Yesterday - More to worry than to thrill

It may be my depressive character, but at half time yesterday, I was more concerned whether we had enough to hold out rather than musing on how many we might get. In my opinion, we were awful in that first half and were very lucky to be three ahead. We were poor in midfield, we were very poor at left full back and the centre of our defense were not on the same script. We were saved because Boro were awful as well.

Boro made changes at the start of the second half, and as the half wore on and it became clear that we offered no threat on the break, they threw players further forward. Once again, the opposition caused us problems with pace as they withdrew the technical players and replaced them with fast ones. This was particularly obvious down our right where O'Brien and Wiseman struggled (was Wiseman carrying an injury?). In the end, we were grateful to hold on.

Through the period when we have been playing the leagues better teams, we have all hoped that results would improve when we started to play the lower orders, and we did beat Boro after all. However, the manner that we did so has me concerned. Last year when the turn around came, it arrived with the massacring of Leeds. It came with the adoption of the wing back system because of Stones and Golbourne, the arrival of O'Grady and the discovery of Etuhu. To my eyes at least, this year's team is inferior to that one. We are struggling to exercise any control in the middle of the pitch. When we are put under pressure, the link to the front two breaks down in a series of inaccurate long balls that O'Grady is expected to contest . We still have the defensive fallibility to pace that was obvious last year. We have tried to attract to our club players from higher up the league structure, but that strategy has failed in a snowstorm of rejections, only some of which have become public knowledge. Instead, we are forced to watch a weak side full of journeymen. In the face of this mediocrity, fans have fallen at the feet of Paddy McCourt like he is some sort of footballing Messiah. There is no doubt that his goal yesterday could not have been scored by any other player on the park. However, he spent the 25 minutes before that giving the ball away and he retired from the action immediately afterwards. He will have to produce much more to make a difference in a very poor team on an ongoing basis.

 

Personally I think this team is superior to last years and I think it's at little unjust regarding paddy as by the sound of things he had to go off because he wasn't feeling well and even threw up on the pitch according to flicker.

 

Paddy was ill and still scored. We have a number of international players this season (McCourt, Butland, Pederson, possibly Wiseman soon, have I forgotten anyone else?) We won. Stop being a miserable bugger.

 

We scored more than the opposition, that's the only thrill I'm interested in.

 

I agree

It was one of those games, we could (and should) have been 2-0 down before one piece of brilliant individual skill and a fluke followed by a penalty put us 3-0 up. Second half, Boro were well on top and could have scored 4 or 5 if their finishing had been better. Ok we should have had a couple on the break but the last 10 minutes we were awful, the defence was inept. I like Kennedy going forward but he was beaten easily on several occasions yesterday, and if Mvoto is a professional footballer then I'll stand the drop of York.

 

Re: I agree

We've just started what I think will be the sort of run we went on when Flicker took over last season. That's my gut feeling.

I've spent enough time worrying, stressing, doubting etc. Or thinking about tactics and team selections. I'm giving it up for a while and just watching Paddy's goal for the next few days.

 

Wiseman was put in a central role second half which baffled quite a few in our area of the ground, which in turn left Jim exposed

 

Re: I agree

Sorry mate but i dont see that yet..hope your right but where still struggling too much at the back for me..

 

Nail it on the head there. Will we ever keep a clean sheet again? The defense is way too shaky, with only Cranie of the back four that played yesterday upto it. We should have been two down before we scored and maybe even three down. The second half we went ultra negative again to try and defend the lead instead of trying to get a fourth. M'Voto needs to be taught to head on target because he never can from a set piece. The lack of pace in our team was shown up by the likes of Emnes, Adomah, Kamara etc. I was very worried at 3-2. Mowbury was correct with his Football League Show assesment.

 

I basically agree. Never felt so nervous at a game being 3 goals up. Knew that if they got one back we'd be rocking. Just as I thought we'd be ok they scored the first. That last 8 mins (including the injury time) took an age.

 

I can only remember one clear chance for them in the first half, when someone (probably Wiseman) played their striker onside and he really should have scored. But lets not forget Mellis's chance at the end of the first half which could easily have made it 4-0 to us too. I thought in the second half they never looked like scoring until for some mysterious reason Flicker decided to move Wiseman inside and play JOB at right wing back - this has failed in the past, why go back to it??? I thought we were in control of the game until then, Mvoto and Cranie did well, Fox and Perkins in the middle held their shape and O Grady and Perderson did well upfront. We had a couple of really great chances in the second half too, they hit the bar was the only other really good chance for them I can remember apart from the goals. Maybe I watched a different game, this team is better then last year. Fox is better then Dawson in the middle of the park, Pederson is better then Dagnall and I think Mvoto is at least as good as Foster. Where we struggle is left back, no improvement there, and I'm not sure about Wiseman still, one minute he looks great, the next like a pub team player. The standard of the league is higher again this year, maybe we've improved only enough to finish in a similar position as last season, but I think we have more chance of staying up with this team then if we'd not made those changes, I think Flitcroft has seen that he cannot rely on the likes of Dawson and Dagnall at this level, and I think we'll see an improving Barnsley now.

 

They had a lot of chances in the first half. I lost count of the number of headers they put over the bar or wide, plus when they had chances to shoot but didn't. One tried backheeling it when it was easier to score, the other missed a spectacularly bad effort.

 

Was that supposed to be some sort of experiment that went badly wrong? I think we were three nil up at the time...

 

correct

 

Used those tactics before but no excuses for them really as there's only one position we're lacking and if he's not/can't gonna get proper cover then his contingency plans need to be better thought out imo

 

The team has a distinct lack of confidence holding a lead since we've only lead three times all season therefore dropped deeper and deeper as time went on with no outlet up front for Boro to worry about allowing them to throw the full backs toward as well overloading the defence

 

Spot on and not unfair to Paddy who until he scored was a bit of a passenger. In the previous games he was begging for the ball, but in this one he appeared to be shunning it. Great goal though. Before the first goal it was one of the worst games I have seen for ages with both teams putting in an inept performance. A better team would have punished us and almost did do when they changed.

 

Yep it certainly was a strange one - we ended the first half 3-0 up, but I thought it was a poor first half too. In fact, up to the first goal going in I thought it was fecking boring to be honest - I was bored out of my tree and on the verge of nodding off. Still, I'll take 3-0 after being crap every day of the week!

 

Was a strange move to put wiseman in centre back spot and obrien as right wing back , why change tactics when we was coping well, apart from that we needed the 3 points badly so happy to win in the end

 

They put one just wide of the left post and then the big miss skied over the bar. Butland saved a few too.