‘Why does he call me ‘Giraffe?’
‘Cos y’uv got a long neck’
‘Cos y’uv got a long neck’
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| The Blunts are here. Call the cavalry! |
The sun was out, the fans were out, the police were out (more of that in a bit) and The Blunts were out. Sadly, only Barnsley FC failed to join the party and were comprehensively outplayed by the local rivals in what was our biggest game of the season. ‘Very poor’ was a more generous assessment of our game by one local afterwards.
Me and Sarah got the train from York and were greeted by a guard of honour all the way from the train station to Oakwell. A copper every 10 yards wasn’t an exaggeration, in fact, they’d even shipped ‘em in from County Durham (I saw a couple of vans). Are you telling me, on a day (or kick off time) when no other team is playing in South Yorkshire, there aren’t enough dibble to handle a 3rd division game round these parts? Of course, both sides can muster enough idiots for a fight, but still…(after the game, it looked like one of the streets had been blocked off – were the Blunts frogmarched through the away carpark after the game?) If Barnsley FC changed the kick off day to save money (as Mansford says), then I dread to think what the bill would’ve been on Easter Friday cos it must’ve been extortionate today.
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| I remember when they only used to bring 1500... |
For 15 minutes this game was a thrilling end-to-end battle between two of the
division’s better teams. Then, like a
team of Dale Jennings’ (what is the
plural? ‘a pie’?), they collapsed, and
allowed United complete carte blanche for the rest of the match. The Blunts took control, in particular, swinging
ball after ball into our box. And I
wouldn’t even blame the fullbacks, the ball was coming in from deeper. Also, whatever we had for an offside trap
wasn’t working either. Something had to
give – and it was our defence.
The warnings were already there before they scored. One free kick into our box had the centre halves lost, the keeper off his line…with the resultant header clipping the bar. Another corner was scrambled off the line, they had a couple of efforts blocked when nailed on to score. ‘If we can only hold on till half time’ I thought. I looked at the clock – still 10 minutes left. A few minutes later we concede.
The warnings were already there before they scored. One free kick into our box had the centre halves lost, the keeper off his line…with the resultant header clipping the bar. Another corner was scrambled off the line, they had a couple of efforts blocked when nailed on to score. ‘If we can only hold on till half time’ I thought. I looked at the clock – still 10 minutes left. A few minutes later we concede.
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| The teams are paraded. |
Sheffield get a free kick on our left touchline (another chance to swing the
ball in – can we not LEARN?) From
memory, their bod is touched by Winnall, carries on going, and falls over with
Pearson behind him. The ref saw nought
wrong, but luckily the linesman overrules him (!) and gives it. (The Blunts do this all day, btw, get in
front of a Reds player then stop running / slow down, so our player has no
choice but to run into him; their cunning, or our naïveté? Yet the ref can see through Winnall whenever
he tries it.) There’s a bit of a
skirmish, lots of arguing, a talking to.
Did we lose focus?
The ball curls in (beautiful crosses all day from them) and time stands still as their guy meets it full on and it arcs into the far top corner. Whatever you say about the inability of our centre halves to command the area today, the sheer number and quality of crosses, together with good movement and ability from their forwards, meant they’d get chances. (I remember another sitter they missed now, their bloke getting a free header 8 yards out, which he headed down and the bounce nearly deceived Wildsmith in goal). Our only chance was to either stop the crosses coming in, or (here’s an idea) get the ball in THEIR half. We could no neither.
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| 'You sign rapists, we sign Sammy Winnall, Sammy Winnall' etc |
Still, we got to HT, 0-1. The chance for Johnson to show his mettle and make a few changes, tactically, if not personnelly (is that a word?). He/we did neither. We’d desperately play one touch football among the 4 defenders, on a bobbly pitch, until one would scuff it out, or lump it forward to Ibehre, who would be expected to flick it on for himself. (He actually managed this in the 1st half, the closest we got to their goal). For the most part, our 4 defenders failed to knock it to each other as one Blunt ran around harrying (think Dagnall in a fetching yellow number). We couldn’t cope.
The one other chance (to make a chance) we had was in the 1st half, as Stewart picked up the ball and for a split second we were 2 on 1. The split second was enough for him to panic, play an early ball instead of driving forward and forcing their centre half to commit, and overhitting said pass to the corner flag for Winnall to chase. Pathetic.
