The sky is grey. The rain is endless. It's like being in Bladerunner only without as much neon and a few less flying cars. I love days like this. The bowl of the stadium wraps round you and it's like there's nothing else beyond it, just an unrendered void. It's like an uncanny unfinished depiction of a location in a computer game, everything in the immediate crystal clear, but outside of that, just a strange fog. Even the tower is rendered hazy and indistinct, the very top of it disappearing into the murk.
I don't know why Horsfall doesn't play, I don't know why Bloxham isn't worth a place on the bench. I do like that Banks and Bowler start and Ennis and Fletcher are reunited. I'm not sure how I feel about Morgan and Honeyman as the midfield pairing. It's probably the best technically, but we've not made much use of technical qualities of late and it's very small and I feel like they're very similar players. We shall see.
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The game starts with an immediate feel of intensity in comparison to Tuesday. Barnsley look well organised and technically able. Possession changes hands and straight away a pattern is established that last the length of the first half, we knock a couple of hopeful balls forward for Ennis to try and sniff out, whereas they bring the ball down and play some joined up football, finding particular joy in threading it behind our full backs for their overlapping wing backs, a route that seems to work on both sides and brings them their first chance, a sharp near post effort that is uncomfortably close and as with so many goals we've conceded this year, worryingly easy to create.
We claim our first chance and it comes from some great vision from Bowler to find the man in space and ends with a Scott Banks shot being well blocked and a Pool corner. Barnsley respond with another crisp move, 1,2,3 passes slice us open on our right and then a good cross and there's only a great Coulson tackle between them and a goal. Pool answer back with another pointless long ball, then a great Imray run that comes to nothing in the end, followed by another good Imray run that is partially snuffed out, but sees the ball balloon up, then be shifted wide to Banks, who sees the gap, adjusts himself well and with a low drive, draws a very good save from Cooper.
Their keeper has very little to do, but what he does, he does well. His touch is sensational for a goalkeeper - a couple of times he kills a ball stone dead with his feet and another time, he uses his chest to cushion the ball with deftness that puts some of the forward play to shame.
As the half wears on (and it does wear, this isn't a vintage Pool performance) I become more frustrated with the strategy of 'get ball, pass it a couple of times and then lump it forward and give it away' - from one of these moment, a completely aimless ball lands with the Tykes who immediately return it to the heart of our box, Coulson, for no explicable reason cuts it out when it was clearly headed for BPF and turns an attempt at defending into a perfect lay off for Bansley shot. A few minutes later, equally inexplicably, as we're just starting to form a break, he makes a square pass to the wrong team that they shank wide. We get away with a few to be honest, where they should test BPF but don't.
I've started counting the aimless balls forward and I'm up to eight. Another one is flung down the line, that's nine. Then we chip it up towards Ennis, but without giving him anything to run onto - ten. Then another one over the top that runs out of play... eleven. Each time we're just giving the ball back to the other team.
Bowler has looked off it. Whilst he's neat and tidy in his passing, he's distinctly more 'underwhelming cheap battery from B+M' than mains electric danger. The acceleration isn't there as he tries to wriggle through a couple of times without success. At one point, late in the half, a burst of acceleration sees him limping and clutching the back of his leg and everything screams 'player who hasn't played a lot for ages feeling the effects of playing' and all the excitement and hype seems foolish. He plays on though but he doesn't seem to move freely thereafter to me.
---
We've been poor. As so often this year, we've sat really deep and let Barnsley control the game - they've got up the pitch with ease and though they haven't turned their dominance into many clear cut chances, they've hit the heart of our box quite frequently and been in what Neil Critchley would term 'good areas' a lot more than us. We've been wasteful in possession and our attempts to play have been quite pitiful in comparison to what has seemed like a much more sophisticated awareness of movement and team shape/position in the Barnsley ranks. We need to be better.
---
We are better - the second half sees a reversal in the pattern of the game. Whilst we don't exactly come out imbued by the collective spirit of Johan Cruyff, we're definitely more joined up and crucially, we don't sit so deep. Barnsley find it harder to play the neat triangles from earlier as their attempts to pass and move are more aggressively disrupted and this half, it is them who seem to resort more often to the aimless pass and us who possess a bit more purpose about our play.
