with an assist for Kevin Phillips followed by scoring three goals in three games, but then sustained a groin injury. Returning to the team a month later, he produced some good performances and scored three more goals in two games, prompting his inclusion in the Championship Team of the Week, before again injuring his groin, this time in the pre-match warm-up at Queens Park Rangers on 29 October 2008, a match which Birmingham went on to lose. He returned to first-team action against Doncaster on 14 March 2009, and his goal on 6 April that confirmed a 2–0 win over Championship leaders Wolverhampton Wanderers for a Birmingham side reduced to ten men was voted as the club's Moment of the Season. O'Connor missed most of the 2009–10 season after undergoing two operations on a hip injury. McLeish suggested that the injury dated back to O'Connor's time with Hibernian and had been aggravated by playing on synthetic pitches in Russia while he was with Lokomotiv Moscow. A Channel 4 documentary Dispatches, aired in September 2011, claimed that O'Connor had been sidelined due to failing a drugs test. His contract had been due to expire at the end of the season, but the club extended it for six months to give him a chance to prove his fitness. Barnsley To regain match fitness, O'Connor signed Championship club Barnsley on 10 September 2010 on a month's loan. He scored on his debut in a 5–2 win against Leeds United. Although Birmingham were happy for the player to remain at Barnsley, whose manager wanted to extend the loan, budgetary considerations made it impossible. Though O'Connor returned to Birmingham's first team, Cameron Jerome's recovery from injury left the player again looking for regular football, so in November he rejoined Barnsley for another month. His 89th-minute winning goal at Preston North End on his second Barnsley debut secured the club's first away win since February. O'Connor then scored the third Barnsley goal in a 3–1 win at Ipswich Town. O'Connor then signed on a permanent basis with Barnsley, from 1 January 2011 until the end of the 2010–11 season. He scored only once in 13 appearances, and his contract was cancelled by mutual consent in April 2011. Later career O'Connor re-signed for Hibernian on a one-year contract on 15 June 2011. He scored his first goal in his second spell with the club in their second