Conor Hourihane lauds David McGoldrick after Barnsley hat-trick at Leyton Orient

Barnsley head coach Conor Hourihane hailed hat-trick hero David McGoldrick after the 3-1 victory over Leyton Orient at the BetWright Stadium in League One.

The 38-year-old striker opened the scoring early on and, after Dylan Levitt levelled, bagged a second-half brace to take his tally to 10 goals in nine games.

Hourihane said: “Incredible – what a player and what a person more than anything. We have got a 38-year-old running his socks off.

“I used him as an example at half-time. I felt we could run a bit harder and said ‘we have a 38-year-old who is running his socks off – he’s running to the left, he is running to the right, he is tracking back – everyone else should be looking at that’.

“I don’t want to be mentioning his age, he is what he is, running around like a 21-year-old. He still has fire in his belly. He has been a perfect example.

“He has got the hunger to look after himself. He set his standards high. We are very lucky to have him.

“It is absolute gold dust for our young squad to have somebody like him around. Dressings rooms thrive off people like that.”

Victory left Barnsley eight points adrift of the play-off places but with games in hand.

Hourihane added: “I think the doggedness was the real improvement.

“Even when we went 3-1 up and they had a lot of possession and made some substitutions, I just felt comfortable.

“They didn’t create too many chances. They were shooting from distance. It was the mentality and the game management that was key.”

Orient boss Richie Wellens was left to rue “too many mistakes”.

Wellens, whose side are in relegation trouble, said: “For two of the goals, we turned the ball into the middle of the pitch and they run straight through our goal and score.

“The second we are not marking well enough which is not good at this level.

“You lose confidence when you give bad goals away like that and, again, we are giving bad goals away.

“I actually thought we recovered very well. I actually thought we were the stronger team in the second half.

“It was similar to the Plymouth game. We came out in the second half and started off poorly. We just need to get the balance right.

“Our body language needs to be exceptional. We need to come together when we go behind.

“Our decision making needs to be a lot better and we need to focus a lot better.”