Barnsley 4 - 1 Derby County

I don't agree with that, I thought we were very comfortable against Charlton. The teams we have struggled against have been those that haven't let us settle and have hounded us in defence and in midfield. Both games against Lincoln and Port Vale, Wycombe and now Barnsley. I'm a bit worried that Shrewsbury might fancy their chances.

comment by lastapostleofvidal (U1491)
posted 36 minutes ago
I don't agree with that, I thought we were very comfortable against Charlton. The teams we have struggled against have been those that haven't let us settle and have hounded us in defence and in midfield. Both games against Lincoln and Port Vale, Wycombe and now Barnsley. I'm a bit worried that Shrewsbury might fancy their chances.
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You have the best part of a week to nobble em

comment by lastapostleofvidal (U1491)
posted 4 hours, 43 minutes ago
Maybe Rooney has the physique but it's streetwiseness we need aswell. For their third goal we had ample opportunity to stop their player from running with the ball. It's the kind of thing Bradley Johnson was very good at - he would have put his arm across the player and made sure they both fell over in a heap long before he was anywhere near our penalty area. He probably would have done it without even picking up a yellow card. We're a bit naive in that department.
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In the build up to that goal, my boy Jason had 2 opportunities to take one for the team 🤔

I think the more games Bird misses the better he gets.

Took me a few seconds to work that one out VC!

The truth is that we have not been able to see much of Smith in midfield but I'm sure one thing he does not lack is know-how. I think he could do really well there for us.

I think overall our midfield 3 were generally ineffective against Barnsley... which was surprising really...

Knight was unfortunate not score, great stop by their keeper. Hourihane set up a perfect header for Collins which of course he missed totally. Had those two events had a different outcomes would you still be saying the midfield was ineffective. We were undone by missing our chances and mistakes in defence.

Spart, unusually, is right!

Yes, I would, because they were. Obviously you can get away with a poor performance if the opposition misses their chances and you take yours, but there has been a pattern over the whole season where we are susceptible to teams that rattle us and don't allow our midfielders time to show their quality on the ball. We have been roughed up a few times lately in games where we haven't been able to dictate. The players we have are good at what they do but they can get out-muscled. Maybe if Barkhuizen's header had gone in instead of hitting the bar it would have panned out differently, but I don't think so. Barnsley were much more powerful than us on the day. In the two home games where we beat them easily either they didn't press us so hard or else we were better at passing it around so that it didn't become a test of strength.

And yes, the defence was terrible on the day as has been said.