It has to be said, before anyone gets carried away, that Luton were WOEFUL today. However, it looks to me as if the team have been stung by some of the recent criticism as they played today as if they had something to prove. Most of all they played for each other and worked as a unit. Tackles went in, bodies were thrown in front of the ball and they worked for each other. To be fair, it was a terrible pitch which was unlikely to ever produce a sparkling game of football. However, after a fairly non-descript start we suddenly found ourselves 1-0 up with a goal from a quick break down the left and a tap in for Howard at the far post. From there, we had the better of a scrappy game in which few clear cut chances were created. However, we looked the more confident and competent of the two teams. The second half was notable for some vocal backing from the Reds fans. Luton had a spell of possession as midway through the half as we started to tire (Richards in particular looked dead on his feet). Davey, in all fairness, made the right change in taking Richards and Nads off and bringing on Coulson and Reid. The fresh legs seemed to pick up the whole team and the second goal was comical viewing with regard to the sound effects in the stand. Howard broke forward and played the ball out to Devaney on the right hand edge of the area. Disco's first touch was terrible and there was an audible sigh from the stand as the chance looked to have been lost. Next thing we knew he'd smacked the ball from an acute angle into the net. Cue delirium. So all in all a confidence boosting performance. It wasn't sparkling but it was great to see some graft and teamwork from every player in a red shirt. Eckersley looked good, Howard was probably the pick of the players on the pitch but picking people out is probably a little unfair as, most of all, this was a TEAM display. Hopefully, the confidence this generates gives them something to build on. At last there looks to be some fire in the belly of the players so now they can hopefully improve on what they acheived today. Good stuff, and some great noise from the travelling support. For the first time in a long while it felt good to be part of a Barnsley crowd.
That sounds better The key bits for me are working for each other, playing as a team and giving their all. This team were playing well with no luck (OK - no goal scorer) before - they can do it again
I Don't Like......... how it sounds it was more down to Luton playing bad. However if players played like they had something to prove to the fans, then maybe we should slag them off more often
I like it a LOT if Luton were so poor it could be an indicator that they are on the slide and may take up one of the bottom three slots. Lets hope we can put QPR further on the slide.
And before I forget, Dean Kiely deserves a bit of credit for an incident in the second half. Nads chases a long shot ball forward and throws himself at it in a fairly reckless fashion. He makes no contact with Kiely but, if he had, he'd have been sent off without doubt. Kiely, instead of making a song and dance about it, just accepted it for what it was and both players went to shake hands. However, by this point the linesman was busily waving his flag to get the ref over. Kiely tried to get him to put the flag down and also tried to tell the ref it had been sorted. Ultimately it was to no avail, as the ref booked Nardiello on the linesman's insistence but Kiely, to his credit, did his best to prevent it. Nice gesture to witness, not often seen these days.
RE: I like it a LOT I think the QPR match will be the pivotal point of the season. If they go on a slide I don't think they will stop. That could leave three stranded below us.
Top makrks to Kieley for that No marks for the linesman - from my view Nardi was not that close to Kieley and had slid it in an attempt to block the clearance - which I thought was OK - to me (and Kieley) it wasnt a foul or a booking. Thought the ref was poor as well mindyou
RE: I like it a LOT Its easy to get carried away with a result like this but, given the pitch and the 'scrappy' nature of the game, its hard to say how much of Luton's poor display was down to us making it difficult for them. They played much like we have been doing in recent weeks. There appeared to be no passion or desire among their players for long spells. They did carve out a couple of chances (a weak header in the first half in a good position, and a guy in acres of space in the second half who, thankfully, produced a weak shot on the turn straight into Colgan's hands). The difference for me today seemed to be the relative desire among the two teams. In too many matches this season we've been on the wrong side of that equation. Today, thankfully, was the other way round. Ultimately, we didn't create too many clear cut chances either but we did what was needed today. The outbreak of 'Just Like Watching Brazil' was perhaps a bit premature but hopefully there's something to build on now. The players have a bit of confidence in them and the fans managed to get behind them for 90 minutes. When was the last time that happened?
Pretty fair summary Luton really were awful - I think Colgan had one save of any note to make all game, but in all fairness you can only beat what is in front of you. pitch was poor too which made it hard to play football. The big plusses for me were - the team spirit seemed to have returned - much better effort today from the players We actually tried to play football more often - instead of just hoofing it up for our small strikers we played 4 4 2 and it looked like we knew what we were doing - Richards and Nardi are definitely our best option up front till we sign anyone else thats for sure. Kay had a great game The fans were magnificent today - more noise from 300 than we get from 10 000 most home games
Transfer rumour in the stands was... Hayes to Southend on Monday, which is why he wasn't on the bench. Not sure how much credibility there is in this, but its what I heard. Make of it what you will.
Thanks for the report and well done on getting baack OH hang on a minute you might have even gone the other way dosent matter good saturday evenin reading thanks
Player ratings Colgan - 7 - in all honesty didnt have much to do but never looked in any trouble Hassel - 8 - solid and dependable as always P Reid - 7 - personally I would have preferred Atkinson to start instead but Reid played well Kay -9 MOTM commanding performance Eckerslike - 7- seems to be settling in well Disco - 6 - actually I thought he had a poor game but definitely had his shooting boots on McCann - 8- best I have seen him play for us Howard - 9 - quality performance ran his socks off and great finish to give us the lead Togwell - 7- got stuck in well Richards -7- big difference to have some presence up front especially when we were clearing from defence Nads - 6 - didnt do much apart from the pass that made our first goal - was offside a bit - but did keep pressuring them subs Coulson and Reid both did OK for the 10 mins they were on - good substitutions by Davey replacing 2 tiring strikers with 2 more - think it indirectly helped us get the second goal
To be fair, this is the closest I have to a 'home game' all season. Getting back is fairly straightforward for once!
RE: Transfer rumour in the stands was... Just hope we remember that Hayes has been touted as the replacement for Freddie Eastwood, who is expected to move in January, so that the club can cash in. He should go for between £2.5-£4 million and I hope we realise that and try to strangle as much as possible out of the Shrimpers. I shall be annoyed if Hayes goes for less than £250k and they then sell Eastwood to Fulham, Derby, or Celtic for several million. We could generate some serious cash here, not necessarily because Hayes would be worth that on the open market, but because Southend will soon have the cash to flash. What we get from them won't be available to them for further team-building. Eastwood's value must have rocketed since his goal against Man U. Do the deal, I say, but make it a good one.
RE:We must take heart from... The poor performances of teams like Luton. Let's be honest, QPR and Norwich are also in this frame at the moment. This should be enough to spur on the lads. After all, we would always have settled for fourth bottom and some teams with would-be 'super-stars' who don't like being at the foot of the table are having a harder time than we are with morale. I seriously would have a flutter on Norwich to go down, along with Southend (but who will they get with the Eastwood cash?), obviously Leeds and then you have QPR, Luton, Hull, Leicester etc. Their morale is still more vulnerable than ours! That is the spur for our lads. We don't need to play with table-topping form, but a run of good results will put us safe, thanks to the complacency of the others - you watch!! Norwich for Division One??? It could still happen and wouldn't it be funny!!
