Bit of a letdown today, especially second half. Right from the off the game was scrappy with neither side able to keep posession for any length of time. Barnsley did have the better of the play but were caught a couple of times on the break when Hartlepool could (should?) have done better. Worryingly for the Reds Antony Kay had to go off injured and if he is out for any length of time, we are going to be short of cover in the centre of defence - hopefully this is one position we will be covering for in the transfer 'window'. The best move of the first half saw Burns brought down for a penalty, well taken by Richards to give Barnsley the lead. It could have been more as Shuker hit the bar with a cracking drive and Hayes had a couple of shots well saved by the 'Pool keeper. Then Howard went down in the area only for the referee to wave play on. Second half was a different story and Hartlepool were much the better team, spurning a number of chances to put the game beyond reach. The defence was conspicuous by its absence at times and some of the old frailties appeared to surface again. Midfield didn't help, giving the ball away far too often. Devaney and Shuker both showed plenty of determination to attack, but without any real end product and in fairness to Hartlepool, second half, they defended well. This and our lack of quality crosses meant scoring chances were very limited. So, no surprise to see an equaliser and it could have been worse if Hartlepool had made the most of their chances second half. Individual performances - Reid did ok but felt Austins passing and positional play were poor - he did though make 2 or 3 excellent tackles. Up front Hayes played well first half, showed good movement and control and created 2 chances almost from nothing. Howard was official MOM and no complaints from me there - he did appear to be the only one playing to anywhere near his potential. Two more games this week and with Kay and Devaney going off injured we can ill afford to lose any more players for Wednesday or Saturday. Hopefully we will be able to bring in 3 players next week (imho left sided defender, central defender, striker) to strengthen weak areas and provide more competition and cover for the rest of the season. Reasonable crowd by this season's standards, but a little subdued in the second half. Still a long way to go and everything to play for. Two wins this week and all will be rosy.
I think Howard went missing in the second half & we lost it in midfield. Then we started with long balls over the top which never work! Luckily Hartlepool didn't convert their chances. We know Hartlepool are battlers & we were second to the ball too often. I'm not all doom & gloom because I think we can beat anyone on our day, I just wish we could play for a full 90 + minutes. I can't see a win at Bournemouth though, so the best I think we are looking at would be 5 out of the 9 ponis.
