Neill Collins talks up Barnsley hat-trick hero Devante Cole’s finishing

Posted Sunday, August 06, 2023 by PA

Barnsley head coach Neill Collins praised the finishing of hat-trick hero Devante Cole after Port Vale were thumped 7-0 in his first game in charge.

Liam Kitching, Jon Russell and debutant Andrew Dallas also got on the scoresheet, with Vale defender Dan Jones turning into his own net before the break.

Collins said: “The way he took his goals were clinical. For me Devante scored them when we needed him to, and he really took the game away from Port Vale with those finishes.

“He’s been working really hard with Jon Stead and you can see that with the individual aspects of the performance.”

Collins replaced Michael Duff, who left for Swansea after guiding the Tykes to the League One play-off final last term, at Oakwell this summer.

He said: “When you have a result like that, you can never consider it prior. My biggest thing was wanting to see us perform and see us do the things that we know the team can do.

“You could see that even though they’re young players, they know what it takes and they took control of the game as well. I think they all played fantastically well.

“The big thing for me is having the belief in themselves about how good they can be. We’re all guilty at times of limiting ourselves of what we can do and they know that effort and quality won’t always be rewarded with seven goals, but they showed the quality that I expect.”

Debutant Corey O’Keeffe set up the first goal for Cole, who is the son of former England and Manchester United striker Andy Cole, but only lasted 33 minutes due to injury.

Collins said: “It’s too early to say, we knew he was carrying something slight. It’s not great, he’s a big loss because he’s come in and done very well.”

Port Vale manager Andy Crosby bemoaned his side’s defending.

He said: “The manner of the goals we conceded, the time period particularly in the second half when we conceded four goals in a 17-minute period is difficult for me to accept.

“I think the ease in which they scored goals, they got balls into our box and the amount of one touch finishes in-between our posts is very concerning.

“It’s important that we all learn, that the individuals learn and our response now going forward is key. It’s obviously a very difficult start for us, one thing we obviously didn’t want.

“But we also know that throughout the season there’s going to be really challenging periods and to start off the first game being beaten 7-0 is obviously not the start we wanted.”