This was only my third match this season but I was lucky enough to go with my dad, who now 82 years old has spent a great deal of those involved with professional football clubs and still analyses matches, players etc for a premier league club. Here are his thoughts on last night 1. Barnsley NOT FIT ENOUGH 2.Full backs+ need some! 3.Midfield doesn't work 4.Very lethargic at times in thought and movement He pointed out from the get go that Notts County are a strong physical team, with long ball tactics. They have now gone 10 games unbeaten but lets get real they are poor but they took three points because they were fitter and Barnsley could not deal with the long ball out and we were slow and clumber some (is that one word) in dealing with said tactic. We saw in the first 15/ 20 minutes that if we could apply ourselves they would have crumbled, unfortunately they scored from a big boot out from the back, yet again we didn't deal with it and it was 2-1 and they were back in a game they never looked like being. I think when they went three/ two up they passed on the floor three times to each other. This is not a slagging off exercise, County don't have players to pass through the pitch from back to front and do what they do very effectively, well done to them. Barnsley however do. However as much as we have the players we need to apply ourselves 90% more in method and action. Some of play at times was good and god only knows how we didn't score more. My dad highlighted Williams after 10 minutes and Cole as the better players. The second half after a fairly bright start went pear shaped and they suddenly realised they could run with the ball, that Nyatanga is a liability at left back and goodness knows what Brown was doing for their third. Williams is the only player we have to carry the ball forward with purpose, we need to utilise his abilities more and hopefully other players will respond. There will be more teams like county this season and we need to start dealing with it, if we are to get better. At the moment most teams can score against Barnsley and score plenty. Short term......... GET FITTER and play a formation that deals with stuff. Oh and apply yourself better, most teams will be beaten if we can do this.
