Hourihane was poor yesterday, but he's been one of the better players this season. Admittedly, that isn't saying much, and in many games he's been no better than average, but if we got average performances from the majority of our players in the majority of games we'd be midtable not in the bottom 4. Without him I reckon we'd be cut adrift at the bottom of the league. Winnall was poor again and has been a number of times since the injury last season. However, he's still managed 7 goals, far more than any other of our strikers, so maybe he is worth a place in the side, but not if he's missing chances like he did yesterday. We've got alternatives who might miss those chances just as badly as Winnall, but at least offer more than he is giving at present in general play. I've read that his poor form is down to the fact that he doesn't want to play for Lee Johnson. If that's the case, we should get rid now. He doesn't play for Lee Johnson, he plays for Barnsley FC. He plays for us, the fans, because we are the club. He's not letting down Lee Johnson by getting munk on, he's letting us down. I hope that isn't the case and don't believe it is because I think he's a better person than that.
People get on about the clear chance/sitter he "missed" in the 2nd half, in my humble opinion it was damn good defending, no sooner did he receive the ball, he had 3 bbig defenders on him, compare that to our attempts at defending.
You'd be better off having a go at the third or so of our squad that could be gone in the next couple of weeks. There isn't one of them that if we lost them it would be worth getting upset over.
I wasn't at the match, so can't comment on the OP opinions, but there may be some credence to what Gloucesterreds says. To take this further, surely some opposition managers target our key players and make sure they are marked out of the game when we have possession? It sounds as though that happened to Hammill against Wigan. Perhaps they managed to nullify Hourihane and Winnall? No-one seems to be allowing for the possibility of the opposition's tactics. Against Colchester, Winnall worked his proverbials off, I thought.
In my opinion, both Winnall & Hourihane are two of our better players and have shown they're very capable at this level. However, both were poor and ineffective yesterday. If we can get them firing on all cylinders and on form (along with Hammill & Williams), I can see us moving up the table.
Said as much at the time "why can't our defenders react to a situation as quickly as that". Without Winnall and Hourihane we'd already be cut off adrift at the bottom. Only one man to point the finger at - Johnson. Under his tenure good players are getting worse.