The midfielder stated his case for a position in Simon Davey's first-team squad with two goals in a Barnsley X1's 4-1 win at Sheffield FC on Saturday.

Speaking on video at thestar.co.uk website, the 21-year-old said; "I have had a little bit of interest from a couple of clubs in League 2 whether that would be a loan or a permanent move I'm not too sure yet.

"I just want to play first team, competitive football, that's what I am looking to do this year.

"Hopefully that will be at Barnsley but if it's not and I'm playing in the reserves I'll be looking to either go out on loan or move on permanently and hopefully kick on from there."

His first choice would be staying at Oakwell, he said.

"If I can break into the team there I'd definitely prefer to do that. If that's not an option at the moment then I will have to go elsewhere."

Heslop has been training with Rochdale and says he "really enjoyed it. I've been back at Barnsley for a couple of days so we'll see what happens.

"There are a lot of midfielders at Barnsley, good quality players and who knows I'll probably have to go somewhere else and play first team football and maybe next year.

"I'll keep battling away and battling away and if the manager thinks its best for me to go out on loan then I'll go
out on loan."

The York-born ex Oakwell Academy scholar thought Saturday's game at Dronfield was tough for an hour.

"But when the first goal went in it seemed to open up for both teams, and luckily we took our chances."

On his goals, one a penalty, he said: "The first one I just tried to hit the target and luckily it has gone in the bottom corner, I'd just tried to get a good contact on it, the second one, I just wanted to get another goal so I wasn't letting anybody else take the pen!"

Heslop said he was impressed by substitute Steve Bennett, who bagged a brace himself.

"He has done very well, I've not played with him before, that's the first time, I said to him when he banged in the second goal I'm surprised they didn't start him."

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