Away wait over as Davey selection process pays off IT'S good to get among someone else's misery, somehow yours then doesn't seem so bad. Barnsley have waited five months and eight days for a win on the road. Played 14 fixtures (21.5 hours of football) before it. Luton sloped off at the end as their crowd turned on them, their board of directors, even the kid the sponsors chose as their man of the match. Sound a bit familiar? Only down there, the punters are wondering where the millions from flogging Rowan Vine, Carlos Edwards, Steve Howard, Kevin Nicholls and Curtis Davies went. In contrast, Barnsley have spent, will shell out more before the February deadline, they say. They just need to persuade the players that they want to make the move. That Oakwell is not doomed to a League One dip. Good news on Saturday was Barnsley already had too much in the locker for this bunch of Luton losers, who are now fifth from bottom and just two points better off than Barnsley. It helped that manager Simon Davey picked the right back four and a couple of strikers who each bring something different to the table. Antony Kay was back at centre-half alongside Paul Reid. The full-backs were Bobby Hassell and Adam Eckerlsey. Davey put Martin Devaney, Sam Togwell, Grant McCann across the middle. Inexplicably, Paul Hayes was given the boot right out of the squad while, sensibly, Dwayne Mattis, who admits he's still finding his feet after moving up from League One, sat on the bench. Davey can claim he got it spot on in midfield in that Howard and Devaney got the goals. It's very a fair point. But to have a fully fit Hayes not even on the bus was weird. "Dropped," was the word Davey used. "Sold," might well be the next one. Hayes was bought as a striker but is not getting a look in there at the moment. Even rookie Michael Coulson was preferred the other night against Southend United. Coulson got a place on the bench on Saturday as Marc Richards and Daniel Nardiello fronted up the team. The same Richards who thought he had played his last for Barnsley until last Tuesday when the swap deal with Port Vale's Leon Constantine went pear. It took only seven minutes for Barnsley to open the scoring. Richards flicked on a free-kick, Nardiello took it on and spread play out to unmarked Howard on the left. He slid it in from close to the 18-yard line. Barnsley's second goal was almost a carbon-copy finish, only from the right, with Martin Devaney scoring following a Howard assist. That came in the dying moments and killed off Luton. Their keeper, Dean Kiely, was kept busy in the first half as Richards and company fired in shots. Luton improved in the second half, they could not have gone the other way. But it wasn't until the 70th minute that Barnsley keeper Nick Colgan had anything tricky to do. Steve Robinson belted one and it was bang on target and blocked only by the fully stretched Barnsley No 1. Davey was delighted to end the current run of five without a win. "Getting an early lead was good. We started quickly , we got our chance and put it away and a goal at the end killed things off," he reflected. "We were under a bit of pressure for the second half which is understandable but the lads at the back and the goalkeeper, the whole team, really worked their socks off to keep them at bay." Man for man, Mike Newell's team weren't at the races. Newell, bung whistle-blower and top of the league of politically incorrect football managers, said he wasn't worried. "Worrying and being disappointed are two completely different things," he said. "Even if you don't like getting beat, it doesn't make you worry - the things are completely unrelated." A bad day at the office, he added. "It was one of those days where nothing went for us in terms of creating chances, the injuries that went against us and one or two other things. "You don't always have it all your own way." Couldn't have been worse for striker Dean Morgan. The sponsors had him as man of the match. The fans couldn't have been less impressed. They didn't hold back. All this couldn't help but help Barnsley. For once the flak was flying and they weren't the target. 22 January 2007
"the whole team, really worked their socks off to keep them at bay." </p> It's gonna cost a fortune in socks. ..... but, it'll be worth it. </p>
