barnsley’s Corey O’Keeffe.
The right wing-back joined tonight’s visitors Mansfield Town in the summer of 2020 from hometown club Birmingham City but a few months later Nigel Clough – who is still Stags manager – took over and O’Keeffe never started another League Two game.
O’Keeffe said: “I can’t wait for it. I am really looking forward to it.
“I have a few good mates there who I am still in contact with.
“My time there wasn’t the best so I am looking forward to playing them a lot.
“I am very motivated for the game.
“I didn’t play as much as I would like.
“I played the first few games and did well then bits and bobs happened and I didn’t play any games.”
O’Keeffe was given just a few minutes off the bench in league games before joining Rochdale the following season where he featured much more regularly then moved up to League One with Forest Green Rovers and again transferred to Barnsley last season.
Given that he had spent the previous two campaigns on loan at Solihull Moors then Macclesfield, the move to the Reds meant he was at a sixth club in six seasons.
But he looks set to remain with Barnsley for the coming campaign, having battled with Barry Cotter for a starting space last season – starting 24 league games and coming off the bench 15 times.
“I felt at home straight away but it’s my second year now and I feel really comfortable.
“I want to really push on and give something back to the fans.”
O’Keeffe, 26, started in the play-off defeat to Bolton Wanderers in May, the second season in a row that the Reds missed out in the play-offs.
It was his first ever promotion challenge having mainly been involved in relegation fights in the past.
“It was a wounder but I feel like that has given us fuel. Obviously the players the year before felt that and we’ve done it again.
“So we’ll take it and go one step further now.
“It was my first time in a promotion battle and I enjoyed it but now I want to get to the Championship.”