Chances though, are hard to come by - we make something at the near post that is snuffed out before the most exciting passage of play in the game, a helter skelter 15 seconds of chaos in which, Ennis gets desperately blocked at the far post by a combination of keeper and defender - the latter goes down injured, but we play on. The ball is put back in, Fletcher wins it, but appears to be having his shirt pulled as he does... finally the ball is back with Ennis, his touch is heavy, but he remains in possession, until the still prone Tykes defender hooks out a leg from on floor which, if he wins the ball, seems to go through Ennis to do so and the Kop screams for a penalty with some conviction. Shit refs again. Ole ole.
What else did we create? I'm struggling a bit. We played 'better' in that we were no longer sitting ducks for Barnsley attacks but we weren't exactly ripping into them either. Albie had a shot from the edge of the box which forced a routine save. BPF nearly put us through with some good vision from his kicks a couple of times. At some point Ihiekwe got underneath a header from a corner that a player behind him might have got over - but neither side was looking hugely dangerous.
Probably more notable than the chances were the injuries and general fitness. Bowler went off and I guess today was one of those games he'll need several of to get back to fitness. If, on Tuesday, he moved freely and with a baletic grace reminiscent of his glory period, today he looked heavy legged. More troublingly, Honeyman sits down and immediately signals to the bench and then, after a tackle, Scott Banks is helped off, limping and struggling to put weight on one leg. Given Banks has a history of injury troubles and definitely has displayed some much needed quality and guile in what we've seen so far of him, the latter worries me most.
For Barnsley, David Mcgoldrick really stood out, knitting their play together and drifting into pockets of space. Late in the game, his movement saw him receive it twice in the same move and then, just dally a touch too long in his lay off which meant a moment extra for us to close down and Peacock Farrell to make the angle and in the end an easy save. He's withdrawn moments later and it feels like once he's off, Barnsley aren't quite as joined up.
The rain has continued to pour down, the pitch is wet, the play is quite full blooded which is always a certain kind of pleasure - but it isn't really feeling like out and out chaos - more a series of disrupted moves and two sides deadlocked.
By now, the board has gone up for injury time and I'm starting to think about how to write this up. I don't generally stand there thinking 'what am I going to say about this?' because that's not how I want to roll -, I'm there for the game not the writing, usually I just see what's in my head after the game and go with that - but today, there's not a lot there to distract me so I'm starting to compile a list of things that are equally as dull as watching us this season - a wallpaper catalogue, Keir Starmer telling a 'funny' anecdote, listening to a HR induction talk...
... we have a corner, the Kop roars in anticipation but I'm not feeling it. I don't believe today. This is 0-0, it has 0-0 written all over it in indelible ink, 0-0 is fucking tattooed on this game, branded into its very flesh with red hot metal, chiseled into the granite of the thing,... the list goes on... washing the car, going shopping for shit boring household things, putting the ironing away, which is even shitter than ironing itself... the corner comes in, it's headed away, I knew it. The thing is, when you watch enough football, you can feel a game. It's wisdom, it comes with age and experience... we're not scoring today... being on a bus that takes a lot longer than the journey would in a car, bad phone signal, filling in a poorly designed form on a council website... CJ goes to chase the lost cause. The Kop screams for a foul that isn't given - it's too late anyway, it's just not happening... milky tea that isn't strong enough, undercooked chips that haven't crisped up, traffic jams in general, but especially when created by poorly timed temporary lights...
...but maybe, I actually can't read a game and maybe, I know fuck all because...
CJ has got up, CJ is running, his, left foot guiding the ball like a hockey stick, he's still going... a pass into the box, it's held up by someone (Olly Casey it turns out) and laid off and... oh my, I can see this before it happens, there's a gap in the bottom left corner and I know Jordan Brown has seen it from the way he shapes as he runs onto it and the list is now changing to be a very different one, the rush of blood as you launch yourself from a great height, the feeling as you clock off on a Friday with the weekend ahead of you, the moment where a cold pint hits your lips on a hot, hot day... the strike is crisp, the strike is low, it seems to bend as it skims the turf, the keeper has spotted it later than Brown and is diving, but he's never reaching it, as the ball flies, the intake of breath is collective and as the ball hits the net, the release, the roar, the sheer fucking disbelief and joy is tremendous. Players hurl themselves towards to crowd, there are hashtagscenes and hashtaglimbs and shirts off and goalkeepers running up the pitch and even Steve Bruce allows himself a little clenched fist jig and the fella next to me thumps me in delight and I thump the air and the tangle of bodies, leaping and thrashing arms and flags in the Kop goes on and everything is good as the rain washes everything in a dreamy haze...