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| Toby, Toby!! |
2nd half, not a lot happens.
We occasionally get past the halfway line (not often, and not too far
past it) before Johnson made the changes to save the game – Jennings and Smith
on for Hourihane and Stewart (Smith to left back, allowing John to push on). 2 minutes later it was 0-2. We only had 3 or 4 chances to clear it (from
a corner?) and a gentle header out was rifled in on the volley from the edge of
the box. Game over. Once again we have crumbled in front of a
crowd at Oakwell. What damage limitation
there was came from them – missing a couple of other chances as well as
counting down time in the corner.
Still, it wasn’t all bad. With a ticket from Sheffield, we caught a train thankfully devoid of gloating Blunts, as they stayed in the ground to hail their heroes – the best 3rd division team in South Yorkshire. In fact, we even made it home (to London) while it was still daylight. Perhaps we should kick off at 12:15 every week?
Still, it wasn’t all bad. With a ticket from Sheffield, we caught a train thankfully devoid of gloating Blunts, as they stayed in the ground to hail their heroes – the best 3rd division team in South Yorkshire. In fact, we even made it home (to London) while it was still daylight. Perhaps we should kick off at 12:15 every week?
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| Police lining up, ready for full time. |
*** Josh Scowen. Twitter MOTM (sponsors: Redfearns, AKA Loko and Hicksy, whose favourite player is….Scowen). Made tackles and drove forward. Had a shot (wide). He appeared to be in the thick of things for the 15 minutes we were in the game.
** Ben Pearson. Made tackles, held onto the ball, before disappearing. He appeared to be in the thick of things for the 15 minutes we were in the game.
* Mason Holgate. Looked a class act at times. Sarah thought he had 90% of BFC possession in that early part. He appeared to be in the thick of things for the 15 minutes we were in the game.
Londontykes top 3:
1. Scowen
2. Pearson
3. Holgate
Despatches:
They defended, attacked and midfielded better than us. It’s just not FAIR. Stewart looked appalling. God, do I miss O’Sullivan. Still, he wasn’t ours to miss. I see Johnson says ‘we probably have too many loanees’…yet plays Stewart, as well as Declan John. What’s George Smith done wrong? Cos John’s no better, from what I’ve seen. And at least Smith is OURS. Anyway, Lalkovic (ours) must be nailed on to replace Stewart on Monday at Colchester. Ibehre looked half decent. Held a ball up (when it wasn’t speared at his head) and his strength doesn’t allow defenders a free header. Had zero support, though we went 4-4-2 with Winnall, who did that thing where he was always on his ar5e, complaining about being fouled. He’s like a modern-day Andy Saville. Weak as p***. The fans love him, obvs. He has approximately three times as many chants as the rest of the team combined. Hourihane was Hourihane. At least he got dragged off this week. Even with Pearson and Scowen behind him, he resolutely refuses to find his earlier form. (It must have been 'form' cos class is permanent!) Crainie and Nyatanga were torn apart. Their forwards did this thing where they move around, their midfielders did this thing where they played inch perfect, well timed throughballs or crosses and our centre halves looked like the little Dutch boy who plugs the hole in the dike – with rather less success. The midfield have to accept responsibility for not cutting out the crosses. I thought John and Holgate weren’t too bad, defensively. Wildsmith made a couple of saves, but what we probably needed more of was him coming and claiming crosses, as their keeper did all day long (cos despite it all, we had a few corners).
4 matches without a win. Either we beat Colchester and (crucially) Chesterfield next week, or it’s goodbye play-offs. But let’s be honest, we haven’t deserved to be there (sorry). Have we used up all our luck in that unbeaten run?
Drink du jour: I had one beer all day, an unfiltered Bernard at the Sheffield Tap. Possibly the highlight of my day.
Crowd: 17,532 (c.5600 Blunts). Cracking atmosphere, especially from our lot. The away lot gave up after a while...only piping up again once they'd scored. Then they got a 2nd and we gave up. Then Johnson gave up - sending on Hemmings for Ibehre. Where's the white flag?
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| The Dimensions Stand, pre-match |
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| The heathen hordes. 'Barnsley's a sh*thole' etc. |
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