Barnsley 1-0 Cardiff

By: Oli | 2 Comments

If scoring free-kicks is that easy, I think I’ll fancy a go. I’ve embedded two videos of it (when the extended Football League show highlights are stupidly taken down by the Football League, you an still watch the hugely entertaining version from the away end), and in both of them, especially the home made one, the shot takes a deflection that many mirrors would be proud of. If someone broke one when we came up, our seven games of bad luck seem to be over, as at the 8th time of asking we’ve beaten the Bluebirds. In the end.
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Reds pay for penalties – Barnsley 2-2 Sheffield United

By: Oli | 2 Comments

On a cold, cold South Yorkshire night, temperatures ran high as an on form Barnsley side did battle with a Sheffield United side which has been described as ‘decimated’ and ‘injury stricken’. The atmosphere was great, especially considering the abysmal quantity of away supporters, however, due largely to Morgan not playing and Hume only coming on, it stayed heated without boiling over. I can only speak for Barnsley supporters when I say the game was great entertainment. We would think that, because we passed a Blades side, that wouldn’t look out of place a few leagues lower, out of the game.
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You don’t have to beat Posh to be privileged

By: Oli | 8 Comments

And beating Posh doesn’t mean that we are privileged. But, we did play quite well, as you must do the win in this league. What this was, was something Davey always struggled with. Peterborough were without doubt, the worst team we’ve played this season. We didn’t play fantastically, but had the right balance between all the different factors required to take three points that many teams like us will take this season. Clinically picking up points where we need to.
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United: they stood strong.

By: Oli | 2 Comments

Ah well, we tried. We really did try. We, and the nation via Sky, watched a lot of good performances from the Barnsley players. All we can ask going into a game like this is for a good solid performance. And that’s what we got, against a sublimely talented young United side. We could have got a lot more out of this, but 12 shots off target tells a story. If United had created our range of chances, they would have scored 5 or 6.
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Manchester United

By: Oli | 1 Comment

Sunday was the first time I wrote that name, since the day of the draw. Like Robins, I’ve been scared of what would happen to the players concentration if we took our eye off the ball. It happened on Saturday, and maybe on Tuesday. But it can’t happen tommorow. No-way.

These games do come around from time to time, so long as you earn them. We’ve done a lot of good hard work in the League Cup this season, far too much to give it up without a fight. Therefore, I can only see Mark Robins, famous for scoring ‘the goal the saved Fergie’s job’, playing the strongest team available to him.

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Robins can’t overcome Robins – Barnsley 2-3 Bristol City

By: Oli | Add Comments

People talk about issues in football a lot, and when they come up in a big game, there are often calls for reform. But thing such as diving and dissent really don’t bother me that much, because I see them as part of the game. Referees of the standard we saw yesterday are not part of the game, they just wreck football. I doesn’t matter how well or how badly a team plays if the Referee ruins their chances.

I don’t really believe in true referee bias, but when you see performances like Andy Haines’ yesterday, sometimes it seems like the only reasonable explanation. Although, the checked flag linesman in front of the East stand was just as bad, if not worse. At this point in my miniature tirade, can I just make it clear that we didn’t deserve to win the game. Bristol were clearly the better side, on the day, and in a fair world, they should have won by about one goal, which they did. However, if we’d had a standard, or even slightly bad, display from the man in the middle, then we would almost certainly have got a largely undeserved point.
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Barnsley felled by Forest

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I love cheesy headlines. However, I don’t love conceding in stoppage time. I hate that, especially when we’ve played pretty decently. Incisive attacking and confident defending led to a much improved performance on Saturday, but Forest are a better side than Doncaster, and they made us pay.

There is no way in hell we deserved to lose that game. Robins came out to bring a decisive away performance to the City Ground, and that told right from the start, as Iain Hume smacks a free-kick into the bar within a minute of the kick-off. We had a series of other chances, far more than Forest, with a variety of shots from Hume, Macken and Hammill. Forest were never as close as us, and a lot of their chances came from either Paul Anderson on the right wing, or from David McGoldrick constantly falling over near the box. Forest played some good passing football, but a lot of the incision came from long balls into the box, whereas we created some clever movement on and off the ball.

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Barnsley conquer Keepmoat

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I woke up this morning with one overpowering memory of the game. I can remember us being over-run in midfield, with Doncaster pinging the ball around at will. I can also remember us winning. So, did we get lucky or was this a tactical masterpiece.

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Barnsley 2-1 Ipswich

By: Oli | 2 Comments

We just can’t stop winning can we? Yesterday’s victory was far from convincing, I’ve seen us play a lot better than that and lose. The game was highly affected by the wind, and the level of pressing and effort put in by both teams forced a lot of more direct passing, which was difficult in the conditions.
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Barnsley 3-1 West Brom

By: Oli | Add Comments

West Brom haven’t won a single game at Oakwell for 62 years, and that’s one statistic that doesn’t lie. Some people laugh at the idea of ‘Bogey Teams’, but there can be no doubt that there is an influence. Recently, I’ve been going through a phase where each win has brought on blind euphoria. That was because Davey had (accidently) brought in a losing mentality, but I now feel Robins has done enough to remove that, and bring back what could, perhaps, be classed as ‘form’.

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