Toby: Playing under Daniel at Hearts is Match made in heaven
HEARTS loanee Toby Sibbick admits he’s pinching himself sharing a pitch with heroes he grew up idolising on Match of the Day.
Lining up alongside Steven Naismith and making his debut against Rangers with Jermain Defoe in direct opposition and Steven Gerrard watching from the away dug out was a “crazy experience” for the 20-year-old Barnsley star.
But the midfielder knows the man he needs to impress most when football eventually returns is Daniel Stendel.
Sibbick has lifted the lifted on his special relationship with the Jambos boss who signed him as a teenager for Barnsley before swooping to take him on loan to
Tynecastle in January. Now he is praying football returns in time for him to repay the faith the German has shown him.
Sibbick said: “At Barnsley I played every game under Daniel and he showed great faith in me.
“When he left, I played one game under the new manager.
“So when January came I spoke to Barnsley and said if I wasn’t going to be playing I wanted to go out on loan.
“Hearts were the club that showed an interest and I couldn’t turn down an opportunity to work with Daniel again.”
Sibbick was struck down by illness after only two matches for Hearts and just as he looked set to return to the heat of the relegation scrap the coronavirus crisis brought football crashing to a halt.
Otherwise he reckons his move to Edinburgh has been positive. Asked if the experience of facing Defoe and Gerrard was surreal he said: “Yeah, growing up watching the Premier League on Match of the Day was the best. It’s crazy playing with Steven Naismith too.”