Barnsley 0 Middlesborough 4 I could say that the youngsters played 120 minutes at Derby on Wednesday and were tired. I could say that the opposition were on average two years older. I could say that several of the players played out of position. What I will say is that Middlesborough were by far the better team, and only Waggett in the Barnsley goal kept the score down. Many of the lads have not matured yet and they therefore lack the strength and pace to compete with older boys. It would be wrong to say that they let the side down, but they represented weaknesses that the opposition ruthlessly exposed. Having said that, every now and then you see a player that excites. Saddly, he was not playing in red. He is 6ft 6in tall. He has the physical strength and pace of a 25 year old. He has a good touch and can beat players with ease. He is French, and in my opinion, he is the new Vierra. His name is Herold Goulon. Watch out for him. Goulon dominated midfield from start to finish even though Barnsley's best player, Butterfield, directly opposed him. We tried putting 5 men in midfield at the start of the second half and it made no difference. We tried taking it in turns to kick him and it looked like flies buzzing around a giant. Middlesborough went down to 10 for the final 20 minutes and Goulon simply took it in the corner and played on his own. We allocated Waterfall (nickname Bigun) to mark him at corners and he was 2 inches shorter. In short, it was an uneven contest. Waggett kept us in it until late in the first half when Boro got through again. This time when Waggett paried another Boro player followed up to score. Goals came quickly in the second half. Danny Smith got caught on the ball through lack of movement ahead of him and the ball was quickly played through to the Boro centre forward who scored easily. Boro broke quickly for the next and the fourth was from a pass down the inside left channel. Both sides finnished the game in disorganised fashion as injuries took their toll. Barnsley reverted to 4-4-2 with a centre half up front. Sad to say our best effort was a clearance by Potter from his own half, which the Boro Keeper pulled from just under the bar. This team will improve and has a good core of promising young lads. It just does not have a star.
I've seen loads of young players who have dominated by virtue of their size and strength but they have never made the grade.
