Given that it was my first chance to see our team this season, I thought I'd give my opinion of where we are. Firstly, as already on another thread, a great afternoon. Great reaction for Bobby as expected and I honestly thought it actually worked well having the mixture of first-team followed by the legends. Regarding the first team, a pretty good performance. On the whole I thought Mansfield were quite physical until the legends came on where they eased off. Defensively we looked decent except when we switched off to allow them to score their second. I also thought initially we lacked much of an attacking threat, but going to 3-5-2 allowed Bree and Smith to get forward more which gave us more width and presence going forward. Our third goal was an excellent move. Obviously we didn't have Winnall, Watkins and Hourihane who are important players, and it was a friendly, but width was something we lacked until we want to 3-5-2, as was pace. Which is why a player like O'Sullivan is so important in this division because defenders hate pace. Player ratings: Davies - 6 Didn't have much to do and couldn't do anything with either goals. Only had a couple of easy saves to make although made a mess of a clearance which hopefully he wouldn't have done if it was a proper match! Bree - 7 Started quite slowly but got forward better later in the game Nyatanga - 6 Solid. Wasn't overly tested but never seemed in any real danger Roberts - 6 Defended comfortably but gave the ball away too often although did a sublime pass straight after he came on. His long throw could be really useful too Manson - 8 My MoM. Classy. Very comfortable on the ball and brought it forward well with some top long-range passing Smith - 6 Didn't seem too keen to run at defenders early on but got better with the change of formation. Sound defensively Pearson - 6 Busy as usual. Kept us ticking. Didn't do much wrong Scowen - 6 An unusually quiet game for him but certainly didn't do much wrong Rothwell - 7 Excellent. Some nice skill and took the team forward well. A good finish for the goal too Wilkinson - 6 Showed some nice touches and linked up well with the rest of the team. That 30-yard attempt was almost brilliant Ball - 6 Shows some good touches and the finish for the goal was excellent. Was quite quiet which is understandable as he won't have had much of a pre-season. Would definitely sign him Templeton Not on long enough to warrant a mark but went on a nice run which won a free-kick. Very promising Oh and 10 for Hassell! So overall I think we have a good team which with 3-4 more quality signings would look very promising 2984 there with 196 from Mansfield Also, Brian Howard's still 'got it' hasn't he?!
Pearson was the best player on the pitch by a long way in my opinion. Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk
I'll stick my ******** on the blog, link will be on here tomorrow. Not knocking your opinion pal, it's likely to be more closer to the truth than mine.
Tough titty, Rich. Saw your bro today. Lovely in real life. Didn't seem so much of a Tory basterd face to face.
He hides it well. I nearly came to Redfearns misen but me and my dad like the courthouse, and we can't walk past it wiart going in. One day. Maybe.
There were at least half a dozen of Bobby's team that were head and shoulders above him. They whole team could pass the ball forward. They could pass it forward short or long and they did so every single time and always found a Barnsley shirt. Other than Anthony Kay (and maybe Howard and Nardiello) the legends team couldn't last 45 minutes at the pace they played, never mind a full game, where as Pearson will be more than capable of playing two games a week. But in terms of skill and ability they showed Pearson up for exactly what he is - limited at best. MK Dons were promoted with Anthony Kay sitting in front of the defence spraying the ball about and setting up attacks. The teams promoted this season may have midfield players even better than him. We will be nowhere near. For many reasons, we have a skills gap all over the pitch, but included in those limitations and a large factor in why we will struggle is that 9 times out of 10 the defensive midfield player we've just signed from Man Utd plays the ball sideways or backwards and slows us down.
