I like to think of myself as an optimist and there are a few things that I like to see from a Barnsley team. 1. Hard work - there is nothing worse than paying to see a match only for it to look like the players don't give a toss. 2. Playing with a purpose - although I prefer shorter passing (e.g. Barca) I'm happy for us to play to any game plan. I hate watching us when we don't seem sure of what we're trying to do (e.g. under Simon Davey). 3. Genuinely trying to win - trying to not lose, and playing for a draw are two different things in my eyes. Under Robins I think we often played for a draw Under Hillcroft I genuinely believe we are doing the three things above, and therefore I find it hard to not like them. I class myself as an objective observer, so I'm often pleased to hear KH's post match comments where he constantly refers to the performance and not the result. He always analyses the reasons why we lost, and doesn't just get upset at the fact that we have lost. Keith won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I think he's the closest thing to what most Barnsley fans stand for that we could get at the moment. He's brutally honest, he's humourous, he's brash and he's got that siege mentality. I think that Hillcroft are looking for progress. To use an analogy, when you go on a diet your primary aim is to lose weight (or in our case - win games). After some good progress your weight loss often plateaus and you struggle to continually lose weight at the same rate. For a lot of people they also take measurements (chest, waist etc) and find that they're not losing weight, but they are losing inches of their waist. Therefore, they're still making good, tangible progress. I think Hillcroft use lots of measurements (e.g. Opta stats) to monitor our progress, and therefore are sometimes able to see our progress in a way that us supporters can't. Hopefully we'll continue to progress throughout the season and long may it continue.
Totally agree with everything you've put,It will be interesting to see what happens in January,but Hill seems the kind of manager who'll be looking at the options well in advance,and hopefully he'll have good replacements in mind for who, if any, we lose.There are bound to be blips like the 2nd half on Saturday,and possibly even bad runs,but I think if we keep the faith and the boo boys keep off the teams back,Hill can keep us looking like the decent championship side he's produced in the first half of the season.My (almost) half time rating 9/10
