I’ve slept on it twice

Spray-on shirts?

 

Quite right Ian, unfortunately the authorities never take the slightest notice of "clubs like Barnsley" if it was Man U after some high profile game they might do something about it but for us it would be a complete waste of time.

 

It's gone. Let it go.

 

Err I think that's what I was saying.

 

Quite right too. Carry on

 

Marvellous. Now I've got that song going round and round in my head.

 

Cover the outside of the shirts in stinging nettles, that will sort it !

 

Just to add insult to injury I had to sort out some planning work for Swansea being at Wembley this weekend and potential knock on to ambulance services in Wales. Never wanted to help less if I’m being honest but contractually obliged to give a ****!

 

Shirts v skins we are skins

 

Adidas developed the Rugby union shirts,we are now used to seeing. The aim.was to prevent players getting a hold of the opposition players shirt,easily. They started with the New Zealand All Blacks.
It has been effective but I prefer the old style shirts.
I also prefer goalkeepers in long sleeve shirts too.

 

Isn't that why Italy had those really tight ones? Or was it just to show off their muscles,

 

It's hard to show quality dragging a 15 stone lump around by the back of your shirt

 

Even harder if you're punting it straight through to the keeper or into touch ;-)

 

I don't understand those who downplay the role of the ref in our defeat. We couldn't get any rhythm or momentum to our game, because every time we breathed near a Swansea player, the ref blew. It was some of the worst opposition shithousery and the most one-sided piece of refereeing I've seen for ages.

 

Exactly that.

The only thing I think we got wrong was we should have tried to play in around the box and tried to play for the foul and make the ref have to make a decision. I did fear the worst when we got such a crap ref who favoured them at our place and was hoping we got a stronger ref who didn’t fall for it but this one was even worse.

 

I'm honestly feeling an unreal amount of pride at what we've achieved. Yep, totally gutted that we just couldn't make it past Swansea but by whatever measure you care to choose, it's been a truly remarkable season, just missing the dream ending. Financially it's amazing what we've achieved with our budget, we don't have a team of the most gifted and talented players - I don't mean that as a criticism - but we have seen a team greater than the sum of its parts, a togetherness, led by a head coach who has found a way to win matches regularly and more often than not set us up to play without fear and let our opponents worry about us.

I remember posting, a long while ago, something along the lines of it being important to have some sort of hope and an ability to dream as a Barnsley supporter after years and years of seemingly accepting a relegation fight as the norm. I think we have that now. I've criticised some of the boards football decisions but never their integrity, and have no dispute with their long term aims and plan. Dane Murphy deserves great credit.

Next season will be another challenge. But we're now competitive on the pitch and gradually becoming stronger off the pitch. I wouldn't class a mid table finish next season as failure, we won't be the unknown quantity / surprise package next time, there's no guarantee new recruits will be successful, but overall I think we are in a really good place as a club. And we can realistically dream of further battles for the top 6, even if it doesn't happen.

2020/21 has been an absolute success, on a personal level its been a real tonic after a shocking year with working front line through Covid and sudden family bereavement, I couldn't be prouder of what the club has achieved.

 

Sounds a bit Adam Hinchcliff!

 

I think this is a bit of a fallacy tbh. I don't see a huge amount of difference between how gifted and talented our players are compared to anyone (maybe bar a few from Norwich and Bournemouth) this season to suggested there is too much difference in class - they may be slightly further on in their development, but certainly don't have more potential.

Next season we should again see another real step up in quality from players such as Anderson, Palmer, Styles, Brittain, Sibbick etc provided we are able to keep most of them together. All those listed are under contract for a good amount of time.

The ref was absolutely terrible. He was absolutely conned by Swansea at every turn, and was stupid enough to fall for it. For the 'foul' that lead to their goal, their player initially had hold of Helic's shirt!

Awful.

 

Fair points to be honest. And whilst I don't disagree about the ref, in both legs of the semi, I don't think their performances are the reason we lost on aggregate. I think Val had it spot on. Neither side created many clear chances, they were clinical with one more of theirs than we were.

Looking forward to next season already.