Northern Ireland international levelled things up at Oakwell
Right back Conor McLaughlin was delighted to score his first league goal for Fleetwood Town at Oakwell on Tuesday night.The Northern Ireland international struck a sweet strike from the edge of the box after quarter of an hour to level things up in South Yorkshire.
Liam McAlinden made sure of the points before half time when he volleyed home at the back post to move to Fleetwood up to ninth in League One.
McLaughlin’s only other goal for the Cod Army came in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy last season when he hit a thunderbolt from 25 yards against Rotherham United.
After the win, he said: “The ball dropped to me on the edge of the box and I decided to just have a go and fortunately it flew into the top corner.
“The whole moment was a bit of a blur, when I saw the ball go past the goalkeeper I decided to just run away and celebrate.
“After my last goal celebration against Rotherham, I decided to do nothing this time!
“Barnsley put a bit of pressure on us at the start of the game and we couldn’t really get out of our own half.
“Gradually the game started to open up after I scored our equaliser, but Liam (McAlinden) scored our second and after that we sat in and made sure we didn’t concede.
“Our shape was brilliant. Josh (Morris) and Gaz (Evans) worked really hard on both sides of the midfield. They work their socks off every week.
“They force the wingers down the sides and it makes life easier for me and Crains (Stephen Crainey) and we kept Barnsley at bay.
“The crowd were on top of Barnsley and that is what you want when you play away from home.
“Results like this give us all a lot of confidence heading into the remaining games. We will take the confidence into Saturday’s game at Crewe.”