Barnsley 4-1 Plymouth, and so it should stay.

By: Oli | November 29th, 2009

Why, oh, why did this have to happen?

Football doesn’t always go like it should. The headline for this game is definitely the events of the 58th minute, which prevented the game ever reaching the 59th minute. We’ve got to look at whether blame should be apportioned, because even people up and down the nation are sympathising with the huge injustices done to us here, but really there’s one key lesson to take from this. Don’t go on holiday to Plymouth.

There’s certainly a lot to think about here. It had begun raining at around 14:00 and had continued to a varying degree ever since. There was definitely a lot of water. But, enough to abandon the game? At the time Referee Gavin Ward made the decision to step in, there was not a good enough case for it. Sturrock said players were ‘flying in and skidding 20 yards’. That’s a lie; there were few falls in the second half, simply because nobody was committing anymore. But, that’s irrelevant. At the time the final whistle was blown, there was actually a lull in the rain. However, there was some standing water beginning to develop.
Mr. Ward can make a good case for taking them off then. What he can’t make a good case for is how he did it. No pitch inspection at half time, and none before he made the decision, as well as no consultation with either manager. He’s messed up the procedure, he didn’t analysis the situation.

But, I can accept the decision to end it then, even if Robins is right that it would never have happened if the home team had been 4-1 up. What I can’t abide is the conditions under which it will be decided. There is not ONE person who can claim Plymouth had a hope, it may as well have been 10-1, we could have scored many more. If there was any decency in football, someone at Home Park would have conceded it by now, but they haven’t, and they won’t. The replay will be played on a Tuesday night, and it’ll start at 0-0. That’s a travesty. We should be given three points right now.
The Football League actually has the choice to give us either a head start of three goals in the replay, or to just let the score stand. But they won’t; they don’t have the balls to do it. This game has exposed a huge loop hole in the rules, it hasn’t ended well.

But, let’s forget about that. We are brilliant. Simply brilliant. Robins adapted the formation and style of play perfectly to suit the conditions. Every Barnsley player oozed class. We made a bad start, with the defence going AWOL, and letting a cross slip through. But, that’s when we turned it on. Emil Hallfredsson, in for the suspended Anderson, took charge, and controlled the game. Hammill put in his best performance for a month, not losing the ball once, scoring, and getting two assists.
The long distance and poor conditions made it difficult to see Boggy’s goal, which looked like a goal-keeping mistake. But that all changed. Hallfredsson’s goal came clear as day light, smacking a long range drive across the despairing Larrieu in goal. Hallfredsson then sprayed in wide for Hammill on 24 minutes, for him to speed past his man and place a low drive in corner. Finally, Shotton’s header of an accurate Hammill corner bounced off one post to the man on the other, but according to the linesman, it crossed.

The defence did excellently from 10 minutes onwards. In particular I’d like to pick out Steven Foster, who got his head in the way of everything, his best performance this season. But, overall, the defence got bored. We dominated so well in midfield, that they had little pressure.
The attack was sublime in its effectiveness. A last minute change saw Grey in and Macken out, and what a change that proved to be. Gray missed loads, several one on ones, hit the post etc. but he made the attack tick when the rain and wind often forced high balls on us. Boggy actually did little, except score. Meanwhile, Colace and Doyle won everything whilst Hallfredsson ran the show like Xavi will no doubt do for Barcelona tonight, and Hammill’s success had a Messi-like inevitability about it. We scored 4 in the time, but I can remember at least 10 that could have been.

Of course, that wouldn’t happen against most teams. Paul Sturrock made a total pig’s ear of the tactics. Hallfredsson out ran his three markers for most of the game, while Hammill never had more than one on him. Gray and Bogdanovic won every header, and were rarely picked up, and Colace and Doyle were always first to the ball. Plymouth didn’t adapt to the weather or our opposition. Their players had no class, and Fallon looked like one of their brightest alleys of attack, which says a lot. I didn’t think I’d see worse than Peterborough, but I’ve just been proved wrong.
Ratings
Kozluk: 7 – Good, again.
Foster: 9 – El Capitan looked back to his best.
Hallfredsson: 9 – That shot has been building up inside him for, so, so, long. To take that goal away from the Icelander is insulting. Great finish though.
Hammill: 10 – I don’t give out many 10’s (this is the first), but for a winger to do this well in these conditions is something special.
Grey: 8 – May have missed a fair few, but the other work he did was great.

The illogical and incorrect end to this game leaves so many questions unanswered. Anderson was suspended for this game, does it count now, or is he suspended for next week. On the flip side of that, Doyle picked up his 5th yellow card, so would be suspended for Blackpool if it does counts. One will be available, one won’t. Anyone know which one and why?

There’s a lot of anger come out of this game. At the time, we were all furious. There was a sit down protest after the game, I left after a few minutes, and would be interested to know how it ended. Also, Mark Robins came over and directly talked to us at the end (to huge applause). I couldn’t hear, so would, again, be interested to hear what he said.
As time has gone through some of my attitude has mellowed a bit. But not all of it. Justice is a dish best served immediately. If I had the choice, we would play the game within weeks, thereby guaranteeing a similar result. But, the Football League despise that kind of drama, and it’ll be played in April.
People around the country may sympathise, and find it all kind of funny. But, it isn’t for those people who made the journey down from Barnsley, and will have to make it again to see this game. They, and the rest of us, deserve a lot more than we’ve been given by the League. Injustice is rife in football, as this proves.