How did we play?

Guess it's just radio listeners who'll be about at the moment, but what did the Barnsley World guys make of the performance?

 

A draw was a fair result; both teams had plenty of chances on goal but didn't convert. Davies made a couple of good saves. No-one stood out as being terrible or amazing (or they didn't say anyone was either of those things).

 

On way back. Shocking in 1st half but a lot better in 2nd half. Had good chances to win but didn't take them. At least we kept a clean sheet though.

 

All this is starting to sound very familiar. The more things change the more they're staying the same.

 

Same as Micky says, game of 2 halves. Anybody think Berry needs a rest? Looked to be blowing out of his arse after 50 mins.


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Poor in the first half. Fleetwood were pressing us and had plenty of chances, but we were really on the back foot because we changed formation every ten minutes. Hemmings, Jennings and Cole kept swapping round. It was very noticeable that when Cole went to the right side there was no cover for Brown. It was an experiment from Wilson that really didn't work. We were lucky not to be behind at half-time.

But for the first twenty minutes of the second half it was as good as we've played all season. We pressed them and their defence went to pieces. We then had several decent chances. Cole and Dudgeon both could have scored, whilst Jennings' piledriver swerved inwards just a bit too late and hit the post. Actually, if it had swerved a bit later it would have hit me!

We looked far better in the second half when we went to a straight 4-4-2, with Hemmings and Cole down the middle. Although Berry was quite poor today and looked lost at times. Big Jean MOTM for me. Him and Nyatanga looked much better that Nyatanga and Crainie, whilst Crainie played much better in deep central midfield than he has been doing at centre back. We need to sort the right side out though, because almost every time Brown got the ball there were absolutely no options available to him and he ended up giving the ball away. But on another day Lita would have nicked the points for us at the end.

Actually, we should have had a penalty in the second half. The ref had a perfect view of their defender quite literally with his arm round Big Jean's neck as a cross came in. It was a move you'd be more likely to see in a WWF bout or a James Bond movie than on a footy pitch.

Nice little ground, friendly atmosphere, 800 and odd Reds fans, all good natured. Lots of banter with their keeper in the second half, who was a good sport. Foggy as **** trying to get home though, so thanks to Loko and then Hicksy for getting us back in one piece.

 

Cheers for that. Danny admitted that we were undone in the first half as much by our own formation as how Fleetwood played.

Audio Boo here:

https://audioboo.fm/boos/2488031-danny-wilson-on-barnsleyfc-draw-at-fleetwood

I guess he wanted to tighten it up after conceding 5 goals at home in the last game. New squad, still experimenting. Be nice to have Treacy and Bailey back for the game at Port Vale, so we can play the team Wilson wants to put out rather than the one he's having to bend in to a formation that perhaps doesn't suit the players.

 

This pleases me. But do we stick with it? I suppose not once Bailey is fit. But I really do believe Cranie is a midfielder, and the fact we don't concede when he plays in there points to it being at least an option in certain games?


Thanks a lot for the summary, GO, much appreciated as ever.

 

Danny's 1 min audioboo sums the night up to a tee for me!

 

Thanks for that.

 

Big Jean was class, won everything in the air and put in some good challenges.

Jennings was our most active attacker but was too greedy at times, was unlucky not to score a couple.

Cole looked decent and full of running, should have scored 1 on 1 though.

Overall was a decent performance, poor first half and good second half.

 

Perhaps Cranie to right back could work? He's had some decent games there in the past.

 

He's had far more bad games there than good from what I can remember.

 

First half was awful, but the important thing to note is that Danny and the players sorted it out, not just by changing formation, but by getting closer, pressing more and getting their backs turned when they were on defence.

The change started from the front, Cole and especially Hemmings put their back two under pressure, this caused them to play quicker balls out to the full backs who were again put under pressure by Jennings and Berry, or play a hoof up front, this usually allowed us to recover possession. In the first half we were giving them too much respect and time on the ball and they could pick their passes.

Once we had the ball we were finding space and putting in through balls for Jennings and Cole who used their pace to get in behind and both should have had goals.

For 20/25 minutes in the second half we completely dominated and should have been a goal or two up, but we didn't take our chances, Fleetwood came back in to it and they spurned their own chances. We need to score when we are on top or other teams will take advantage.

Winnall replaced Berry for the last five minutes and put in a cross that Lita should have scored from, then they went back down and nearly scored themselves.

 

Well...he did play well and didn't kick the ball out of play once, but he did have a couple of rushes of blood to the head that nearly cost us. The first one was when he came out to claim a high ball but got nowhere near it, as Big Jean was already underneath it. But it would have taken a strong keeper to knock Jean out of the way. The second was when he ran out to the left side of the area to get a ball that Nyatanga was shepherding back with a striker behind him. When he got there the ball was just outside of the area, but instead of hoofing it out he let it past him and the striker very nearly got through to the empty goal. It was very much like that Italy goal against Shilton in the 1990 World Cup third place play off (for those old enough to remember!).

In the first half we also did the trick that we kept doing to Steele in signposting back passes to him. Fleetwood were pressing us and were rushing him every time we passed it to him. Fortunately he made a clearance every time, but you could just see a mistake coming as we carried on doing the same thing.

 

In an ideal world Cranie plays at CB but given the choice between M'Voto at centre back or Brown at RB I'd go with M'Voto so Cranie at RB at the weekend suits me

 

First half poor and very forgetable. We started the second half quite well for the first 20 minutes or so of it. I've not seen the statistics but the Fleetwood % of total shots at goal that were off target must be higher than most opposition teams we've played in recent memory. Davies had very little to save and the clean sheet was never in any serious doubt. They were shooting like they don't practise it and were playing with lead in their boots. M'Voto was our best player. Typical performance by him of being very difficult to get off the ball. Nobody else really stood out.