Worse than awful. It's as if they weren't bothered that a win would give us a good cushion above Derby. Dreadful game.
Rooney does it to us every time, we play right into his hands. Annoying and frustrating, sounds like we are back to being hopeless again.
Abject performance. Derby looked a division better than us. Given the players Derby have at their disposal perhaps that's unsurprising, but we just don't look equipped to compete at this level.
How can we beat QPR Boro and Hull in the last few weeks if we don't look equipped? We didn't win those games due to luck. We were equipped. Today we didn't play well. But we can. We are inconsistent. Inadequate up front. And Derby were all over us today whenever we had the ball, so they deserve some credit.
We were lucky to beat them at Oakwell. Win and we are staying up. Lose like today and we are going down. Emotions are going to go up and down on a game to game basis.
If we had won today,I would have believed they could have survived. What puzzled me was the change of formation and style of play. The psychology of the week has been Barnsley players sounding confident in interviews but Wayne Rooney playing the victim,the Football Focus feature was embarrassing. I wasn't there but where was the passion, the fight,the desire to win at all costs, knowing that a win would bring safety within reach. That's the frustration, sure mathematically it's possible still but March's fixtures are all tough and it's possible that they won't win a game all month. Realistically they need 8 wins from 12 games, without the win today it's almost impossible.
Div 2 v Conference maybe , Derby weren’t all that and neither did they have to be i think our players felt sorry for Rooney after his interview as well judging by the desire shown .
I agree in terms of giving Derby credit because they definitely looked like they wanted it more than us. All teams have off-days and, as I said to my lad 5 minutes in, I knew that this was going to be another one of ours. We were back to sloppy passing and silly mistakes. It was also clear that whatever bite we had in midfield disappeared once Wolfe was walking the tightrope because of two rash challenges. But in terms of whether we are equipped to compete, as an example, did any of today's substitutions make you think that we have what it takes to change such a vital game? No-one wants to be wrong more than I do, and I sincerely hope today is just a blip and that we'll show how equipped we are by beating Stoke and Fulham!
Hardly if we had won today we are still favourites to go down but slightly more chance Lose today like we did it makes relegation more likely but thats all Its still theoretically in our own hands as we have more games to play than Derby and Reading and Reading to play but we need a lot more performances like Hull and Boro and a lot less like Derby and Covenrty I have been convinced we are down since before Xmas and still am but can see slightly more hope than I could a month ago even after todays defeat not enough though
I do agree that for the whole of the season we haven't looked equipped up until recently. And injuries to a couple of key players will extinguish any lingering hope. The bench is threadbare. Back up is ill equipped. And we don't have a potent enough strike force to enable us to nick the odd game. I think Derby are more likely to get out of the bottom 3 than we are.
You are right about that game. He could see that the way to negate Val's tactic, of whacking the ball forward at the earliest opportunity, was to react by whacking it straight back. Neither side produced a worthwhile move all match, but Derby got a crucial point. Steve Cooper is the manager who really has the measure of us, both last season and this. His teams have registered 5 wins and a draw in 6 matches against us
clinton morrison was on $ky (via an illegal stream) midweek as i wouldn't pay them a penny to employ a moron like him he was feeling sorry for derby&co about their plight and injustice? yeah right overpaid footballers and managers surely deserve to avoid the financial fair play rule to him, i don't want any club to go bust but they've surely got to do a "Bury" if needed
Distinctly second best today from first whistle to last. They were all over us like a rash and we couldn’t handle it. First goal was apparently well offside I’m told, not sure if it’s true as I couldn’t tell from our end. If so, Rooney’s midweek bleating paid off like I expected it would. Still think we’d have lost though if I’m honest. We just aren’t good enough….