Barnsley (a) - League - 28th March 2005

[Neil Ravenscroft]

Match preview now on line. I've gone for a defeat, as every time I say win, we lose.

[Walsall Supporter]

A draw 2-2

[Magic Man Fan]

Barnsley were excellent against Luton the other day on Sky and they way we're losing to teams home and away even though they're struggling for relegation themselves I can't see anything but a loss.

I hope I'm wrong and we suddenly find some urgency. The sooner this win comes the better.

[WSOne]

2-0 Barnsley.

[Cheesebag]

2 or 3-1 to Barnsley, Don't know why I'm going but I promised the kids I'll take them to all the rest of the games this season. :?

[geoffwhiting]

What have the kids done to deserve this punishment cheesebag ? :?

Have you withheld their Easter eggs as well ?

[Exile]

You'll have social services on you, cheesebag.

I can't see us getting anything here, and I'm being kind thinking the goal difference will only be one or two.

3-1 Barnsley, late consolation goal to JJ being our scant reward for the game.

My relegation calculator remains on track!

[derbysaddler]

cant see anything more than a defeat , this is really grim.

[PerStener]

My thoughts....

- don't conceed a goal in the first 15 minutes, just before or after half time or the last minutes of the match.
- Make sure to put the goalscoring oppertunities in the net.
- The wingers (if there is any) must make sure to deliver good crosses in the box.
- Focus & Concentration
- Even more focus and concentration on defensive set-pieces
- The fans must stand behind the team and make som noise to support.
- Play a tactic to make sure not to loose, scoring chanses will always come during the match.
- Take every oppertunity to counter-attack to turn the play quick.
- Don't give the ball away, and win the 50-50 chanses.

[PerStener]

Looks like 3-5-2 according to Saddlers World Match Live.

[Walsall Supporter]

Well I am right at the moment 2-2 as predicted yesterday, lets hoping I am wrong and we nip a winner, espcially as oldham are winning!

[Walsall Supporter]

spoke to soon, losing 3-2, apparently they missed a penatly as well!

[Guest]

Oh goodie and oldham have beat Hull

This club is fastly going down the pan.

[Guest]

And Mk Dons have won.
Torquay next week is a massive game!!!! We simply have no option of losing next week. No less than a win will do.

[COXDRUMMIE]

Listened to the commentary and have just heard the most absurd thing i think ive ever heard. The travelling Walsall supporters clapped the team off for losing a game. I just can't believe that, i really can't. Especially after they completely threw the game away with rank bad lazy play.

5 games 5 defeats. No win in god knows how long - pathetic. Pathetic manager, pathetic players, pathetic everything. By the way i ain't seen the 2 full backs yet by ive heard enough. You can actually scout those players by wireless. They sound terrible. Easily the worst players ever witnessed in football.

Big game next week, new manager needed NOW. Get this useless fat PRICK out once and for all.

[Walsall Supporter]

C and D they probably clapped, as they came back from a 2-0 deficit, instead of giving up. ?!?

[Stu]

C and D they probably clapped, as they came back from a 2-0 deficit, instead of giving up. ?!?

What's the point in coming back from 2 down, if you then leave the opponents top scorer unmarked in your own 6 yard box? Just as Luke Beckett was unmarked on the 6 yard box on Saturday.

Now only goals scored keeps us above MK Dons... If Wrexham win their two games in hand, we're 2pts above the drop. Thank god they went into administration this season.

[COXDRUMMIE]

So supporters are clapping players now for not giving up. For fuks sake, not giving up is a given. How is that worthy of a clap. I couldn't give a cack now anyway. Whats done is done.

Now the club have to get a new manager in with a brain because the prat who is here now above all his managerial incapabilities is a complete thick sack of cack

[stig231]

Listening to WM who keep saying we are unlucky.

Its not unlucky we start playing at 2-0 down.

Its not unlucky that the goalie and defence switch off to give their 1st and 3rd goals (as well as Oldham's and the two at Vale)

Its not unlucky we have lost 5 on the trot and not won in 8 games.

Its not unlucky we have only won 2 away games all season.

[COXDRUMMIE]

Exactly right stig. The club is a shambles and all those points you have made have just proved how weak and feeble these people are who keep making these joke excuses.

