Luca Connell scored an absolute stunner that his Barnsley manager has dubbed a 'goal of the season' contender.
The former Celtic kid is plying his trade south of the border once again after life at Parkhead never worked out. He arrived at the Scottish champions from Bolton Wanderers in 2019 but was never able to knock on the first-team door and enjoyed loan spells at Queen's Park - who are now flying in the Scottish Championship under Owen Coyle.
He made the move back south on a free transfer and grabbed his second goal of the campaign in style with just 30 SECONDS gone in the 3-1 away success at Port Vale. His previous strike came in a victory over Peterborough back in December and he will go a long way to beat this effort. A header from the home defence only reached the edge of the box and after taking a touch on his chest, the former Hoops starlet sent a half-volley into the top corner. Leaving the goalkeeper routed to his spot.
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Barnsley are in the hunt for promotion back to the English Championship and currently sit sixth in the table after last night's midweek action. They have a number of games in hand over rivals in and around them in the standings as they bid to go up this term.
Speaking to the Barnsley website about the win and Connell's stunner, Michael Duff said: "It's probably a goal of the season contender! When it comes in the first 30 seconds of a game, you can't ask for much more.
"Then we gave away a poor goal. A second-phase set play, again. That's a couple now we have conceded, not that we haven't been working on it but it is something we need to be aware of.
"Resilience, togetherness, spirit, doggedness. Accepting what the pitch is - so not trying to go 'no, I'm better than the pitch'. We played what the pitch told us to do.
"The glue that holds the performance together, the horrible bits, allows us two moments of quality to go and win the game."
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