The whistle. Players leap into each other's arms. That clearly lifted them as much as it lifted us.
---
I don't know what to make of this game in the context of the overall. We were better defensively and I thought Coulson had a particularly good second half. For all he was culpable in the first half of loose play, he was aggressive, dominant even in the second half. The centre back pairing looked as good as it has all season and Imray was again the best player on the pitch. BPF's kicking was strong and at times in the second half he looked as valid a creative outlet as anyone.
Going forward though, I thought we again struggled. We did get higher in the second half, but given the talent on the pitch, we didn't really make anyone particularly shine in an attacking sense. Banks' injury worries me as he looks the most likely to get a shot away and we do seem still to be very much about one of two things - either, catching a defender out with a direct ball for Ennis to turn onto or a moment of individual skill - a run from a wide player. There's still little sign of the convincing fluid team play that you'd feel a promotion chasing team (and we are still 22nd!) would need to have in their locker.
Confidence though, is everything. Confidence can be the difference between timid and brave, between safety and risk. You could see at the end the sheer relief of the players. Whilst this was still far from convincing display of all out total football, the reaction to the win and the obdurate defending wasn't the sign of a side who have given up on each other or who don't care. We've shown we can shut an OK side out (and Barnsley are certainly nowhere near the worst teams in the league) and grind out a result - that doesn't make a season - but it certainly is a positive in comparison to previous weeks.
Win next week and we could be 15th. Truly nosebleed stuff.
Onward
Bowler has looked off it. Whilst he's neat and tidy in his passing, he's distinctly more 'underwhelming cheap battery from B+M' than mains electric danger. The acceleration isn't there as he tries to wriggle through a couple of times without success. At one point, late in the half, a burst of acceleration sees him limping and clutching the back of his leg and everything screams 'player who hasn't played a lot for ages feeling the effects of playing' and all the excitement and hype seems foolish. He plays on though but he doesn't seem to move freely thereafter to me.
---
We've been poor. As so often this year, we've sat really deep and let Barnsley control the game - they've got up the pitch with ease and though they haven't turned their dominance into many clear cut chances, they've hit the heart of our box quite frequently and been in what Neil Critchley would term 'good areas' a lot more than us. We've been wasteful in possession and our attempts to play have been quite pitiful in comparison to what has seemed like a much more sophisticated awareness of movement and team shape/position in the Barnsley ranks. We need to be better.
---
We are better - the second half sees a reversal in the pattern of the game. Whilst we don't exactly come out imbued by the collective spirit of Johan Cruyff, we're definitely more joined up and crucially, we don't sit so deep. Barnsley find it harder to play the neat triangles from earlier as their attempts to pass and move are more aggressively disrupted and this half, it is them who seem to resort more often to the aimless pass and us who possess a bit more purpose about our play.
Chances though, are hard to come by - we make something at the near post that is snuffed out before the most exciting passage of play in the game, a helter skelter 15 seconds of chaos in which, Ennis gets desperately blocked at the far post by a combination of keeper and defender - the latter goes down injured, but we play on. The ball is put back in, Fletcher wins it, but appears to be having his shirt pulled as he does... finally the ball is back with Ennis, his touch is heavy, but he remains in possession, until the still prone Tykes defender hooks out a leg from on floor which, if he wins the ball, seems to go through Ennis to do so and the Kop screams for a penalty with some conviction. Shit refs again. Ole ole.
What else did we create? I'm struggling a bit. We played 'better' in that we were no longer sitting ducks for Barnsley attacks but we weren't exactly ripping into them either. Albie had a shot from the edge of the box which forced a routine save. BPF nearly put us through with some good vision from his kicks a couple of times. At some point Ihiekwe got underneath a header from a corner that a player behind him might have got over - but neither side was looking hugely dangerous.
Probably more notable than the chances were the injuries and general fitness. Bowler went off and I guess today was one of those games he'll need several of to get back to fitness. If, on Tuesday, he moved freely and with a baletic grace reminiscent of his glory period, today he looked heavy legged. More troublingly, Honeyman sits down and immediately signals to the bench and then, after a tackle, Scott Banks is helped off, limping and struggling to put weight on one leg. Given Banks has a history of injury troubles and definitely has displayed some much needed quality and guile in what we've seen so far of him, the latter worries me most.
