Updated 2315
IT’S BEEN A TOUGH start for Conor Hourihane since he arrived at Aston Villa.
The Corkman has been thrown into the deep end and made three appearances since his move from Barnsley just a few weeks ago. But his new employers lost each game he featured in.
And earlier tonight, Villa and Hourihane made it four from four.
It was certainly the biggest challenge the midfielder had faced in his short stint at Villa Park as he started against the side he was captaining just a month ago.
And it didn’t go according to plan.
They were 2-1 down at half-time, as Hourihane missed a great chance from a header early on.
But Tom Bradshaw scored his second of the game on the hour mark and Barnsley ran out 3-1 winners.
Villa are now in 16th place, seven points clear of the drop zone while Barnsley have moved to 9th – six points from a play-off place: not bad for a team that was playing in the third tier of English football this time last year.
Steve Bruce’s side still haven’t won this year – their last victory coming back on Boxing Day.
It was sweet revenge for the Tykes, who watched their talisman depart for Villa in late-January – Hourihane had found the net six times and tallied 11 assists before heading to the West Midlands.
But ahead of Tuesday’s game, Barnsley boss Paul Heckingbottom said there was no bad blood and that, if he had found himself in a similar position as a player, he would’ve made the same decision as Hourihane.
“Money is a huge part of it because the figures he could earn in this league compared to what we were paying was outrageous”, he said.
We were in a position where the club thought we were safe this season and it was a case that we would be losing players in the summer for free. If the club were happy with the money then he was going to go because Conor saw it as a massive opportunity.”
“If I had been a player in a similar situation then I’d have probably have done the same thing”.
