from the star read it and weep

No-show against Palace makes it Crystal clear Reds are in drop peril


BARNSLEY and manager Andy Ritchie needed a stand-up-and-be-counted performance, the players couldn't manage to turn a crisis into a drama.


It was dross. The goalkeeper apart, simply nothing much worked.
So, how bad?
Well, in manager Andy Ritchie's own words: "I don't think I've ever before been in charge of a game when we haven't had a shot on goal. We might have had a couple of half-chances but I don't think we made the keeper make a save. That's not like us."
And then worse. "I'm not talking out of school here, we've had a chat with the players, they've very disappointed. I think that's the worst performance I've had from the team as a manager and I'd include getting beat 5-0 by Port Vale in that. At least there we showed a bit of fight," Ritchie lamented.
Everyone knows Barnsley will be heading back to Port Vale next season if things don't pick up very soon.
They've seen enough and been around this league long enough to know that on half-decent days they can give everyone, from Cardiff and Preston down, a game.
Like Birmingham and, for that matter, Sheffield Wednesday, on the day Palace were not great. They didn't have to be. Barnsley turned up, put the shirts on and that's about it.
After a week when manager Ritchie and chairman Gordon Shepherd didn't seem to be on the same page, the outfield 10 looked likewise.
At least Ritchie and Shepherd agreed on one thing: the club need new players. On Saturday's evidence there's not a nano second to waste.
The usual suspects with the exception of recalled Daniel Nardiello were at Selhurst Park. Even players who are usually safer than houses, looked shaky, flaky and at times downright dodgy
As for Nardiello, he created more as sub at St Andrews in a third of the time he had at Selhurst. Palace might well have been there for the taking. Confidence around manager Peter Taylor was low, bad enough for a chairman's vote of confidence.
They even had a rookie keeper in after Gabor Kiraly's emergency exit to West Ham. Taylor didn't fancy Scott Flinders (so why was he willing to shell out £ 1million for the lad?) for the job on Saturday and brought in Iain Turner from Everton.
Turner at the start looked a bit of a liability, all nervy. He settled in nicely under the nil pressure Barnsley offered.
Inside the first five minutes Barnsley had relied on a Nick Colgan reflex save to deny Darren Ward from scoring with a power header on Mark Kennedy's cross.
Eleven minutes later Palace had their noses in front and their confidence lifted off turf level. Hassell gained a yellow card and, far worse, gave a free-kick from wide on the left wing. Kennedy flighted the ball in, it fell for Tom Soares to shoot. His blast was blocked but the ricochet fell very nicely for Jamie Scowcroft to drill home low into the bottom right-hand corner of Colgan's goal.
Soares turned out to be the common factor in both Palace goals. The lad is a real find. Given that boss Taylor bought Shefki Kuqi in for £2.5m not so long ago, he's got to value the kid at around the £10m mark.
Soares was a real pain. Not that Barnsley particularly helped themselves. Hassell almost embarrassed himself more with a header back to Colgan which ballooned over the keeper's head. Colgan turned very sharpish and legged it back to his goalline just in time to stop the ball passing the line.
No such Barnsley luck in the 32nd minute. Soares charged from into the box, Colgan again did well to get down to block but the ball rebounded up and into the path of Clinton Morrison who had a simple task in heading in.
Palace continued to push it and Colgan saved well from Jobi McAnuff after Morrison's square ball.
Barnsley improved in the second half in that they got a foot on the ball now and again. Palace knew the game was up. A team who didn't trouble their keeper weren't going to score twice in a month of Sundays.
Paul Heckingbottom kept Colgan on his toes with a negligent back-pass which Morrison almost got to.
In the opposite box Brian Howard tried for a penalty after being decked by Mark Hudson.
Really, though, Palace looked more like scoring with McAnuff their main man .
Before the game Palace boss Taylor told his No 2, Kit Symons, he was ducking out of the after-game media conference. Symons explained: "He said before the game 'I'll send you up to do the Press after we've won. And we will win'."

 

BTT