Town boss Kieran McKenna admits he’s disappointed midfielder Fin Barbrook’s loan at Lincoln City hasn’t worked out but says players can still take lessons from spells even when they’ve not played.

Barbrook, 21, joined the Imps on what was meant to be a season-long loan in August but has made only three Vertu Trophy appearances for the third-placed League One side and their director of football Jez George said last week that the youngster would be returning to Town in January.

Asked whether it was a disappointment Barbrook’s time at Sincil Bank hadn’t worked out, McKenna said: “A little bit. I thought he had a really good pre-season and he had some opportunities.

“I know Dmitri [Halajko, director of football operations] and different people from the club have been in contact with Lincoln a lot and have been up there to visit.

“Loans can maybe don’t work out how you would hope for lots of different reasons and for a young player it’s about taking the lessons. You can have good loans even when you don’t play because you can take a lot of lessons from being in that environment and, obviously, the team has done well.

“I think at the moment the plan is for him to come back in January and then we’ll assess the situation from there.

“He had a good pre-season and he’s been coming back for the U21s games anyway, so he’s still been getting his minutes. We’ll decide the next best course of action.”

While Barbrook has appeared for both Town and Lincoln this season, as his only games for the Imps were in the Vertu Trophy, he is allowed to go out on loan to another side.

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