I mean we have even had one fan here say the fans deserve a clap for not giving up. WHAT WHAT WHAT!!!!. Here was me thinking highly paid footballers trying thier hardest was a complete given. It's fukin compulsary that is. What have we come to

[Walsall Supporter]

C and D I was only answering why you thought the fans clapped, I didn't say I agreed with it, that is why I added the ?!?! .....

[geoffwhiting]

Clearly a very unlucky defeat today. Things just will not go right for us at any price at present. Done by two consecutive blatantly wrong refereeing decisions in 20 seconds against Oldham, and done by another one today.

OK, we have to defend these situations, and yes we failed to do that in both games. Especially today, it was unprofessional to watch a penalty miss, then go to sleep and watch as they score within 15 seconds to take the game. But the referees' decisions are still crucial and these days they are going against us again and again.

I know some will say we can't lay blame on referees, and I accept that is fair comment up to a point. But the simple fact remains, two goals have followed immediately after rank bad decisions by referees in the last two games, and we have lost both games to those two goals, so I don't accept that the referees are not significantly to blame.

Saturday is now enormous, after MK Dons and Oldham both won today. Both of these sides are now in decent form and picking up points regularly, but neither would have been expected to have won today, given their respective opponents were Bournemouth away and Hull at home, so these results are a major major major blow to us today. Up to now teams below us have done us favours by failing almost as often as us, but now this trend seems to have changed.

There is certainly no room for any more errors or slip-ups. If we fail to beat Torquay I seriously think the confidence will finally be shot and there will be no way back. Wrexham have two games in hand and were in a reasonable run of form. They are the danger, and I believe they WILL overhaul us if we fail next Saturday.

Having said all of this, I can't agree with these Merson Out comments at this stage of the season. It should have happened after Slough, and again after Colchester, but a change of management now will be a bigger disaster than we already have on our hands.

There is a time for change, but now is not that time. Back the guy for six more games, you might as well, because he is going nowhere, no matter how much you shout "Merson Out"!

[Stu]

Geoff,

What's more worrying is that I'm not really surprised by MK and Oldham winning. You say it was unexpected, however looking at it closely;

Hull have not had there manager around the past week due to his international commitments. Its resulted in a 2-2 draw at home to Vale, thanks to Hulls 91st minute penalty equaliser and an away defeat to Oldham. So I don't think thats neccessarily surprising, espeically as under Ronnie Moore, Oldham now have a record of P5 W3 D1 L1, and that draw was Luton's 90th minute equaliser.

At Bournemouth, they're in a stuttering run of form. Today was their 4th home match without a win, MK Dons however have lost just 6 in 21 under Danny Wilson, they're 8 or 10 matches unbeaten now I believe as well.

I think Torquay are down. Any team that takes the lead in 19 matches in a season, and only goes on to win 6 of them deserves to go down. The key is Wrexham, as they have 2 games in hand.

On one hand, Wrexham have to play 8 games in the last month or so of the season, they've got a very hectic schedule, so tiredness could take its toll. On the other hand, a run of momentum means they get on a roll very quickly and they'll also be fighting the injustice of the points deduction due to a corrupt chairman.

Whilst we've had two extremely bad reffing decisions, we still have to admit that we didn't deserve to beat Oldham and we still left a top scorer unmarked 6 yards out today. Ref's may not be helping, but we're not helping ourselves which is far more worrying.

[Bristol Fan]

Reading the report on the match at Barnsley's site surely gets rid of "blame the ref" feelings. While it says their penalty was soft, it says the same about the free kick that led to our second goal, suggests Barnsley missed a couple of sitters, Mark Wright missed an easy chance at the death for an equaliser for us, and our defending was generally poor. Luck's not got much to do with it and neither have refs' decisions, which DO even out over a season (does nobody remember the dodgy penalties Fryatt's won for us). What has everything to do with it is we're not very good!

I still think we'll surely beat Torquay and Stockport and stay up (and Peterborough away is another one we really ought to win even if we play as badly as we have been) but it's getting more and more nervous all the time.

[geoffwhiting]

Agree with much of that Stu, and I'm glad that you for one didn't come back and say the Ref played no part in these results. I would still have hoped though that Bournemouth in particular (being at home) and Hull (fighting for the top spot) would have been strong enough to at least take a share of the points.

