Leyton Orient v Barnsley: Conor Hourihane on fulfilling key aims and avoiding 'a tap on the shoulder'
IN the words of the legendary song, two out of three ain't bad as far as Conor Hourihane is concerned.
When planning for the 2025-26 campaign, his first full season at the Barnsley helm, the young head coach was issued with a remit from the Reds hierarchy to cultivate an exciting playing style and develop up-and-coming players with a view to them becoming saleable assets.
Two-thirds of the way into the season, few can say that Hourihane has not achieved that, with the likes of Reyes Cleary drawing admiring glances from clubs higher up the pyramid in particular.
The remaining bit has proved problematic, namely progression in the league table.
It is something that Hourihane is plainly aware of, with his team's defensive numbers being particularly disappointing and scuppering any serious hopes of Barnsley being top-six candidates.
Equally, he would say - at this moment in time - that you cannot have everything.
The Reds boss, whose side lost 4-3 at Orient last April, said: "I think if we were sitting here and we didn't score that many goals and develop that many players, I think I'd probably be getting a tap on the shoulder from the board and (them) going: ‘Come on, why aren't you not developing and why are you not using the younger players?’
"But that was the agenda at the start of the season. I think that's been clearly ticked off and will continue to be ticked off because that's the way the club wanted to go. And it excites people, it excites me and it creates assets.
"And we've spoken about that already for large sums of money. It's a really kind of exciting team to coach and watch and we all probably agree on that, but we need to counteract that with fewer goals conceded. That’s the message constantly and it will continue to be until we get it right.”