Ashley Barnes

Ashley Luke Barnes (born 30 October 1989) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for EFL Championship club Norwich City.

Barnes previously played for Paulton Rovers, Plymouth Argyle, Oxford United, Salisbury City, Eastbourne Borough, Torquay United, Brighton & Hove Albion and Burnley.

His 16th goal, and his 6th of the season, made him Burnley's leading scorer in the Premier League since it was formed in 1992.

He had an extended trial with Championship club Plymouth Argyle in March 2007, and sufficiently impressed to be awarded with an eighteen-month contract by the club, having scored several goals for the reserve team.

He made his Plymouth debut in the first round of the League Cup in August 2007 against Wycombe Wanderers, coming on as a substitute for first-team regular Sylvan Ebanks-Blake.

He subsequently found first-team opportunities hard to come by, and was sent on loan to Conference side Oxford United in November 2007 to gain some experience.

Barnes featured five times for Oxford United, including two FA Cup ties against Southend United, before returning to Plymouth.

He was capped by Austria at youth international level, making one appearance for their under-20 team in 2008, but his application for Austrian citizenship was rejected in 2019.

As a child, Barnes played for Bath Arsenal, where his teammates included fellow future professional Scott Sinclair and was briefly in the academy of Bristol Rovers before being released.

He began his senior career as a prolific goalscorer with local club Paulton Rovers of the Southern League.

He was sent out on loan again in March 2008 to another Conference club, this time to Salisbury City.

He featured in five league matches for the club but did not find the back of the net.

Barnes was loaned out for a third time in November 2008 to Eastbourne Borough, with teammate Daniel Smith.

His performances at the back-end of the 2008–09 season were rewarded when he signed a two-year contract extension in May 2009.

He impressed enough for his loan to be extended by a month, before he was recalled by Plymouth Argyle in January 2009, ahead of the club's match against Bristol City.

He made his league debut for the Pilgrims against Wolves at Molineux, scoring his first goal for the club against Coventry City.

He joined League Two club Torquay United on loan until the end of the season in February 2010, but returned a month later having made six appearances.

Barnes subsequently joined League One club Brighton & Hove Albion on loan until the end of the season.

He scored on his debut against Tranmere Rovers two days later, having been introduced as a substitute ten minutes earlier.

On 8 July 2010, Barnes signed a two-year contract with Brighton & Hove Albion after transferring for an undisclosed fee from Plymouth Argyle.

On 12 April 2011, he scored the decisive goal in a 4–3 win at home against Dagenham & Redbridge, which confirmed their promotion to the Championship.

Barnes finished the season as Brighton's second-top goalscorer behind Glenn Murray, with 20 goals in 49 appearances.

In the 2011–12 season Barnes remained a first-choice striker for Brighton's return to the Championship.

He finished the season as Brighton's leading goalscorer with 14 goals in all competitions, 11 in the league.

On 9 March 2013, Barnes received a red card in stoppage time against Bolton Wanderers for attempting to trip up the referee.

He was subsequently handed a seven-match suspension by the Football Association.

Fans and manager Gus Poyet were critical of Barnes for this action as it left the club with only one senior striker available to play, as Craig Mackail-Smith and Will Hoskins were already injured for the rest of the season.

On his return from the ban on 20 April, Barnes scored two goals in a 6–1 win over Blackpool and was named man of the match.

On 10 January 2014, Barnes joined Burnley for an undisclosed fee on a three-and-a-half-year deal.

On 8 November, he scored the only goal at Turf Moor to defeat Hull City and gain Burnley's first win of the Premier League season.

He scored a second goal on 13 December, the sole goal in a home victory over Southampton to take Burnley out of the relegation zone.

In February 2015, Barnes performed a high tackle on Chelsea's Nemanja Matić, who was sent off for pushing him in retaliation.

Barnes did not receive a booking for the challenge, and The FA confirmed that they would not take retrospective action as that was not normal procedure for attempted tackles.

Barnes was publicly criticised by Chelsea manager José Mourinho, and said of the criticism "I found that hilarious".

On 24 May 2015, as relegated Burnley finished the season with a win over Aston Villa, Barnes was taken off with knee cruciate ligament injuries, which would rule him out for the majority of the following campaign.

This ended Liverpool's unbeaten home run in the league which stretched back to April 2017.

On 3 March 2018, he wrote himself into the history books, scoring his 16th goal in the Premier League to secure a 2–1 victory for Burnley against Everton.

In November 2019, Barnes signed a new contract with Burnley until June 2022.

On 13 April 2019, Barnes was booked "in the strangest of circumstances" for kissing defender Joe Bennett during a match against Cardiff City.

On 21 January 2021, Barnes scored the only goal via a penalty in a 1–0 away league win over champions Liverpool, handing them their first league defeat at Anfield in 68 matches and sealed the Clarets' first win at Liverpool since 1974.