Came into mount with his grandad after game yesterday . The happiness he showed to play yesterday was great to see. And you can could see proud he was. His grandad was so proud of him bless him .
Aside from the fact he played very well, looked composed and mature, as did Wolfe, it was also fantastic to have two lads proud to wear the shirt and play for this team.
He did himself proud when he came on. You only ever have one debut in Football so it's just a shame it couldn't have been in happier circumstances with the ground more full.
Wasn't it Patrick's dream for a team full of Barnsley lads? It's a tempting thought to go with local lads hungry to wear the shirt. Fan owned and put all our resources into the academy. See where it takes us, even if that's several levels lower. It will be far more satisfying than what we have at the moment.
Them two can play the rest of the season for me. Did more in a combined 90 minutes than the rest of the midfield have all year.
I know this might sound too simplistic, but for me he just did the basics consistently well. Good ball control, found a teammate with his passing, and kept trying to take us forwards rather than sideways or backwards. He also looks comfortable receiving the ball under pressure. We looked a far better side with him in it.
Good to hear. Hopefully, he can back it up on Wednesday, when we'll need plenty of bite and physicality.
The mark of good coaching is how well a player does the basics well. Yes, some of it is down to natural talent but I'm a firm believer that time spent perfecting the basics on the training pitch will pay off. Rather than trawling European Leagues for the position of Head Coach perhaps the answer was under our noses and in Martin Devaney, now helping out with the First Team, we have a future Head Coach. As others have alluded to, both Matty and Aiden have the additional incentive of having been with the Academy from a young age. Patrick was right to aspire to a team of South Yorkshire lads on the pitch, hungry to put on the red shirt.
Agree with so much of this. I know there's little point in comparing back to our halcyon days of the 90s, but back then we seemed to bring through a steady stream of competent footballers from our old Northern Intermediate League team. Coached by the likes of Eric Winstanley, Frank Barlow etc. The likes of Eaden, Moses, Jones, Tiler, Liddell etc. Not necessarily spectacularly good players (and I don't mean that in a critical way) but they were all good at the basics and generally consistent players for us, who also had decent careers elsewhere too. Put a few of them together with some experienced pros and a dash of top quality here and there and we had sides who genuinely could compete and played some great stuff. Part of me struggles to work out why we pay even small fees for young players from the continent who don't appear to be any better at football than what we have in our own junior ranks.
I’ve always said this. It’s what you need. Sit in front of the defence, give the team shape, put your foot in when needed, give it simple & early & get your positioning right. Michael Carrick made a career out of it. I remember Hassell doing it plenty of times when he moved into midfield & Colace did it as well. We’ve become obsessed with players sprinting everywhere to press which is ok when you’ve got a settled 11 & everyone knows there roles. It isn’t the way to go when you’ve got lots of injuries & Covid issues & the teams changing every match.
Matty Wolfe was my motm by a distance - I said as much in the vote thread - but Marsh was also a breath of fresh air. Had his first touch in league football flown into the top corner, which it wasn’t far off from doing, decent stop, I reckon he’d have been in all the papers today
Can tell he was made up to come on. Rather play him than iseka who looks like a poor mans thiam and another who either doesnt want to be here or cant be arsed.