‘Meh.’
Without doubt, this is the best 4 days as a Barnsley fan I’ve had in years. Get to Wembley, play a bunch of ex-Reds off the park and, best of all – we lose Johnson (and don’t even have to pay him off). Christ, no wonder Cryne is so rich – he’s got the Midas touch. He must feel like a used car salesman whose made a mint off a knackered old banger he knows will break down next week. How we have got out of this one, I will never know. Still, word on the terraces was ‘who cares?’ I never heard one person on Sunday say they were disappointed (save for some Norweigan bloke who sees us twice a season). The general jist amongst the glitterati was ‘couldn’t give a s***’. So presumably any anger at Little Lee’s lack of loyalty after the loyalty we (Cryne) showed him must be isolated to one or two nut jobs on the message board. (Personally, I haven’t read the message board, I’ve just heard about such ‘outrage’) And when compensation was mentioned…well….I wondered how much we’d have to pay them! As for his ‘disloyalty’, I’ve nothing against him for that. After all, this was the same dwarf who walked out on Oldham, so why wouldn’t he walk out on us? No, for me, I will never, EVER forgive him for that defeat against a bunch of part time non-leaguers. In the rain. On my birthday. That feeling of embarrassment will take years to rub off, more than any Johnstones Paint Trophy victory. Good riddance and good luck, Little Lee – you'll need it at perennial basket cases and under achievers Bristol City. A lower division Newcastle United if ever there was one.
Oh yes – we played a match yesterday. Flitcroft…Mellis…Etuhu…Rose (where?)…your boys took one hell of a beating!!!!!!!!
For 20 minutes we played well. It was end to end, with our centre halves in particular being outstanding as crosses and forward balls hit their 2 HUGE centre forwards, Tom Pope and Leon Clarke. In tonnage, they must be the weightiest strikeforce we’ve come across this season, but Mawson and Long stood tall, while Davies generally stood on his line. Then we only went and scored, as Marley Watkins chased down a ball, caught it up by the byeline, held it up, cut back past a defender and rifled home into the bottom near corner. What a player!
Then we seemed to sit back and invite them on. Brownhill was getting stuck into things, but, as I say, the way the centre halves dealt with their big lads impressed me most. But I was grateful to scrape to half time, 1-0.
2nd half, kicking towards the Ponty – game in the bag. 10 mins in and it’s like September 2014 all over again, as Hourihane marauds down the left wing and cuts it back for Winnall to take a touch past the defender and lash home. Now the players start to enjoy themselves (the fans too, with ‘Flitcroft, what’s the score?’ quickly segueing into ‘Johnson, what’s the score?’) Hammill was appluading White's runs, Hourihane and Hammill would high-five each other even when things didn't come off...these players were having a right old time.
Whoever the manager is this week then sends on Fletcher and before too long he’s whipped in a cross and Hammill crashes it high into the net after Winnall’s outrageous dummy, AKA swinging and missing. Thereafter, it was an exhibition game, as we knocked it around to ‘ole’ (whoever he is). Scowen had a great effort saved, while Hammill whipped in 2 great crosses for Fletcher to head off target. (That Hammill-Fletcher axis looks promising; Fletcher makes the runs KNOWING Hammill will find him). And Bury even join in, sending on panto villain and ex-footballer Jacob Mellis to amuse the crowd. I’d quite got out of the habit of booing lately, what with winning 7 league games on the spin. (Actually, I must admit that I thought Mellis was on from the start, but he wasn’t the fat lad in midfield; may I say, I wasn’t the only one who made this mistake.) Said fat lad DID stand around a lot in the centre circle though, so Mellis obviously has some influence down at Gigg Lane.
*** Mawson. Stood up and was counted against a couple of rough looking thugs up front (Pope and Clarke). Best defensive game I’ve seen of him, despite a loose pass leading to Brownhill’s booking.
** Long of Burnley. Stood up and was counted against a couple of rough looking thugs up front (Pope and Clarke). Best defensive game I’ve seen of him. Shame he’s going back and we have to start all over again. (Nyatanga, anyone?)
