Huddersfield Town

The experienced midfielder returned to the side at the expense of the injured Jonathan Hogg and impressed, netting the first goal of the game to set the side on its way to a thumping derby victory.

“I’m delighted. I’ve had to wait a long time for an opportunity – longer than I would have liked – and thankfully I got one today,” Keith told htafc.com after the final whistle. 

“The Manager told me I’d best starting at the beginning of the week. To score and to win 5-0 is more than I could have dreamt of, although it wasn’t the best goal I’ve ever scored! I’m really pleased, because it’s a great three points for us. 

“I’ve not been involved for the last few months, but I’ve kept my head down and come into training with the right attitude trying to impress. I’ve been itching for a chance, so hopefully I’ve taken mine today.

“You feel the results with the rest of the squad, but the euphoria of winning is better when you’re playing. It wasn’t nice when we let ourselves down in last week’s Yorkshire derby, but I think we’ve made amends today.” 

The Tykes started the game in decent fashion, but Keith’s first goal of the season just before the half hour mark brought about a Town onslaught. 

“I thought they made a really good start. My goal came at a good time, because before that Alex has made a couple of good saves. The second followed straight after and, as the old cliché goes, goals change games. 

“After the first 10 minutes I thought we bossed the game; I didn’t think they could live with us our pace, power and desire all over the pitch. When the chances came we took them too, so today has to be the blueprint for the weeks to come. 

“I thought the work rate was excellent. We’ve worked on getting in people’s faces and increasing the tempo and today we put our tackles in and got on the front foot.

“It will have been pleasing for the Manager that we had five different scorers and kept a clean sheet in a Yorkshire derby. I think that result has been coming, because we’ve created a lot of chances over the last couple of months and not really taken them. Someone was due a hiding from us and unfortunately for Barnsley, it was them. 

“It was a great day for the Club today. I thought the fans behind the goal in the lower tier made a difference too.”

The former Blackpool man now has his eyes on next weekend’s game at Doncaster Rovers – and a run of consistent results. 

“I’m looking forward to next weekend’s game at Doncaster now and seeing how far we can go in this League – we’ve still got 13 games left, which is over a quarter of the season. 

“It’s easy to get caught up after a 5-0 win, but we have to get consistency and find a way to grind out 1-0 wins when we’re not playing well. Until we find that, we’ll probably stay around where we are in the division. 

“This football club is only in its second season in the Championship and it would be great to break into the top 10.”