Rotherham United recently recorded a 10-0 victory over local side Parkgate in a midweek friendly fixture.
With no game at the weekend, Barker was keen to give his players some game time, whilst taking the opportunity to look at some of his other options.
“We wanted to put in a midweek fixture and Parkgate were good enough to agree with our request," said Garreth. "Our Under 18s plus some youngsters played against their Under 19s and we had a couple of 15 year-olds and a 14 year-old on the pitch because it’s good for their development in a game that we knew wasn’t going to be too physical.
“We had five goals from a trialist who came in for us to have a look at, Kuda Muskwe our first-year centre-forward got three goals, Bradley Peace-McDonald was slow tracking back from a set-piece but turned on one and scored and then the highlight of the night was a goal from 15 year-old Ben Wiles. It was his brother Alex, our youth team captain who found him on the edge of the box with a corner and rather than squaring a ball he took a touch and smashed it into the top corner. A more reticent handshake between two brothers I’ve never seen on a football pitch.”
Overall it proved to be a successful outing for the Millers, albeit with striker Adam Johnson requiring several stitches in his head, and development goalkeeper Tony Thompson suffering a dislocated finger.