Adam Armstrong believes he has left one promotion challenge to join another and wants to return to parent club Newcastle United in January having kept Barnsley near the top of the Championship.
The 19-year-old signed on loan from newly-relegated Newcastle to newly-promoted Barnsley last week and has been training with the Reds since Wednesday after playing with England under 20s.
He told the Chronicle: "I want to work my way into the Newcastle team eventually but the best way to do that is to come to Barnsley and score as many goals as possible and get them as high in the table as I can. I will give everything to Barnsley Football Club until January."
He added: "It's a bit weird being in the same division as Newcastle but you have to get on with it. If we are going to come up against teams Newcastle have played, I can speak to a few of the lads up there and ask what those games were like. Both clubs are working on getting promotion."
Armstrong netted 20 goals in 40 matches on loan to Coventry City last season but knows he faces a fight to get into the first team as his new clubmates include Sam Winnall and Tom Bradshaw who also passed the 20-goal mark.
"I think it's massive to have three players who scored that many goals last season," said Armstrong, who was with fellow Reds Ryan Kent and Adam Jackson at Coventry last season.
"Any club wants goal-scorers and we have got that. We're all ready to step up to the Championship and carry on scoring goals. I knew coming here that I wouldn't walk straight into the side. They won their last game 4-0 and they are third in the league so I am not expecting to get straight in."
Head coach Paul Heckingbottom is also happy with his strength in depth up front. He said: "Our centre forwards do a hell of a lot of work for us. We put a lot of demands on them and they need to be fresh and sharp to do what we need. So it's important that we have a few who we can bring in and out of the team.
"Some strikers will have purple patches when they are scoring for fun and we will try to go with that and squeeze as much of that as we can. "We also want an impact from the bench."
Armstrong came through the academy at hometown club Newcastle and first took his place on their first team bench as a 16 -year-old, after impressing with the under 18s including a brace in an FA Youth Cup win at Oakwell in 2013. He made his first team debut just after his 17th birthday in 2014 and has now made 21 appearances for the Magpies, including 17 in the Premier League.
He started three cup matches and one in the top flight, in a 3-1 defeat at Manchester United on Boxing Day 2014. Armstrong began his loan to Coventry extremely well and was League One's top-scorer. He was eventually caught in the scoring charts by Winnall after suffering a lean spell when he only netted in three of 17 games towards the end of the season.
He is now hoping to find the net regularly again under the guidance of both Rafa Benitez – who won the Champions League with Liverpool and was at Real Madrid a year ago – as well as Reds coach Paul Heckingbottom. Armstrong – who has come off the bench twice for the Magpies this season – sees similarities between the two managers.
He said: "They are both very positive. They know what they want from the side which is massive. They both put their points across very well. I am looking forward to working with both of them. At the start of the season, Rafa said I would get more minutes out on loan in the Championship than I would have at Newcastle.
"I chose Barnsley and I think it's the right club for me. They are going in the right direction. I saw them a lot in League One last season and the story was amazing with them going from where they were to getting promotion. I have watched them a few times this season. I think they are really positive and that will suit my game."
Armstrong netted twice against the Reds in a 4-3 win for Coventry in November, during an eight-match losing run which plunged Barnsley towards the bottom of League One. Later in the season, he played in the Sky Blues' 2-0 loss at Oakwell as the Reds overturned a 20-point gap between the clubs.
He said: "We beat them at the Ricoh and they were bottom of the league in December then, when we played them a second time, they were just a totally different team. They just killed teams off in the second half of the season whereas they weren't doing that in the first half of the season."
Armstrong has represented England at under 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 level – netting 23 goals in 36 games – but missed a penalty, which he had won, in the under 20s' 2-1 defeat to Brazil this week. Heckingbottom visited him during that time and persuaded him to join the Reds. "It was a no-brainer to sign for Barnsley. He was very positive about me. It got sorted out quickly."
