We aren't good enough. And that's surely, plain for all to see. On paper, we have a good squad, capable of finishing in a decent position in the Championship; on the pitch, it's like watching a bunch of retards trying to f**k a doorknob. It's depressing. I think the words for tonight would be: Bemused. Disbelief. Frustrated. It all seemed to start so well, when Odejayi rose above his marker, and directed an header towards the bottom corner of Andy Lonergans goal, I thought the night was going to be a good one. Oh, how wrong I was. The opening 10 minutes were positive and encouraging, then a DEFENSIVE ERROR from Luke Potter allowed Paul Parry to sail through and rifle the ball past the lunging Steve Foster and the helpless Luke Steele, into the top corner, against the run of play. The Reds started where they left off, passing the ball around without really doing anything, and then creating the odd chance that was missed. Rinse and repeat until Preston scored a second, with arguably their second shot of the match. A freekick wasn't cleared and the set of clowns that consists of the Reds defence, looked on in disbelief as Neil Mellor volleyed the ball home unchallenged from 8 yards. Great. The bemused crowd watched on in shock, as Adam Hammill tried to get things going, unsucessfully, time and time again. The only positive from a nightmare first half, was the performance of Ian Hume on his return. He looked hungry and his touch was class. His crossing from set pieces and open play was immense and he was a breath of fresh air upfront. HT 0 - 2 The second half saw the Reds absolutely blitz the Preston goal. Time after time, chance after chance went begging and it just was one of those nights. Nothing was going in and it was never going to. Hume was subsituted for Macken with about 20 minutes left, and that pretty much killed ANY chance of us scoring. The sucker punch came with around 15 minutes to go. A diagonal ball into the box found Jon Parkin with acres of space; he brough the ball down with his chest, looked up, had a cigar and a pint of lager, regained his composure, waved to his parents, and volleyed home past Steele with the aid of a slight deflection. Once again, great defending by the Cirque du Soleil. Save a few more timid efforts. It was game over and another poor night at Oakwell. Ratings: Steele - 7 - I thought he did well tonight with pretty much everything Preston put into the box. Just about every cross or corner was plucked out of the air by Steele. He was helpless for all three goals, after being left high and dry by his 'comedic' defence. Hassell - 5 - Save one good saving tackle in the second half, he did nothing of any note. A few nice balls down the wing to JCR came to nothing. Didn't play bad, but as part of the defensive unit we have, wasn't good enough. Moore - 5 - How the hell did he get the man of the match? Ok, let's be fair, he made a few decent tackles and a few decent headers, but he's a defender! That's what he is paid to do! Three times, he and his partners in crime were left looking on as Preston finished off their 3 out 5 chances with consummate ease. I like the man, but am I looking on with 'red tinted spectacles'? I'm starting to question myself. Foster - 5 - See above. I feel exactly the same about this man of late. Potter - 4 - I feel for the lad tonight. He got raped. Time after time, by Paul Parry. The first goal was his fault, and his night never really recovered. Showed some neat touches going forward, and actually did better going forward than going back. JCR - 4 - Just sell him. What a waste of space. From being arguably one of the best attacking midfielders in the Championship, he's turned into a big fat piece of nothing. His crossing was woeful. He doesn't dribble anymore. He gives away posession all the time of late. The best thing he did all game was win an header. Wow. Anderson - 5 - One of the worst matches I've seen him play. Looks so comfortable on the ball, but that's also his downfall, he's too comfortable at times. Gave away posession too much, and offers little to nothing in the form of attack. Butterfield - 6 - I thought he did ok tonight. Showed some neat touches, looked mature beyond his years and gave the ball away the least of the lot. Well done tonight lad. Hammill - 5 - Ok, I thought the Coventry match may have just been a blip on our young starlets radar, but on this performance, not likely. He was poor. His crossing (save one, just before he was taken off) was abject, again. He didn't beat a man all game. He crosses when he should shoot, and shoots when a cross would be the better option. I'm still confident we have a hot prospect for the future, but truth be told, he's had two shocking matches. Hume - 8 - Star man tonight. His first touch was sublime, he looked hungry, he wanted it and he was for me, the only man out there worthy of wearing that red and white shirt of my beloved town and team. His corners were spot on. His free kicks were deadly. The only thing we were missing, was someone to play off of him. Well done Humey. Odejayi - 5 - He's ok with flick ons. That's about it. Did a couple of decent ones. Missed a whole host of chances. I've defended him for far too long. He's just not good enough. --- I'm not even angry right now, not like I was after the Coventry performance. I think a few home truths have been told tonight, and namely, the most poignant one being that 'We're just not good enough'. Now, whether that is down to the management team or the players, I'm not sure. For me, the squad is a decent one, so why can't we perform to our capabilities? Overall, I thought as a team, we played a shade lower than ok tonight. But that's not good enough in this league, and we got punished. We can't do the basics. We can't score when we are on top, and we can't defend properly when we are under attack. We constantly give away soft goals, soft freekicks, soft everythings. I'm...lost for words. I really do not know the way forward. We need new players. Starting with that god-awful defence. It's not good enough, and if you think it is, then you need your head testing. Leicester away on Saturday. It's not going to be easy, and it's probably not going to be fun. Positives from tonight. There were two: Ian Hume.
