Barnsley have today secured the services of centre back Liam Kitching from League Two side Forest Green Rovers.
The 21 year old was born in Yorkshire – in Harrogate – but started his professional career in the west of the county, signing a two year contract with Leeds United in July 2017.
The 17/18 season saw him feature regularly for Leeds Under 23 side whilst he went back to his roots, joining Harrogate on loan and making his professional debut in a 4-1 Conference North victory against Stockport in January 2018.
His debut also brought with it a yellow card and his second appearance, four days later resulted in a last minute red card in a 2-1 defeat to Spennymoor.
Those two games obviously saw Kitching make an impression as following Harrogate’s promotion at the end of that season he returned for their first ever National League season making 34 appearances and scoring his first goals, one each in a 2-0 win over Barnet, 3-1 win over Solihull Moors and 3-2 defeat at Salford. He also picked up his second red card that season, again in the last minute for a second yellow card in a 2-1 defeat to Fylde.
Harrogate would reach the play-offs that season and Kitching played in their Quarter-Final but unfortunately could not help them go any further as they were defeated by Fylde.
Although Harrogate failed to enter the Football League, Kitching did for 2019-2020 as he made a permanent move to Forest Green from Leeds for an undisclosed fee and went on to feature 36 times (also picking up 10 bookings) as the season was curtailed in March with Forest Green finishing in 11th place.
Kitching has featured 17 times for Forest Green this season, picking up seven bookings, including in three of his last five appearances, the last of which came in a 1-0 win at former side and hometown club Harrogate on the 5th December 2020.