I thought we lacked the usual pace we have in midfield - the graft & pressing which I think Williams brings in abundance. Bad day - we'll be reight. Nothing's changed from when we won the 3 on the bounce. Still a work in progress, chill lads.
I think the season will continue to have periods of victories, entertaining football, spectacular goals, alongside bouts of losses, individual errors, sub standard defending, dirge-like displays. Eventually, I think our consistency and higher standard of displays will come to the fore and we'll begin to move in the right direction. Squad rebuilding, after the clear out from last Summer, will (in my opinion) take more than one transfer window.
Of course it can get worse! Bad as we were on Saturday we have played a LOT worse than that, many many times. It's what being a Barnsley fan is all about though. Elation and deflation in sometimes equal measures. Sometimes more deflation though. I don't like looking at our record this season and seeing that we have lost at home to the likes of S****horpe, Crawley, MK Dons. Swindon and Notts County (plus Crewe don't forget). That's not happy reading, but it's just how it is. Counter those results with the highs of beating Bradford City and Gillingham, and the rest, and you have a typical Barnsley season. The second half will be much like the first I reckon. 12th or 13th spot is probably about the best we can hope for. Anything more will be a bonus. No need for anyone go on suicide watch, not yet
Some of us are impatient, some of us aren't. Some of us want Wilson to remain as manager and believe we're gradually moving in the right direction, some of us don't and want him removed. C'est la vie.
I don't think that's true mate. It's probably a realistic evaluation, but people tend to hope for more than they expect. In some games we've sown we're as good as anything in this league, but we're nowhere near consistent enough to challenge at the top end of the table. Thing is, you don't have to be consistent to finish 6th. You can have a season pretty much like ours, win some and look great, lose some and look crap, then go on a bit of a run in April and find yourself in the play-offs. I reckon we can hope for better than 12th or 13th even if that looks like where we're going to end up. If you lose the hope you lose the excitement, although in the end it's the hope that kills you.
Well yes, I was thinking of things in a realistic frame of mind, rather than hopeful. I HOPE we smash Donny about 5-0 tomorrow night and go on an unbeaten run until the end of April, thus cementing our place near the top. But the reality is that they will turn up tomorrow like nervous sheep again and let them run all over us, pretty much like Scunny did on Saturday. I think it's scandalous that we should lose to teams of obviously limited resources and ability but that's the way football goes most of the time. You rarely get what you deserve, or expect (well, at our level anyway). Losing SSW was a big blow to us on Saturday but we need more than a goalscoring number nine to achieve some kind of consistency. We need some strong men, and I'm not talking about thugs like Vinny Jones (or Steven Dawson). I was shocked on Saturday by how easy it was to brush some of our players off the ball. Cole is a typical example. A few games ago he was steaming past defenders like they were not there. Now he seems to have lost that confidence so that when he has the ball you know he is going to lose it very quickly. Or blaze it over the bar when he should score. He's not alone, and I'm not singling him out. ALL that team can do better, we know that. They just need to stand up and play like men. Get some tackles in. Make the opposition think they are in a game. Move the ball about quicker. This pedestrian stuff is not good to watch. If it results in a shot or a goal then fine, but mostly it just results in us losing the ball, one way or another.
Agree entirely. Our key players had a poor day - unfortunately, because we've had to let so many go and only started bringing players in so late, we've got very few options in terms of midfield to freshen things up. We'll be absolutely fine.
Just another point in time In a 46 game season, the first full season that Wilson, Hutchings etc have had to try and get a squad together of players who will hopefully be here for longer than 10 minutes and who will (again hopefully) have enough about them to be able to make the step up and sustain Championship football. The season where the team building started about a week before kick off. Whatever we do we must not give context to anything. If things aren't exactly as we want them right now then it all has to be changed and start again.
Re: Just another point in time All but 2 of the players that played any part on Saturday have been signed in the last 4 months or so. Our midfield included one lad who missed all last year through injury, another who was playing conference and the other who was in League 2. Our in form striker went off injured, our on loan prospect had a bad game and our experienced defence struggled with a team that played on the counter attack. Folk talk about systems - what options did Wilson have Saturday? Go 442? Who plays wide right? Does Treacy deserve a place at the minute? Is he fit enough? The lack of wide options means we're pretty stuck with this 3 in midfield gig because of our squad - Cole had a bad day but he's had some f.cking great ones so leave him be. We'll be absolutely fine.
To say we had such a bad performance on Saturday, to only lose 2-1 suggests we could go on a good unbeaten run near the end of the season.
We have had some poor performances yet still only lost by the odd goal this season Port Vale and Chesterfield being two of em. Now we have just entered a period when we are being hit with injuries and suspensions to the side that it looked like Danny had settled on. Keeping hold of the loanees in January is another period when we may be put under more pressure, it is how we come through these spells which will determine our season along with the players coming into the team and whether they take their opportunities or not.
