Been mentioned in multiple places that. Not seen it said too often though that four of them had been achieved before the end of February, we beat Derby for our fourth home league win of this calendar year. We didn’t win another by the end of last season. We have won two league games so far this season from eleven home league fixtures. Since beating Derby we have played seventeen home league games. Eighteen if you count the Bolton playoff game. Winning two. Two from eighteen in this division at home. If it isn’t the worst ever at this level, it can’t be far off. There’s no wonder the stands are more empty week on week.
It goes hand in hand with the current matchday setup/experience around Oakwell, the ground is a shi*hole! It’s too big for us quite frankly. It’s okay being cack on the field, but theres no hope of things getting better as there’s no atmosphere for the players to feed off, due to above reasons. The sky+ thing is another major influence, crowds will continue to dwindle. It’s going to get worse before it gets better I’m afraid.
Weak mindset, said it a million times. We have a weak mentality at home. Players are too scared partly because fans start groaning & moaning after seconds (not saying they don't deserve it at times before I get shouted down), but even when we do play well it's the same. It's been getting worse year on year. Little wonder why we did so well when we were playing in front of empty stadia. I did think Clarke & co were slowly but surely changing it, because performances have improved, but today... speechless really. Back to normal. Players not showing for ball, not creating space, not making runs, scared to death of trying anything, trying risky passes etc. Just lump it and let someone else sort it out & hope for the best. As others have mentioned, lack of leadership on the pitch. We just crumble when playing at home, it's inexcusable. New players come into the squad, do well for a while, Earl, Humps, etc then just seem to meld into the rest of the team and turn to crap at home. Like I said, I did feel it was steadily improving, but this result sets it back god knows how much. Proper **** team at home. Proper **** football meaning even more fans will stay away and around and around we go
Surely 2 in 18 at home in the third tier has to be the worst run in our history at home? By some distance too I’d imagine….
21st in the table at home and they’ve played 2 more games than Crawley in 22nd, so it could easily be 22nd. The 3rd worst team at home in League One is disgusting for this club.
That being the case I cannot see any of these players going on to play for bigger clubs if the expectation of playing at home scares them.
Bottling it in front of 10k. Even their commentators said the Barnsley fans were not having much of a go despite how awful we were playing. If they can't hack it here, they may as well give up
Yeah in fairness Mick, there is no defending such a bad record. I wish I/we could make excuses, like the good away record etc. But its so disappointing to see the football at Oakwell, be in the awful state its in now.
The way we set up at home is our issue, we try to be possesion based with players who can't retain possession, away from home we are happy to let the home team have possession and play more on the counter. The sooner we move away from 352 possession football then the better, unless we are prepared to bring in fast energetic wingbacks and spend money on a proper striker were up **** creek
Not sure that the ground not being up to scratch, and the "matchday experience " being poor is an excuse. Oakwell had a better atmosphere mid 90's than it does now, and on lower attendances.
It’s shocking. Even worse when you consider the cup games against Doncaster, Bristol Rovers & Man Utd kids. With a victory over Sheff Utd’s reserves been the only positive.
And look at how the Blunts reacted to that cup defeat... they are now top of the Championship at Christmas!.
I personally think that the abysmal results at home record is what is keeping the fans away from Oakwell. Frankly nobody wants to sit there week in, week out watching their team struggle to manage a draw at best. The truth it we have been on steady decline for a good few years and the standard of players we now sign was optimised by the result yesterday. Some will say 'well we have had alot of injuries, well true but not every week in the whole calendar year. If anything our home form is deteriorating as is the standard of players, head coach and coaching staff.
yep I’m doing the Wrexham game cos I had already bought the tickets a while back and then that’s me done with games for a while I think.
Fortunately I won’t see a home game now for over a month. We go away before new year so I miss both Wrexham and Crawley. Looking forward to a break from it after yesterday.
It's that, plus the level of team we're struggling to beat imo. Look at some of the teams we've played and failed to beat since that Derby game in February: Cheltenham Cambridge Northampton (twice) Mansfield Stockport All newly promoted or in the relegation mire (and Cheltenham obviously did get relegated at the end of last season). Then we've the games against teams larger than the above, but who still end up looking bang average or worse - Charlton, Reading (twice), Lincoln and so on. Yet this side still finds a way not to win. 2 wins in 17 home games at this level is absolutely unforgivable. Quite a few of our players have played in most or all of those as well. They've no shame.