Yahoo News Academy product aims jibe at Birmingham City to stir League One promotion pot
Barnsley utility man and Birmingham City academy product Corey O'Keeffe has joked that his old club think that they've won the League One title already!
O'Keeffe, now 26, came through the ranks at Blues having joined the academy from Cadbury Athletic in 2008, and he made his only senior appearance at Newcastle United in Gary Rowett's final away game in charge in 2016.
Blues are sitting in second in the early stages of the new season, having claimed five straight wins, and remain unbeaten while having inflicted a notable defeat on table toppers Wrexham. Blues have a game in hand on the sides around them, too - and are eyeing a sixth straight win, this time against Peterborough, on Saturday.
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The Tykes, under former Walsall, Cheltenham and Port Vale boss Darrell Clarke, are not going too badly themselves. They sit in third, three points behind Blues, having won four of their opening seven games.
O'Keeffe, who has been a regular at Oakwell since joining from Forest Green Rovers in the summer of 2023 and who has played regularly alongside Marc Roberts this term, has quipped that the furore surrounding Blues has already decided the season!
"I think they ( Birmingham ) think they have won the league already, we’ll see what happens," O'Keeffe told the Yorkshire Post. "There’s a lot of noise. It’s a tough league with some big teams in this year and it will be challenging, but I think we have enough when it clicks. We have shown signs already when we all gel together. It’s still a new gaffer really and early in the season. When we will click, we will be fine.”
Blues head to Oakwell at the beginning December before they welcome Barnsley to St Andrew's for the reverse fixture as part of their season run-in, in April.
