Norwood close to full fitness and pleased goals are now coming
JAMES Norwood says he is getting up to full fitness now and showing why Barnsley recruited him in the summer.
The 31-year-old striker was behind in terms of fitness when he signed during the summer, after the Reds had already begun their pre-season.
He said: “For the last couple of weeks I’ve felt sharper and fitter.
“I started on Saturday and felt OK when I came off.
“I spoke to the gaffer and it was more tactical than me being fatigued.
“I feel like I’m there or thereabouts.” Norwood cheekily back-heeled in Barnsley’s second goal in the 3-1 success over Charlton Athletic on Saturday.
“It’s why the gaffer brought me in.
“It was great so see Coley (Devante Cole) and Benno (Josh Benson) on the scoresheet as well.
“Goals come from everywhere – it was great work by Willo (Jordan Williams) to set me up. Benno’s is a worldy, it came from a counter-press and we’ve scored three different types of goal.”
There were early season question marks over Barnsley’s strikers but Norwood has three goals in his last four games as has Cole.
Norwood said: “It just takes time to gel. “We’ve brought a few players in, new manager, new staff. It takes that little bit of time just to get to know each other. “Belief grows with wins.
“We’ve got a lot of quality in the squad. “We’ve got players who can score, players who can create.
“We want to score goals and we want to keep clean sheets so we’re just being that little bit more aggressive.”
Barnsley’s recent run of good form has put them fifth after ten games, but
Norwood is not thinking about that.
“I don’t think we’ll look at the table all season.
“Until all 46 games are done I don’t think there’s much point.
“I think you might do if you’re at the bottom end of the table and trying to figure out how many points you need to get safe.
“But for a club like this we need to pick up as many points as possible.
“One point is going to feel like a loss for us.
“We’re going out to win every game, we should be at the top end of the table.
“After 46 games we’ll keep picking up points and see where we are.
“The aim hasn’t changed – it’s just to keep picking up points.
“We set ourselves a target, I’m not going to say that here and now, but we’re just going to keep plugging away one game at a time, one half at a time.
“We’ve just got to keep trying to win each half.”
BARNSLEY defender Conor McCarthy has been ruled out for this season after rupturing knee ligaments on Saturday against Charlton Athletic.
The summer signing damaged his
ACL after coming off the bench in the 3-1 win but completed the game.
Head coach Michael Duff said: “It’s a huge blow for him and us. He’s finding his feet at a new club.
“He’s disappointed. I had a long chat with him.
“He will go through a whole range emotions, asking ‘why me?’, but then he’ll have his op hopefully next week then get his head around the landscape of the next nine months. He’s a good person with good people around him.
“Hopefully the timing means he can write this season off and look at next season. I have been through it and I can help him with the psychological side.”
Midfielder Matty Wolfe was not involved on Saturday due to an ankle injury, and is now set to miss the next six weeks.
Defender Robbie Cundy limped out of Saturday’s game against Charlton Athletic with a hip problem.
Duff said: “Hopefully he has a chance to play on Saturday (at Fleetwood). It wasn’t as bad as we first thought. He’s had a scan and it didn’t show a lot.”
Midfielder Luca Connell has missed the last two matches due to a hamstring problem. He is back in training and available for selection on Saturday.
Forward Jack Aitchison hurt his hamstring at the end of a training session last week and was not involved on Saturday.
Duff said: “He’s got a chance for the next game. It was more a twinge than anything else.”
Slobodan Tedic had a bad back going into Saturday’s game and it seized up while he was on the bench so he was not available.
“Boban’s back keeps spasming.
“It went into spasm on the bench on Saturday and it depends if he has a good couple of days.”
Goalkeeper Brad Collins suffered a head injury two weeks ago at Cambridge and missed Saturday’s win over Charlton Athletic. He could be in contention to return this weekend.
Barnsley strengthened their midfield and backline on transfer deadline day with the arrivals of Tom Edwards, Adam Phillips and Ziyad Larkeche.
“We said we needed players and we did three on deadline day in the end which were needed. We’re not going to go through a season with 11 players.”