* White. Twitter MOTM. Made some great runs forward and once we were two up, him and Hammill really battered ‘em on t’left wing. If he had a right foot he’d have scored an’ all, from Hammill’s magic and his own cut inside.
Londontykes' Top 3: 1. White 2. Long 3= Mawson / Brownhill
Despatches:
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| 'Event' indeed. |
Without doubt, this is the best 4 days as a Barnsley fan I’ve had in years. Get to Wembley, play a bunch of ex-Reds off the park and, best of all – we lose Johnson (and don’t even have to pay him off). Christ, no wonder Cryne is so rich – he’s got the Midas touch. He must feel like a used car salesman whose made a mint off a knackered old banger he knows will break down next week. How we have got out of this one, I will never know. Still, word on the terraces was ‘who cares?’ I never heard one person on Sunday say they were disappointed (save for some Norweigan bloke who sees us twice a season). The general jist amongst the glitterati was ‘couldn’t give a s***’. So presumably any anger at Little Lee’s lack of loyalty after the loyalty we (Cryne) showed him must be isolated to one or two nut jobs on the message board. (Personally, I haven’t read the message board, I’ve just heard about such ‘outrage’) And when compensation was mentioned…well….I wondered how much we’d have to pay them! As for his ‘disloyalty’, I’ve nothing against him for that. After all, this was the same dwarf who walked out on Oldham, so why wouldn’t he walk out on us? No, for me, I will never, EVER forgive him for that defeat against a bunch of part time non-leaguers. In the rain. On my birthday. That feeling of embarrassment will take years to rub off, more than any Johnstones Paint Trophy victory. Good riddance and good luck, Little Lee – you'll need it at perennial basket cases and under achievers Bristol City. A lower division Newcastle United if ever there was one.
 |
| The Arcade, Sunday. |
Oh yes – we played a match yesterday. Flitcroft…Mellis…Etuhu…Rose (where?)…your boys took one hell of a beating!!!!!!!!
For 20 minutes we played well. It was end to end, with our centre halves in particular being outstanding as crosses and forward balls hit their 2 HUGE centre forwards, Tom Pope and Leon Clarke. In tonnage, they must be the weightiest strikeforce we’ve come across this season, but Mawson and Long stood tall, while Davies generally stood on his line. Then we only went and scored, as Marley Watkins chased down a ball, caught it up by the byeline, held it up, cut back past a defender and rifled home into the bottom near corner. What a player!
Then we seemed to sit back and invite them on. Brownhill was getting stuck into things, but, as I say, the way the centre halves dealt with their big lads impressed me most. But I was grateful to scrape to half time, 1-0.
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| For the motor enthusiasts out there... |
2nd half, kicking towards the Ponty – game in the bag. 10 mins in and it’s like September 2014 all over again, as Hourihane marauds down the left wing and cuts it back for Winnall to take a touch past the defender and lash home. Now the players start to enjoy themselves (the fans too, with ‘Flitcroft, what’s the score?’ quickly segueing into ‘Johnson, what’s the score?’) Hammill was appluading White's runs, Hourihane and Hammill would high-five each other even when things didn't come off...these players were having a right old time.
Whoever the manager is this week then sends on Fletcher and before too long he’s whipped in a cross and Hammill crashes it high into the net after Winnall’s outrageous dummy, AKA swinging and missing. Thereafter, it was an exhibition game, as we knocked it around to ‘ole’ (whoever he is). Scowen had a great effort saved, while Hammill whipped in 2 great crosses for Fletcher to head off target. (That Hammill-Fletcher axis looks promising; Fletcher makes the runs KNOWING Hammill will find him). And Bury even join in, sending on panto villain and ex-footballer Jacob Mellis to amuse the crowd. I’d quite got out of the habit of booing lately, what with winning 7 league games on the spin. (Actually, I must admit that I thought Mellis was on from the start, but he wasn’t the fat lad in midfield; may I say, I wasn’t the only one who made this mistake.) Said fat lad DID stand around a lot in the centre circle though, so Mellis obviously has some influence down at Gigg Lane.
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| The teams meet 'n' greet |
*** Mawson. Stood up and was counted against a couple of rough looking thugs up front (Pope and Clarke). Best defensive game I’ve seen of him, despite a loose pass leading to Brownhill’s booking.