There is no doubt though that in our last two home games, Oldham and Bournemouth both definitely deserved their wins, though in the end it was the Ref who was much to blame vs. Oldham. If we had been in the same circumstances, having missed as many easy chances as Oldham did, I think our fans would probably have said we didn't deserve to win, we brought it on ourselves. The way it was going, it's quite possible that Oldham could have gone home kicking themselves after a 0-0 draw - so thanks Ref for giving them that crucial opportunity with two unbelievably wrong decisions within a few seconds.

Today we have obviously played far better, fought back well from 2-0 down - which is very encouraging - and if WM is to be trusted, we then looked the more likely winners for a time, until the Ref intervened again with a bad decision, we went to sleep - it has all become tiresomely repetitious.

Let's just hope and pray that this improved performance will spill over into Saturday and continue for the remaining games. Anything less and it looks like the season will end in utter and complete disaster, and that is something I just cannot contemplate. Bottom half would have been bad enough, relegation is a nightmare of unthinkable proportions.

[Neil Ravenscroft]

Trouble is Geoff, I wouldn't read anything into the recovery from 2 - 0 down, as we've turned so many corners this season it's no wonder we've got nowhere.

[hullsaddler]

Well I thought that we definitely deserved something out of that.
We should have gone in 0-0 at half time,it looked like pretty shoddy goalkeeping from where I was sitting,Oakes just didnt seem to get down to cover a 20 yd shot that went under him.I would have put money on Stu saving it or at least getting in the way of it. Must admit having seen Coleman at Blackpool I would have stuck with him.
When we went 2-0 down I thought we were in for a drubbing,but we showed a lot of spirit.Excellent finish by Joachim & despite what barnsley site might say it was a definite foul on Jorge for free kick that led to equaliser.At 2-2 I thought we looked much the likely team to score.We looked dangerous coming forward.
It was a long way away but thought that Emblen's challenge looked clumsy& probably was a foul.We seemed to go to sleep after the penalty rebounded off the post.
Possibly Mark Wright should have got that last chance on target,but he got underneatth the ball (thought he looked much better than when he has been a full-back,taking players on)
Whatever C&D says i think that the team deserved some credit for their overall 2nd half perfomance.Just hope they can play in the same sort of positive way (without the mistakes!)against Torquay.
PS.Home game against Hull should be good gate as they have already sold their allocation

[Cheesebag]

Just back fron Dreary south Yorkshire to a brighter and warmer Cannock :roll:

To be fair the first half was the usuall feast of giving the ball away and midfield sitting too deep inviting the opposition on to us but after we went 2-0 down, for 20 minutes we looked like a decent team going forward and created the better openings.

Their penalty was harsh, Emblen, I think (it was down the other end) with a 50/50 shoulder charge on their forward, who fell like he had been shot!

Quite an open 2nd half and both teams had chances to win....BUT

A WIN IS A MUST ON SATURDAY..... this will give a 9 point cushion on Torquay. Should be enough.


If not, grow your finger nails, youll need them long for the Stockport game. :cry:

[Will]

Looking at the table, it looks pretty much like if we win next Saturday, we might just survive. Anything less than that and we're toast. MK Dons & Oldham are playing well and will get out of it. So all we can aim for is fifth from bottom - Thanks Merson for taking us this far you are doing a great job - to55er.
Unfortunately it's too late to sack you now - it'd cause bigger problems.
Just get us the win on Saturday, do something at last to repay the support and faith you have been given by the fans, keep us up and then pi55 off. You're a cancer and the sooner you're out of the club the better. You owe us big time.
Your management careers over mate and if I was a chairman I'd see what you've done to Walsall FC and wouldn't want you anywhere near my club. Do one last thing for us and play out your skin, shout at the team and keep us up. Then go.

I might regret the above as I'm havin' a bit of a red mist moment, but just really pissed off with what we've put up with from you this season Paul and the fact that most fans blindly love and adore you despite the facts.

[geoffwhiting]

I've got my glass-half-full hat on Neil, I've no choice with the Torquay game looming !

It was a better performance today, the new lads have brought an improvement, and a few more days together with them will hopefully improve their understanding.

I can't believe we will fail next Saturday - it's unthinkable. :shock: