Barnsley 2-1 Ipswich

By: Oli | October 4th, 2009

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.

If a neutral had come to watch that game, he or she would probably have not had a lot of good stuff to say about the class of either team as a unit. The wind meant that players, like Hume, misplaced passes in stupid situations and that did a great job of breaking down the play. We ended up with a lot of pointless high balls flying around, and this restricted the flow ever more. But, having said that, we did look really dangerous in parts. As for the goals, nobody who isn’t called Roy Keane could argue with the stone wall penalty (I’ve seen it since, and i was wrong, it was very harsh), and nobody could argue that Hume didn’t have a rush of blood when he took that penalty. Tamas Priskin should have been sent off twice, and also the free-kick which led to their goal wasn’t a foul.

It’s often said that a manger is bad at organising what he was good at as player. In Robins’ case, that would be scoring goals. Well, that’s one theory out of the window, we just can’t stop scoring. The ex-forward was appointed as Head Coach just before the Watford game, and since then we have scored 13 goals. That’s incredible, and it wouldn’t be long before the hypothetical ‘neutral’ I mentioned above really starts to turn up. Iain Hume is on fire, and has the sort of work rate that made Carlos Tevez so popular at Old Trafford. Macken is playing well at the moment, but really for the class in our attack I look at three top, top players. Hammill is class, although inconsistent, and Hume is unstoppable.

But I did say three players, and it gives me great pleasure to reintroduce…Emil Hallfredsson! Back from injury, the bouncer-look-a-like Icelander comes bursting onto the pitch again! He’s so calm, on the ball he seems to always be able to move it around at will, and can always see the runner. It really takes my breath away when he gets the ball around the half-way mark, and then begins almost floating forwards towards the goal, totally unstoppable.

I’ve pointed out that the game was a cyclone covered lottery, but despite this, I can still say that the defence was solid. This was Darren Moore’s 600th league game, and Steve Fosters 100th game in a Barnsley shirt. There can be debate about which of them is a greater achievement, but what we can definitely say is that between them they can get in the way of any attack. The full-backs were also very impressive, particularly my Man of the Match, Ryan Shotton.

Personally, I’ve always had a lot of time for Ipswich, especially the fans. There’s always been a lot in common between us, and they’ve never had a superior or over-inflated attitude of themselves. Having said that, I have just about no time for the phycotic Roy Keane. His post match comments yesterday weren’t far off from lies, and to say the referee was influenced by our staff surrounding him is complete crap. Simply crap, without a fragment of truth. And for that reason, I find this video hilarious.
I’ve also been riled by how the game is being reported. Usually, it goes something like this, “Roy Keane’s Ipswich side have been beaten again today, and after the game Roy Keane had this to say…” Hello BBC, there was two teams y’know.
Ratings
Shotton: MOTM 9- A great find and his long throws are spectacular.
Darren Moore: 7- 600 is special and in the words of Mark Robins, “If he keeps on playing like this he might get 600 more.”
Steve Foster: 7 – 100 and counting.
John Macken: 8 – The veteran forward is really playing well, and he fully deserves his sensational winner.

This wasn’t a great performance by any standard, but it got the job done. We have a winning mentality now, and this means that results go our way. This was actually our first weekend victory of the season, and I believe it was our first weekend home win since February. Conclusion, Long Live Mark Robins. See you soon.