** Long of Burnley. Stood up and was counted against a couple of rough looking thugs up front (Pope and Clarke). Best defensive game I’ve seen of him. Shame he’s going back and we have to start all over again. (Nyatanga, anyone?)
* White. Twitter MOTM. Made some great runs forward and once we were two up, him and Hammill really battered ‘em on t’left wing. If he had a right foot he’d have scored an’ all, from Hammill’s magic and his own cut inside.
Londontykes' Top 3: 1. White 2. Long 3= Mawson / Brownhill
Despatches:
Isgrove was again outstanding, harrying defenders, chasing them down,
running up and down. He’s still a bit of an enigma as far as an
attacking player goes though cos he never sets much up and never scores, yet
what he does no doubt aids others to do THEIR thang. Fletcher looked
great again – from the bench. Keep it up, lad. And Brownhill was
tremendous, putting in the tackles and laying it off. Can we keep
him, if Preston don’t need him? While Hourihane continues
to look better and better the less he goes aimlessly running up the park.
Winnall was Winnall...missing sitters, argued, failed to
control balls (a couple of shockers in the first half) and scoring yet again.
'Don't sell Winnall' etc. We should be pleased he has no all-round
game, otherwise sides better than Dirty Leeds woulda been in for him in Jan.
Drink du jour: Erdinger (Sunday). And a bottle of red on the train. We could hardly sink a bottle of vodka with work tomorrow. (Pussies).
Marius, Reedy and I came up Satdy and, may I say, what a wonderful thing all-day drinking is, as we went in the Old #7 for a couple and same out 5 hours later. Of course we never made it back out to tarn,as per the plan, after being fed and watered by Mrs Salisbury. And to complete a thoroughly great weekend, Salisbury fixed it for this historian to get a real feel of what it was like to live in Barnsley in the 1970s with a real-life power cut. I don’t think we have those in London anymore. But you can rest assured, when we do – it’ll be headline news on national telly. We only missed the Man C - Leicester game on MOTM (you know – the one we wanted to see) but Marius did look cute, asleep, tucked under a blanket, a whiskey clasped to his paw.
Oh, and word up to Andy Jones, who came out for a couple on Sat lunchtime before driving back Sunday WITHOUT seeing the game. Seems travelling home after the match and arriving back by 8pm is too late for Anglo-French kids. Pussies. (I don’t think it was Andy’s choice!)
Away: 677. Given the paucity of their home support, a great turnout. And they must have been well chuffed to get a lesson in football.
Onwards and upwards!
The Damage:
50 travel (re-arranged trains after original fixture had its date changed)
3 prog
 |
| The Bury hordes. Not bad, 677. |
Drink du jour: Erdinger (Sunday). And a bottle of red on the train. We could hardly sink a bottle of vodka with work tomorrow. (Pussies).
Marius, Reedy and I came up Satdy and, may I say, what a wonderful thing all-day drinking is, as we went in the Old #7 for a couple and same out 5 hours later. Of course we never made it back out to tarn,as per the plan, after being fed and watered by Mrs Salisbury. And to complete a thoroughly great weekend, Salisbury fixed it for this historian to get a real feel of what it was like to live in Barnsley in the 1970s with a real-life power cut. I don’t think we have those in London anymore. But you can rest assured, when we do – it’ll be headline news on national telly. We only missed the Man C - Leicester game on MOTM (you know – the one we wanted to see) but Marius did look cute, asleep, tucked under a blanket, a whiskey clasped to his paw.
Oh, and word up to Andy Jones, who came out for a couple on Sat lunchtime before driving back Sunday WITHOUT seeing the game. Seems travelling home after the match and arriving back by 8pm is too late for Anglo-French kids. Pussies. (I don’t think it was Andy’s choice!)
Away: 677. Given the paucity of their home support, a great turnout. And they must have been well chuffed to get a lesson in football.
Onwards and upwards!
The Damage:
50 travel (re-arranged trains after original fixture had its date changed)
3 prog
 |
| The Ponty, pre-match. (Can you spot Toby?) |
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| Wide-angle, pre-match (AKA, me learning how to use my new camera phone) |
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