BFC 3-2 Sheffield United, Saturday 7th April 2018

‘We’re Sheffield United, we’re sending you down.’

Welcome to...the programme queue.

What a day.  What a game. Local giants Sheffield United come to town and become the 1^st side in 13 matches to have their ar5es kicked by the Super Reds.  The embarrassment of it all.  Even worse, they’ve only thrown away a second half lead, and their fans' crowing was well and truly stuffed down their fat necks, as ‘We’re Sheffield United, we’re sending you down’ soon became ‘You’re Sheffield United, You’re keeping us up.’  Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of lads.

Read it and weep.

Mind, we shoulda been out of sight by half time, as we played them off the park.  Jose wisely kept the team which played so promisingly against Bristol City and we were so nearly rewarded early doors.  Moncur cracked one off the bar following a short corner routine, while Moore was winning everything up top.  Now, if only other players would run towards where Moore was aiming his knockdowns. Or, at least, run there BEFORE he makes the header.  Anticipation, etc.  But nevermind, a corner is cleared and Aston Villa’s Gardner hits an ABSOLUTE SCREAMER into the top corner form 20 yards. It was still rising when it hit the net.  Unstoppable. As ever, this makes him think he can shoot, and his next effort finds the crowd.

A minute's applause for Ray Wilkins, R.I.P.

We get in at half time, 1-0, thoroughly pleased with ourselves, but worried that we hadn’t built a bigger lead.  The only concern in the opening 45 was Fryers inability to defend and McBurnie’s inability to cover (though it seems a waste of your best forward if he’s having to scrap it out in defence too).  Luckily, the 3 or 4 times they got clear on their right (with the same ‘give and go’ each time; do we NOT learn???), the crosses lacked quality.  Or was it merely the superiority of our centre halves?

The Blunt hordes.

Surely the Blunts would improve after the break though?  Unfortunately, this was exactly the case, as we were penned in our box from the start. Also, Billy Blunt was on as sub and he ALWAYS scores against us, right?  Quick, one-touch passes left us all over the place and the desperate defending had ‘last 10 minutes’ written all over it.  We were defending deep, but I have to say the Blunts looked very slick.  And just as we thought we might ride the wave, they equalise, sidestepping Potts to bury it in the corner.  No less than they deserved.  Heads went down in our team, but on comes talisman Hammill for Isgrove.

The Ponty End v Sheff U.

6 mins later, it’s 2-1.  A catastrophic panic between Davies and Lindsay leads to pinball, where the only player with any composure is wearing a purple shirt.  We are down, we are out, we are f***ed, we are relegated.  Jose takes Moncur off. WTF? He was the best player on the pitch in the 1^st half.  But he’s barely touched it 2^nd half and we have 25 mins to save our season. On comes Bradshaw.  That’s it.  We really DO need a miracle now.

I need a hero...on comes Bradshaw.

Well, if we need a miracle, who better to turn to than former Messiah Adam Hammill. He’s had enough of players not looking like scoring, so cuts inside and has a go himself from 20 odd yards, with his weaker left.  The (reserve?) keeper makes a hash of the save and the ball falls kindly to new Messiah, Swansea City’s Ollie McBurnie, who has fast become my favourite Swansea player of all time. He is absolutely fabulous, I love him. Looks a less likely footballer than Peter Kay (‘ave it!), I could watch him all day.  Just don’t let him have to defend.  He dribbles the ball over the line and three sides of Oakwell go potty.  What a difference a goal makes. I can’t remember the last time a crowd went from this level of disconsolation to ecstasy in a game.  

2nd half action...the Super Reds hang on.

I’m sat upstairs this week, in my old seat and with time ticking, Stewart announces he’s leaving.  He always leaves after 87 mins, heart problems, needing to beat the rush.  ‘But you’ll miss their winner’ I say.  ‘It’s our turn today, lad’ are his parting words (he’s not dead, he was just leaving…), and he can’t have been halfway down the staircase when IT HAPPENS.

Moore bangs a ball across goal on the half volley…sublime…and Tom Bradshaw does what Tom Bradshaw does best…nails a header from 4 yards out.  Feed the Bradders and he will score. Make him do it himself, and he can’t.  Pandemonium.  Disbelief.  Shock.  Awe.  And loads of other words which can’t quite describe the f***ing amazingness of what we’ve seen.  You f***ing Reds!  We play our the last few minutes (and injury time) pretty comfortably.   

A busy camera gantry.

Today is all about Jose’s favourite word: belief.  And maybe after today, the players can kick on and get the points we need to deny me £60 this season.  (Oh yes, in the euphoria of winning, I found another gullible idio…mate willing to bet me a tenner we’ll stay up. Step forward Marius.)

*** Moore.  Won everything, held the ball up, set up the winner.  Shame he couldn’t get the ball from under his feet when clean through…was it 1-0 at the time?  Twitter MOTM.
** Gardner.  Another impressive match without Williams getting in his way finally has its rewards.  Obvs he scored a cracker, but the amount of times he chased back to delay a Blunt attack, or put a tackle in, or played the ball to a red shirt.  After a slow start, he’s won me over.

* McBurnie.  Who cares that he can’t defend?  The way the ball sticks to him is something else.  The way he dribbles past players without any need for skill, style, speed or grace.  The way he knows where the onion bag is, and can pick a pass.  The boy is a class act.  Too good for us.

Londontykes' MOTM:  1. Moore  2. Gardner  3. Moncur

Despatches:

Jackson and Lindsay were solid in defence.  Yiadom was composed throughout.  Moncur orchestrated the 1^st half dominance.  Isgrove combined well with Yiadom in defence, but offered little going forward, at one point messing up a 4 on 2 counter attack.  Potts drove hard from midfield while the subsHammill and Bradshaw proved their worth, both putting a shift in as well as being heavily involved in two goals.  Davies had little to do, and don’t be fooled by The Championship’s highlights of him making a great save from a header…it was offside.  The only disappointment was Fryers, who couldn’t defend to save his life, though at least he made a few forward runs.

And special mention to our mad manager, Jose, who, at the end, had the players run towards the Ponty, hands linked, to salute the fans a la European teams (and Huddersfield).  I know many of our cynics find it a bit ‘cringey’, but as someone else pointed out:  if we’re doing this every week it’s cos we’re WINNING.  We left Oakwell to the strains of The Monkees ‘I’m a believer.’  That word again. 

 
It’s great to be a Barnsley fan once more.

Onwards and upwards!

Away: 4,657.  Capacity, in this day and age where plod decides 1200+ seats are ‘unsafe’.  

The Damage:
£28 train
£3 prog
= £31

The Tunes:
No tunes.  Just Marius yap yap yapping.  Just what I need at half seven in a morning following beers and  late night (sorry Marius!)

Panorama v Sheff U.

Down the hill to Oakwell.

The teams line up.

Oh no, it's all going wrong.