After scoring twice against Chelsea, Luca Barrington is targeting knockout football on at least two fronts this season ahead of tonight’s EFL Trophy opener at Walsall.
Barrington’s brilliant brace helped Shannon Ruth’s team come from behind to beat the Blues 3-2 in Premier League 2 on Friday, and secured Albion our first league win of the season.
The three points came after defeat against Leeds United seven days prior, and Barrington was delighted with how the squad bounced back together.
“I was delighted to score twice and help us get the win against Chelsea.” said the former Manchester City man.
“It was important to us as a team to get a positive result after such a poor one against Leeds.
“We were really disappointed with that result, but we watched the game back as a group, analysed where we could be better as a team and then moved on – we put it out of our minds.
“We were fully focussed on bouncing back and to do that against such a good team like Chelsea was fantastic. To come from 2-0 down showed our togetherness and resilience, now we just want to get more wins and build momentum.
“We want to improve on last season and with the new PL2 format, we are aiming for the knockout stage and once we get there, we want to go as far as we can.”
The EFL Trophy provides Barrington and our under-21s with another shot at knockout football, with this season’s campaign kicking off in the midlands at 7pm.
Barrington got a taste of the competition last season, and he’s looking forward to testing himself against EFL players again.
“The physicality is the biggest difference to our usual PL2 games – it shows me where I need to improve and what to work on. It highlights different aspects of football.
“As a team, we need to nail our strengths and show what we can do. It will be challenging but we’re ready for that challenge, and want to do well in this tournament.
“For me personally, I am looking forward to the test and it’s also nice to be playing up north, slightly closer to home!
“There should be a few more recognisable faces for me at the game, including my mum and brother. It will be good to see them as I don’t get to do that as much living down here.
“Hopefully I can play well for them and we can get a good result.”