I actually missed the first goal as I'd called in to use the facilities before heading to my seat, so I was a little confused as to what had happened. The lad sitting next to me said we'd stood off and allowed their diminutive midfielder to get a shot away into the top corner, and that it was a lovely strike. Terrible start, but the absolute perfect start for Burton - they surely couldn't have dreamed of it. The key was remaining patient, and not going too gung-ho and leaving ourselves exposed to a Burton counter, and a surely killer second goal. We needed to probe, create some opportunities without comitting too much, and at the very least remain in the game, as a the chances would come second half, no way could Burton keep up the tempo at which they played in the first 30 minutes. As it was, we offered absolutely zilch - in terms of creativity, passion, commitment, there was nothing. There aren't many occasions I've sat and watched 45 minutes of football at Oakwell, and seen what was akin to a rag-tag bunch of misfits, unsucessfully trying to string two passes together - they looked like they'd never seen each other before. Balls going into touch, passes over hit, no communication, nothing - half time couldn't come soon enough - a better team than Burton would've been out of sight. Then, some panic-stricken defending resulted in a free kick to Burton and superb free kick looked to me at that time, to kill the game off - the only chink of light for the second half was that changes had to be made and we couldn't be any worse. The second half was simply a 45 minute training routine. Burton, I don't believe ever made it into our penalty box (and nor did they have to), or if they did, it was when a clearance was punted away down field. I learnt nothing about the team, nor the manager in that second 45 - it was played in a microcosm. Punt after punt, after cross after cross was fired into the Burton box, with an attempt to feed off any scraps that fell to us. How Mills missed his header at 0-2 is beyond me. Finally, the goal came and with 15/20 minutes to go, I was positive we could scrape a draw that looked so illusive at half time. The barrage continued, but a combination of last ditch defending, poor finishing and dubious officiating meant we came up fruitless, and succumbed to a really poor result. I'll not bother with ratings, but pin point the good points and the bad. I thought Yiadom was excellent, at least giving us something going forward, and he linked up really well with Thiam in the second half. Pinillos too was very good, and looks to have a cultured left foot, putting in some great crosses and fizzing a couple of shots at goal, one resulting in the goal we scored. Isgrove was absolutely shocking, as too was Bradshaw, both completely anonymous and offering nothing whatsoever. Big few weeks ahead and some serious week for Jose.
