Herts’s report of the goings on at Barnsley:
And we’re back…..
Not quite the team we expected. Not one of the newbies on view all night. Not one outfield sub all game. But more than sufficient to beat a Barnsley side who had beaten Leicester 2-1 a few days earlier. I am not sure if Barnsley are one of the stronger third division sides but to beat a full-strength side from only one division below us away from home can only be good for morale.
It was a lovely night in Barnsley as we say drank our Guinness al fresco opposite the train and bus station. Over a 1,000 SAFC supporters had decided it was worth coming to see how Mick Mac would improve on last season’s creditable third place. They weren’t to be disappointed. Barnsley have improved their away end enormously since last time we were there. Gone is the open terrace with seats bolted on. In its place is an excellent spanking new stand with roof (and stanchions coming up through the stand to hold it up – don’t think I’ve seen that before). The travelling red and white army decided to celebrate by creating a canny atmosphere for a pre-season friendly.
The side lined up Alnwick in goal, McCartney and Wright as FBs, Breen and Clark as CBs (both right footers – Breen got the right slot), Arca and Oster out wide and Robinson and Whitley in the centre, up front was young Brown, son of Brown alongside Stewart.
What was most noticeable to me was what a strict game plan we had to play the ball on the floor. I don’t know if this is going to be our tactics or Mick was using it as a training exercise but we rarely got the ball above head height except for a few crosses. Even the goalies Alnwick and second half sub Ingham almost always played the ball to feet. It’s good although I think to be effective it needs to be mixed with some high balls to keep the opposition guessing. All a far cry from the latter days of Mickey Gray and the “I’ve got it, so I’m going to hoof it” approach.
The first half we were kicking away from us. The highlights were some good chances falling for Brown (did well to be there but maybe should have converted) and a couple of good saves from Alnwick – I thought he looked a little nervous but maybe I am being harsh on a teenager. Generally I though the first half was played at a fairly slow pace. About midway through, McCartney got a ball low to Stew in the box. He seemed to have a lot of space (poor defence or good work by Stew on freeing himself) and he showed he still has an instinct for goal. Stew was mildly disappointing last season – the best of a poorish set of Proctor, Smith, Byefield and him. However, I still reckon he’ll get a dozen plus goals for us this season – he has an underlying quality that we might yet be able to bring back out of him.
The second half we scored early on with a mazy run by Oster after a lovely flick on by Robinson. Nice to see Oster finish well though. We gave him a rousing rendition of his song. However, the “he used to be shite but now he’s alright “ bit that used to seem a little cruel is probably slightly generous. “Sometimes he’s shite and sometimes he’s alright” would be more accurate. Let’s hope for more consistent displays of the latter this season.
Then bugger, bugger, bugger. We let them get a corner straight from the restart. We cleared but failed to get out quickly to close the ball down and it came back into the near post from the right to end up in the net. I absolutely hate that. Positively ruined my evening. Well no it didn’t but “was an annoying spot in an otherwise good evening”. As well as praising them for their overall performance I hope Mick tore them off a strip for that. Cut that out right now or I’ll be upset.
The good thing is it gee’ed the team up and we played the game at a faster pace afterwards until towards the end when we slowed it down somewhat.
One of the highlights of the second half was a game of passy in the away end. A ball came into our stand and one lad decided “I’ll have that”. A steward decided he wouldn’t and came marching up. The lad then threw it further back into the stand and it was passed around for some time. It finally came to another steward at one of the entrances who wanted to throw it back to the front but didn’t want to underthrow it with it ending up back amongst us. He gave it such a huge hoy that it ended up on the pitch while the match was ongoing. Oh how we laughed at the jolly japes. We are such rascals.
Barnsley were obviously jealous so they decided to bring on a comedy act of their own: this huge great thing who blocked out the sun when he ran/lumbered in front of it. I don’t know how big he was but he looked like the biggest thing I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately for him he seemed crap at football and only touched the ball once – but he gave us a lot of entertainment
Brown had another couple of decent chances. He probably would have been disappointed not to score but can only have improved his chances of getting on the bench come the start of the season. Stew put in a decent amount of work and I think we can get something out of him again if we don’t get in another striker. Arca and Oster were both effective and Wright (who should have scored a header with the goal gaping but mis-headed it) both got forward a lot. Breen and Clark both looked solid enough (although Clark looks as if he’d prefer to be on the right side of centre). Robinson I thought was very good – some really effective play and was involved in most things we did. Whitely I thought was poor – Jeff’s strength is a negative one – disrupting the opposition midfield. But that is not as useful when we are the better team. He did have an excellent half-volley in the second half that the goalie did well to save mind.
So a good night out for all concerned. Bring on the rest of South Yorkshire.
Herts.