Great Post Agree with everything, on paper we have a team to match Preston. In reality boys Vs men tonight, there's something to be said for packing your team with British Journey men, sprinkle it with something special - Paul Parry, and play to a system. Something is going wrong between the paper and the pitch and I'm afraid that something is Simon Davey.
PS - I was going to fork out the cheddar to go to Leicester. But after watching that. I'd rather spend my hard earned cash on more produtive commodities. I'm actually getting a little angrier the more I read. Bed time soon.
Regarding Ian Hume - Is that where you want your centre forward to play, taking corners and crossing the ball for headers. Odejayi is rightly criticised on here for not scoring enough goals. How is Hume going to score if he never gets into the box. Having now seen all 4 contenders for the 2 forward slots, there is no big forward who will score 10 to 15 a season and there is no small and quick player who will score 20 to 25. As a result, its another season of struggle for us. At least watching Barnsley is character building.
Agree 100% Wingers going down blind alleys Strikers who cant score Defenders who cant defend Midfield non-existent A manager who can't manage All in all this amounts to unhappy fans who don't get behind the team. I've been to every game this season but that is me done until something changes. Davey makes Spackman look like Mourinho.
Outstanding summary The only additional point I'd make is that pretty much to a man this board has been crying out for us to sign an experienced left footed left full back and daveys failure to do so continues to consistently come back to haunt us.
What I don't understand though. Is the fact that the likes of Hammill, JCR et al are all saying that they respect Davey, and that they can flourish under his management. Ok, that's fine, so answer us all this. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENS WHEN YOU WALK ONTO THE PITCH? My town. My team. My blood: Only refers to the fans, and not the players. We want some passion and pride from our players , like the days gone by. Players proud to pull on the strip and represent this town. There are people lumping shitty jobs for shoddy wages, and paying hard earned money to watch their beloved team play. Barnsley FC is ingrained in our hearts. It's not just a football team. It's us. Barnsley FC represents everything we stand for. It's the pivot of this town. I'd give my right arm to be able to represent Barnsley. I've never had the chance. We were more than capable of winning on Saturday, and we were more than capable of getting something tonight. Changes. And fast!!!
If anyone else did that he wouldn't have to If we had another Iain Hume to get on the other end of his work from out wide we might frame
Agree with pretty much every word of that. I would have given Odejayi more than a 5 though - I know all too well that he can't finish but he put in a shift tonight and did everything else that was asked of him. I was desperate for him to score tonight because I thought he deserved it. I know I'll get stick for saying it, but he has had a lot worse games than tonight. He, in the big picture though, is not good enough and never will be.
I'll agree with that. He worked hard, but at the end of the day, like you also said, he just isn't good enough.
I cannot for the life of me understand Why we have not signed a couple of defenders this summer. It baffles me. We got rid of 2 and have brought just Thompson in, and we've only seen him play in midfield!
well said mate. Potter isnt a left back, why has SD not seen the 1st half that we did? we need a LB to play that position, I felt sorry for Potter in that position, the lad is a centre back and last night proves it...also, on proving a point, I said all last season that JCR is rubbish!!! come on in JCR you have been found out. Maybe its true and he does wanna leave!! Also....Hammill isnt the new messiah as a few 'thought' just before we bought him!!!
