A few thoughts from me after the weekend. Some positivity.

For various reasons, I pick and choose my matches these days. Distance from Barnsley, young family, prices, travel all week with work etc. I make no excuses for that; after many seasons of being an S/T holder I am indeed a true fair-weather fan these days.

So even though I'd driven close to 1000 miles last week, Saturday morning I told the Mrs I fancied a bit of "me-time" so she packed me off with a coffee and I made a last minute trek to Oakwell for a bit of Saturday afternoon entertainment. And glad I was ! !

Over the last couple of years, most matches I have seen have followed a similar pattern. The scene has been typically this. A 0-0 game, with frustrations bourne from individual errors, team mistakes, lack of cohesion and management naivety. This has invariably led to outcries physically and on this BBS against players / management / owner / each other and a general feeling of "well there's nothing to attract me back to the next game". And the weekend would be rounded off by watching the football league show or similar and always ending up thinking "**** me, we are light years off the other teams in this division". And thus weeks or months would pass before my next visit to a very negative and morgue-like Oakwell.

Fast forward to last weekend. For not much more than what it would cost me to get to a match, I had a pleasant weekend with mates walking and boozing in the lakes. We ended up in a pub in Glenridding and I saw most of the first half and I actually thought " we look good here, we are bossing this " then I was overruled and we trawled back to Patterdale by which time I was receiving regular texts from home updating me on the second half massacre. Happy days.

So on Saturday I arrived at Oakwell. I still think £28 is steep, but hey, for old times sake I sat in the Ponty and noted the teamwork and togetherness at warm-up. The feeling was that the players knew what they were supposed to do and when kick-off came I thought genuinely there was a better atmosphere and all-round feel-good factor in the place. Even when we wnt behind, the crowd got behind them and from that point on I knew we wouldn't lose the game. Of the two aspects of our pass and move game, the "pass" part certainly outweighed the "move" on this occasion but it was nevertheless a pleasing performance and one that will take me back tomorrow night. I can't really pick out anything to moan at, which is a total sea chance from my feelings above. Golbourne was better than I thought, Alnwick looked capable (despite that goal) and it was pleasing to see Luke warming up in front of me (looks in really good shape). We have two championship class keepers at the club ! Mellis was my only concern - played well but looked as though he could have still stepped up a couple of notches - class act but hope he doesn't become another Lumsden. Dagnall was sharp, Stones looked class and in Davies we look to have one of those strikers who makes the crowd sit up when he has the ball. A real team performance and the first time in a while I have found a home draw pleasing.

Looking forward to tomorrow night. Well done Keith, Flicker and all concerned. These are the views of a fair-weather fan.

 

Excellent post. Spot on assessment of the game too. Thought there was a real buzz about the place (although it did go flat for a while) but once we scored you could feel the expectation, not just in the fans but in the players. There was only one team going to win it and try to win it.

I think it speaks volumes that a club the size of Ipswich came to Oakwell set up completely to try and frustrate us and were very happy to go away with a point.

 

Don't have any concerns about Mellis mate.
He is a class act, and will be responsible for a lot of our points this season.

 

I thought he struggled to find space until they subsituted their number 8. He was having to drop very deep in the first half to collect the ball which in turn was reducing our effectiveness in the final third. I think Andy Mac's post was just a reflection of how much is expected of him at the moment.

 

Eureka you hit my nail on the head lol, i've been trying to put my finger on the main thing lacking at the moment, "move".Allthe passing in the world whether accurate or not, would be much more effective with more movement creating space that is the name of the game, also a bit more urgency getting men into the opponents penalty box.

 

I think he was still quite deep in the second half, that's where his assist came from. I think the difference was that the full backs and Dawson really pushed on, occupying men which meant he found a little more space but also had more players to pick out in the final third.

 

Liked your message Andy. We would have lost that game last season after going down 0-1