Barnsley: Leicester City loanee Matty James wants to repay faith shown by Reds chief Heckingbottom

After playing a pivotal part in Leicester City’s Championship triumph back in the 2013/14 season, James suffered a brutal knee injury at the backend of the next campaign - which saw him miss the Foxes’ unbelievable Premier League title win last term.

And he had only made a sporadic late cameo off the bench against Manchester City this season before moving to Paul Heckingbottom’s Barnsley.

Looking for games, James joined the ranks at Oakwell - where he has featured in all seven games since making the short-term move and the 25-year-old said: “Barnsley have showed such a belief in me and I can only be thankful to this football club for that.

“It was really touching to me. If I can do as much as I can to help the team whilst I am here I am happy, then we’ll assess in the summer.

“For me now it’s all about playing as many games as I can here and doing as well as I can for Barnsley.”

James was getting frustrated with the lack of opportunities at his parent club and, ahead of this afternoon’s trip to Derby County, he added: “The last few weeks have been amazing for me.

“To be playing regularly and playing lots of 90 minute games is a big thing for me because I haven’t played properly in around 20 months.

“For me to have this feeling of being back playing regular football is a really good feeling for me.

“I needed this because I was starting to doubt myself and wondering what I was doing wrong.

“I don’t think I actually was but the opportunity just wasn’t arising and I was desperate to play football.”