For Barnsley, David Mcgoldrick really stood out, knitting their play together and drifting into pockets of space. Late in the game, his movement saw him receive it twice in the same move and then, just dally a touch too long in his lay off which meant a moment extra for us to close down and Peacock Farrell to make the angle and in the end an easy save. He's withdrawn moments later and it feels like once he's off, Barnsley aren't quite as joined up.
The rain has continued to pour down, the pitch is wet, the play is quite full blooded which is always a certain kind of pleasure - but it isn't really feeling like out and out chaos - more a series of disrupted moves and two sides deadlocked.
By now, the board has gone up for injury time and I'm starting to think about how to write this up. I don't generally stand there thinking 'what am I going to say about this?' because that's not how I want to roll -, I'm there for the game not the writing, usually I just see what's in my head after the game and go with that - but today, there's not a lot there to distract me so I'm starting to compile a list of things that are equally as dull as watching us this season - a wallpaper catalogue, Keir Starmer telling a 'funny' anecdote, listening to a HR induction talk...
... we have a corner, the Kop roars in anticipation but I'm not feeling it. I don't believe today. This is 0-0, it has 0-0 written all over it in indelible ink, 0-0 is fucking tattooed on this game, branded into its very flesh with red hot metal, chiseled into the granite of the thing,... the list goes on... washing the car, going shopping for shit boring household things, putting the ironing away, which is even shitter than ironing itself... the corner comes in, it's headed away, I knew it. The thing is, when you watch enough football, you can feel a game. It's wisdom, it comes with age and experience... we're not scoring today... being on a bus that takes a lot longer than the journey would in a car, bad phone signal, filling in a poorly designed form on a council website... CJ goes to chase the lost cause. The Kop screams for a foul that isn't given - it's too late anyway, it's just not happening... milky tea that isn't strong enough, undercooked chips that haven't crisped up, traffic jams in general, but especially when created by poorly timed temporary lights...
...but maybe, I actually can't read a game and maybe, I know fuck all because...
CJ has got up, CJ is running, his, left foot guiding the ball like a hockey stick, he's still going... a pass into the box, it's held up by someone (Olly Casey it turns out) and laid off and... oh my, I can see this before it happens, there's a gap in the bottom left corner and I know Jordan Brown has seen it from the way he shapes as he runs onto it and the list is now changing to be a very different one, the rush of blood as you launch yourself from a great height, the feeling as you clock off on a Friday with the weekend ahead of you, the moment where a cold pint hits your lips on a hot, hot day... the strike is crisp, the strike is low, it seems to bend as it skims the turf, the keeper has spotted it later than Brown and is diving, but he's never reaching it, as the ball flies, the intake of breath is collective and as the ball hits the net, the release, the roar, the sheer fucking disbelief and joy is tremendous. Players hurl themselves towards to crowd, there are hashtagscenes and hashtaglimbs and shirts off and goalkeepers running up the pitch and even Steve Bruce allows himself a little clenched fist jig and the fella next to me thumps me in delight and I thump the air and the tangle of bodies, leaping and thrashing arms and flags in the Kop goes on and everything is good as the rain washes everything in a dreamy haze...
The whistle. Players leap into each other's arms. That clearly lifted them as much as it lifted us.
---
I don't know what to make of this game in the context of the overall. We were better defensively and I thought Coulson had a particularly good second half. For all he was culpable in the first half of loose play, he was aggressive, dominant even in the second half. The centre back pairing looked as good as it has all season and Imray was again the best player on the pitch. BPF's kicking was strong and at times in the second half he looked as valid a creative outlet as anyone.
Going forward though, I thought we again struggled. We did get higher in the second half, but given the talent on the pitch, we didn't really make anyone particularly shine in an attacking sense. Banks' injury worries me as he looks the most likely to get a shot away and we do seem still to be very much about one of two things - either, catching a defender out with a direct ball for Ennis to turn onto or a moment of individual skill - a run from a wide player. There's still little sign of the convincing fluid team play that you'd feel a promotion chasing team (and we are still 22nd!) would need to have in their locker.
Confidence though, is everything. Confidence can be the difference between timid and brave, between safety and risk. You could see at the end the sheer relief of the players. Whilst this was still far from convincing display of all out total football, the reaction to the win and the obdurate defending wasn't the sign of a side who have given up on each other or who don't care. We've shown we can shut an OK side out (and Barnsley are certainly nowhere near the worst teams in the league) and grind out a result - that doesn't make a season - but it certainly is a positive in comparison to previous weeks.
Win next week and we could be 15th. Truly nosebleed stuff.
Onward
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