The time wasters' rewards and two walks of shame

It would be nice to think that every team that has been at Oakwell behaving the way Peterborough did last night could have gone home empty handed and angry, but no. So many others have kicked, wrestled, tripped and dawdled their way through the match and got away with a point, or sometimes all three. Thankfully it was not to be last night. A nasty, spiteful, spoiling team got their just rewards with a winning goal against them so late that they had no time left to do anything about it. Mind you, had WE not piled on the time wasting tactics ourselves for those last three minutes they might have had a chance. But who cares! The points were deserved, and hard fought.

It hardly needs saying, but not winning last night was simply not an option. You could say the same about the next two Saturday fixtures as well, but last night really was a MUST win. I was disappointed that we were playing the "wrong way" in the first half but, on the other hand, playing towards the Ponty End might just have given us that first half boost that we have been lacking for so long. The chances certainly piled up, with shots fizzing in from all angles and Ben Alnwick playing out of skin to keep them out. Maybe a couple did go too close to him, but plenty were goal worthy attempts which could, and should, have given us a three or four-goal lead by half time. But, once again, we had the frustration of a goal-less first half, with it all to do in the second.

The sending off just before half time was just ridiculous and, from my ESL vantage point, it was impossible to tell what really happened. The brief look at it on the Sky highlights appears to show CH going down looking for a red card. IF he did that then shame on him, but it's what so many others have done to us in the past. That's not to say it is the right thing to do, but players are usually more than happy to gain an advantage wherever they can find it. If anything, we are too nice. George Williams is a prime example of that. Can anyone tell me how many fouls per match he commits? I bet it is less than three most matches, and the idea of him cynically chopping down a forward is unthinkable. He LOOKS like a nice man, he PLAYS like a nice man so, really, he has no place in modern football! Really glad we have him though. He had a terrific game last night.

As did Marc Roberts - he started the season with a few wobbles, then came of age in the Everton match. He lost his place unluckily but he has grabbed it with both hands now and could end up player of the season. I suppose SSW will get it though for his goals, but Roberts is a man mountain of a player. He complements Alfie Mawson brilliantly, who is now showing us what a Rolls Royce of a player he is. The whole defence was solid last night with the added advantage of having Josh Scowen marauding down the wing as well as defending. You could add GW to that as well, if only for his 91st minute foray into centre forward territory to get on the end of another perfect cross from Adam Hammill. Anyone notice that was with his LEFT foot by the way?

I could pick holes in some of our play but I will only mention one player in passing. Ivan Toney is a young, inexperienced player at this level, and it is showing. He may have had a good year with Northampton and got himself the big move, but he's not really any better than Ashley Fletcher is he? He's shown us good things in flashes, but we needed a lot more last night. The number of times that balls went over his head with barely an effort to get his head on them was ridiculous. He seemed to have lead in his boots. Perhaps he is a balls-to-feet kind of centre forward and we are not using him properly. Either way, he was the weak link for me last night and needs to be on the bench for the last three games I reckon. He might just come on against the Blades and score the winner. Then, like John Hendrie, he will be evermore the hero of BDTBL!

After what had gone before, the goal was as soft as you are ever likely to see. Well done GW for getting there and heading it down, but what a poor effort by the keeper. According to his manager he was distracted by having been unfairly booked for time wasting. Hmm, ok Graham!! I think he just wanted to do us a favour, and he did it by making the kind of dive for the ball that a forward might make who has just put the gloves on because they have no substitute keeper. What a reaction though! The 8,000 or so who were left almost lifted the roof off. Those who were already back in town would have probably heard it.

Then, of course, we got Mr Westley losing it big time. I won't go over all that others have covered but that had to be the funniest thing I have ever seen from a manager desperate for his side to get back into the game with no time left. He complained about OUR time wasting (ie, holding on to the ball by the corners) while, at the same time, wasting his own team's time by acting like a child. I'm so glad that he walked down the touchline like a naughty player, instead of just going back to the west stand seats. Capped things off nicely that!

So, on we go and maybe four points from the next two games will do it. Six would be brilliant but it is going to be VERY hard on Saturday. They will be at us like wild dogs savaging a fallen wildebeest, and right from the off. We need to stand tall at Bramall Lane. We can do it, I'm sure of it.

 

I'm pleased we are away on Saturday, getting tired of seeing teams set up to stop us playing at Oakwell, parking the bus so to speak. That wont be the case this weekend, United really have to go for it and without much quality in defence this could well leave holes at the back for us to exploit. I just hope Conor Hourihaine takes his shooting boots, they seem to have been missing lately.

 

Pretty decent summing up....just one error..we actually started time wasting before we scored...I have it on good authority.

 

Enjoyed reading that.

I think, avoid defeat on Saturday and beat Colchester will see us take it to the last game with a fighting chance.

 

Had to laugh at the Rolls Royce bit.

 

Agree with all that.

It's a shame the injury list is making our paper thin first team squad even thinner.

We really don't have many options to change things on the bench.
It's Chapman for Isgrove & Flectcher for Toney... all are fairly similar.
Neither Toney or Fletcher are good strike partners for Winnall.

Only 3 games to go, so hopefully team spirit will carry us through.
Thankfully defence has looked strong & will be tested in the two very difficult away games.
I'd be in favour of playing Fletcher from the off at Utd, as he's more likely to score on the break.

 

Agree with vast majority of that but the Connor incident needs putting into perspective ,Forrester had been niggling and kicking most of the half ,OK the ref didn't see it / ignored it, whatever he didn't give anything Connor went down he was fouled ,whether he made a lot of it or playacted is irrelevant imo Forrester could /should have walked away . if one of our players had done what Forrester did and cost us I would have been fuming and wanted him fining.
Connor did what most opposition players do in those situations Forrester could have avoided it but chose to be a chump and got what he deserved and cost the team. I don't like that aspect of the game but while it is being tolerated I don't see why we should demand our players to crusade alone against it that's the FAs job.