Barnsley’s promotion hopes are in their own hands: Cameron McGeehan

McGeehan scored the Tykes’ second in a 2-0 victory at Oakwell against the Iron, a team he featured 15 times for last season.

“Scunthorpe have been doing really well of late,” said the 23-year-old. “Obviously with the new manager and now he’s settled in a bit, there’s been a big turnover of players from last year.  It’s taken a bit of time but they’ve been on a really good run. We did the job and got the three points to move up to second, so we’re happy about that.

"I think we’ve played well against teams who try and play a bit more. It was a big game, with Adam Hammill coming back so it gets you up for it. 

"We’re not going to be on it every week, we’ve played against some tough teams in Rochdale and Oxford, so it’s good to get our performance and the three points are what matters.” Daniel Stendel’s side are still six points behind Luton - another of McGeehan’s former clubs - but still have a game in hand on the league leaders.

“It is a boost (to go second),” continued McGeehan. “We’re on our own path and own journey. We know what we’ve got to keep doing and keep putting performances together. 

"We don’t look too much at other teams but it’s nice to look and see that we’ve moved up to second so it’s in our hands. We need to keep pushing on.”

The midfielder’s fourth goal of the season arrived after Alex Mowatt’s long-range drive, but the former Northern Ireland youth international was reluctant to celebrate his headed goal against the Iron.

“It was right in front of their fans,” he added. "I didn’t do as well as I would have liked at Scunthorpe, so I didn’t want to rub it in their faces.

" Obviously I’ve got respect for Scunthorpe because it helped me at a time in my career when I was coming back from my injury. “I tried to help it on and the ‘keeper tried to get a hand to it. It was difficult for their ‘keeper because the sun was right in his eyes. 

"It’s probably killed his confidence a bit in the game. Everyone was suffering from it but it was on his part of the goal.”