This could have turned into one of those situations that we have seen down the years where a top of the league team comes to Oakwell, with a decent following, and rolls us over on their way to promotion. What usually happens is that their fans spend most of the match making lots of delirious noise as the goals rain in at the old Kop end and they waltz off with the victory having brushed us aside. Think Norwich City, Preston North End (in fairly recent years) and Lincoln City a long time ago (old Fourth Division days I think) – all end-of-season capitulations that left a nasty taste in the mouth. Not yesterday though. Not by a long chalk. We matched them for a good period of the first half, and on and off for the rest of the match, but ultimately they were just too good for us. Not man for man, the whole team of course, but individually – just too much for us on the day. Knockaert and Murray, and to a lesser degree Baldock, seemed to be playing at a different level to us and, of course, they were. The first two have bags of Premier League experience and, in Murray, they had the kind of wily centre forward that I wish we could get hold of. That’s one of the key elements missing in our team I’m afraid – someone to get under the skin of the opposition defenders while looking a class act at the same time. Bradshaw and Armstrong have admirable qualities but they are nothing like I have just described are they? Baldock took his goals brilliantly but I was hoping we could wind him up a bit for a red card after that blatant dive in the first five minutes got him a yellow. Knockaert – well, generally thought to be the best player in the division. But enough of them! We could have drawn that match at least, and maybe even won it, which says a great deal about the quality we have in our football club these days. Others have mentioned the penalty we should have had, and Hammill’s two misses, but these are incidents that either win or lose you a football match. Everyone in the ground saw Dunk stick his arm in the air at the Ponty End but the inevitable screams for a penalty were ignored by the ref. Of course what the camera behind the goal showed was a cheeky ploy by Bradshaw that prompted the hand ball. He seemed to punch Dunk gently under his upper arm, making the arm go up and make contact with the ball. I wonder if the ref saw that, or was he just incompetent (ditto the linesman). I was pleased to see Hammill come on in the second half but maybe that great first chance came to him too soon. It was a stunning passing movement that got the ball to his feet but he didn’t take a second to compose himself before blazing it over. Shame that because it would have been 1-1 and all to play for. He was also involved in their second goal and I was disappointed to see him making little attempt to get back to recover the ball. That’s not really like him though, but it was a mystery that he didn’t make more effort. These are minor criticisms though and this short report is not meant to have a go at any of our players. They all played their part in a really entertaining match and they were unlucky to end up on the losing side. A 2-2 draw would have been a fair result and would have sent us all home happy. There was still plenty of applause at the end though from the home fans so most people appreciated the effort. It’s a shame that some on here have to moan about things. We are all entitled to our opinion, obviously, but sometimes you just have to put your hands up and say well done to the opposition for doing a job on us. There were one or two unsavoury bits to that of course. No team gets where they are without knowing how to con the referee but, thankfully, they kept it to a minimum, unlike some teams we have seen this season. Their fans turned out in good numbers and, naturally, never shut up all through the match. It would have been interesting to see their reaction if WE had been leading 2-0 though. Never mind – you can’t win them all as the saying goes. It’s disappointing to lose another home game but at least this time we should have no complaints about it. I was really hoping for a win against these and then follow it with another one next Saturday, and THEN beat Wednesday as well. That would have been a triple victory to make the rest of the football world take notice. I’ll take two out of three though, especially if beating our neighbours down the A61 causes them to miss out on the play offs. It could happen. I really, really hope we do that to them!
Oh, I forgot to give an honourable mention to Matty James. His passing and positional work was exceptional. We have got a real find here and I hope he stays fit for the rest of the season. Well deserved MoM award.
Sorry mate, but Hammill is a spent force in this division. Too good for league one but doesn't quite cut it in top end of the Championship. His best option would be to go to a L1 promotion contender at the end of the season (for a fee of course). He would go with my blessing.
I agree he is struggling a bit this season - ok, more than a bit! Things he was trying last season are just not coming off this season. He's still a vital part of the squad for me though, even if it only means bringing him on towards the end. Good as Kent is he is a long way off the finished article yet so we can't rely on him for ninety minutes, week after week. Actually, Kent frustrates me more than Hammill does for the number of times he runs into a brick wall or fails to land a cross. At least Adam can take an excellent dead ball and now that Hourihane has gone we need him for that.
Sorry mate but your memory of Lincoln is way off. What I remember and it's not very often I can remember a match in the style of JLWBIGLIL but it just happens on this occasion I can. It was a match we dominated from start to finish and missing a penalty by Bob Doyle . We did everything bar score in that match and Lincoln under the Late Graham Taylor scored on a rare breakaway Rest is pretty much as I saw it as well ,if the pen had been given it could have been a different story ,although Bradshaw did push him before he handled it tbf.
