When We Were Relegated In 2002

I was upset because I never believed it could happen to us. Even at 2-0 down against Norwich I thought something would happen and we would get out of it. That's why it took so long to get used to the idea of being a third tier club.

This time round I'm expecting it and I've already accepted it so I think I'll be as ambivalent as Pat, Don and Keith when the inevitable is finally confirmed.

 

Don't forget Barry.

 

I'll to that CT. Last time we were relegated I was still enthusiastic about the future and I felt deep down that it was a temporary blip on the road to rebuilding. This time around I have lost all enthusiasm with football and I'm not sure if I will bother anymore. Supporting a football club all just feels like a one way street now and I don't know if I want to carry on just being an irrelevant season ticket number.

 

But you didn't know the context of the club's position back then. Everyone thought we'd just been a bit rubbish, not skint.

I'd accepted it being a possibility last season. An inevitable possibility considering the strategy we've got of breaking even.

 

Monsieur Invisible.

 

10 years on

the Championship is now Premiership 2 so perhaps if the FL re-badge League 1 to The Championship you'll not feel as narked.

 

Yes that's because we've all been brainwashed by hill and rowing into believing that we simply can't compete and relegation is an unavoidable consequence of our budget and I blame the constant bleatings of hill on the players lack of self belief. If you tell someone their not good enoug often enough eventually it gets into their mind that its a fact. You could sense the belief that we could beat wednesday disappear from the fans and the team as soon as they scored.

 

Did you watch the second half?

No one is saying we can't compete, what's been said is that it is very difficult to compete. Completely different.

 

As you brought the second half up...

What did you think of the formation we played for the last 25 minutes? For me it was the worst I've ever seen a Barnsley team set up. Four at the back, three in one another's pockets in the centre of the park, three stood on each other's toes up front. You could play the exact same formation with six outfield players. That to me is as bad as it can get and it felt like rock bottom.

We'll fare a lot worse in better formations, but that will be against much better opposition. Let's not mince words, Wednesday were ****. For us to approach the last quarter of the game against opposition as poor as that in the manner we did just screamed to me that whoever is running this show has completely lost the plot.

Just wondered what you thought.

 

Pretty much how I feel. We've not built on the promotion, we were told improvement year on year, it's not happened. If all we are going to aspire to is to be a yo-yo club between the 2nd and 3rd tiers I'm not sure I want to spend £400 on that. I'll probably improve my blood pressure as well.

 

Weak.

 

couldn't work it out. Why don't we use the wings, he brought O'Brian on and I thought he was going to use the wings....then not long after that he brings on Harewood and goes 4-3-3, it beggared belief...he'd have been better off bringing Done on instead of O'Brian if he was considering playing 4-3-3

 

I didn't agree with the subs, at all. I'd have much preferred Done to come on instead of Marlon and go 442 and Perkins play further forward with plenty of crosses in. I'd also have left Buzasky on instead of Greening too.

But I saw:

Back 4
Perkins & Dawson
O'Brien
Harewood/Tudgay/Davies

You're right though - the lack of structure was worrying. I'm not particularly a fan of this 'diamond' because we play too narrow and without Dagnall covering their full backs we're not applying enough pressure. I think* with Perkins back we'll see a bit more going forward because with Greening in it's been too slow. We changed as soon as he came on Saturday.

I just want him to hold his nerve and stick to 'The Plan' - I think he's scratching away trying to find a win from anywhere and sacrificing the things we're been good at, out working teams and being patient. Just pray that Davies finds his scoring boots again soon/we give him the ball within 20 yards of the goal.

*pray to the footballing Gods

 

I thought it was what manager's usually do when they're desperate for a goal and chuck an extra centre forward on without actually thinking about it. I couldn't understand it as I thought the goal was coming as we were, and if you were going to do it it would have been better to go three at the back. Bizarrely it almost worked as Harewood made a difference and nearly got a couple of goals. That said Davies and Tudgay did nothing once he'd come on. Although part of me thinks they didn't do an awful lot before. Either way we offered nothing down the right all game

 

Workrate is definately not a patch on when Hill first came and haven`t seen that level much at all this season.

Handbrake and Rolls Royce says it all.

 

I think Perkins makes us do that. His energy rubs off on everyone else and when we had Perkins/Dawson and Dagnall laiking early on in the season we were up in their face.

We sacrificed Dagnall because we weren't scoring enough goals but then we've sacrificed being difficult to play against. Get mi boy back in.

 

Wasn't his last game Ipswich at home. ie when we stopped outplaying teams. And scoring goals?

 

At least Duracell drives forward with the ball Dawson is just a pass completion stats player like Greening playing sideways and backwards in the main.

 

No, the last game he played was against Derby at the start of November.

I think the main problem is teams have just worked out how to play against us.

 

I do think we need Dagnall back into the team, he creates the goal chances and a lot of near misses which by the law of averages will go in one day, I think none of the recent Loan players have done anything to improve things he already had a hard working team just look to the Birmingham game for instance.