Late Barnsley winner a tonic for Ryan Williams

The Australian was former boss Lee Johnson’s record signing when he joined from Fulham last summer.

However, a spate of injury lay-offs means he has failed to play a full game with recurring niggles curtailing his comebacks before they had even begun.

His injury ordeal finally looks like it is coming to an end and his first goal for the club was a release of built-up emotions as he tries to rebuild his budding career.

“There was a lot of relief for me and also a lot of relief for the boys who worked really hard for that win,” admitted Williams, who has played just 177 minutes of first-team football in a season and a half.

“It’s probably a whole year [of emotions] piled into just one minute there.

“To finish it off for us was amazing.

“There have been a lot of times when I’ve been sitting in the stands wanting to be the one to score the winner so to come on and do that was fantastic.”

The Reds now have six days before they host Blackburn Rovers at Oakwell on Boxing Day.

Despite the time off, Williams is adamant Paul Heckingbottom will have them training harder than ever as they look to move their way up the Sky Bet Championship table - where they are just six points shy of the play-off places.

“We’ll probably be training more than we would have to make up for the game that we’re not playing.

“All we’re looking to do is chase the teams that are in front of us, that’s all we can do.

“We’re doing that well at the minute and we’ll just keep trying to do that.

“We need to keep playing each game the same way and I’m sure we’ll do well.”