Barrow loanee Jake Young is beginning to show signs of promise according to Bluebirds boss Pete Wild despite not scoring yet, in an interview for The Mail Cumbria.
The 21-year-old relocated to Holker Street in January after featuring here and there for parent club Bradford City, seven appearances for the Bantams this season resulting in two goals.
His first goal for Mark Hughes’ promotion-challenging Bradford side this season came, funnily enough, against Pete Wild’s Barrow – the goal on the day levelling the scoreline at 1-1, before an action-packed final few minutes saw Barrow come out on top 3-2.
Jake Young’s minutes, however, for Bradford have been extremely limited in recent months. His role had been reduced to sitting on the bench, with the Huddersfield born attacker out of the squad entirely since October.
This led to the loan switch to Barrow, a move that hasn’t yet proved fruitful for the former Forest Green man.
Barrow will hope Jake Young can come good, especially with news coming out of Cumbria that Billy Waters has departed the Bluebirds to non-league powerhouse Wrexham.
Jake Young is proven at this level when he gets going, his time with Forest Green saw him net six goals in the fourth tier during the 2020-21 season. He would later help contribute four goals the season after when Forest Green won the League Two, the likes of Jamille Matt and Matty Stevens taking over in attack.
But, the Huddersfield born striker will provide healthy competition at Barrow in the striker position.
Pete Wild spoke to The Mail Cumbria about the January acquisition of Jake Young and the process of getting him up to speed at Barrow.
He said: “Jake has done really well and unfortunately, he came in from Bradford maybe not at the level that we thought he would come in at.
It has taken us a little bit of time to get him back up to the level where we know he can be and I think he can still do more.”
The Bluebirds manager also commented on what he believes to be the Barrow loanee’s strengths are ahead of more League Two fixtures to come.
He said: “He is really bringing to the party what he is good at.
He is really good on the ball, he likes to face people up, he has got good pace to get down the sides of people and that is why we brought him in. He is really showing those qualities now.”
Writer’s View
Highly regarded at Bradford and still only 21 years of age, it’s clear that Jake Young has a bright future ahead of him.
For whatever reason, he has been pushed out on loan and so he’ll need to impress and break into the first team fold at Barrow AFC more effectively between now and the end of the League Two campaign.
If he can do that, alongside the goalscoring prowess the Bluebirds have on offer already courtesy of Josh Gordon, Barrow AFC could have one last push for the playoffs and Jake Young would return to Valley Parade far more confident and assured.
