On the face of it, 4-3 looks like a thriller, doesn’t it? Away at Barnsley, getting so close and yet so far to a result would almost feel acceptable.
I’ve got to be honest, that’s not the case, and while the final 20 minutes or so gave us a lot to be encouraged about, a catastrophic show of defending left us doing little than polishing the turd we’d created for ourselves, so the annals of history won’t show we were outclassed and outfought for much of the 90 minutes.
Firstly, I’d have to go some to convince you we were the better team, wouldn’t I? We had twice as many shots as Barnsley, one more on target than they did, played more passes with more accuracy, and put 14 more crosses into the box, seven more finding a striker as well. Numbers can say a lot, but even I can’t defend some of what happened yesterday, and not being able to defend could earn me a spot in our side for Tuesday night.
I’ve been challenged to defend the team selection, and I will. I think a couple of our players are on a one-game-a-week system, and I fully expect Collins and Clucas to start this week. Do I like that? No, of course not. I think a couple of our players are out of form, Ethan Hamilton and Conor McGrandles being two such players, and of course, a local hero like Sam Clucas would be a popular choice. I’m told Sam was carrying an illness, hence not starting. Still, having seen players who haven’t played a lot of football start too many games and get injured across the divisions (Joe Taylor and Enzo Le Fee spring to mind), I can understand the situation.
You won’t find me frothing at the mouth over the team selection, even if I wasn’t a huge fan. Some people questioned Dom Jeffries starting, but I think he was just about our Man of the Match. I get the questions around the midfield, but I thought Tom Bayliss looked lively early doors. I’m not sure Ben House is in the best form, but if Collins is on a one-start-per-week system, who else would start? Jovon has been battered by some supporters and Bailey Cadamarteri is injured. Erik Ring was also omitted due to having a tight hamstring, otherwise he would likely have been on the bench, although at whose expense I’m not sure, as the subs did make an impact.
Just for context, we went into yesterday’s game with our captain missing, our leading scorer missing, and our best player missing. We were also without the player who exploded onto the scene at Oakwell last season, and when you consider that, it always looked like an uphill battle. However, the one thing you don’t do when facing an uphill struggle is shoot yourself in the foot. Or, both feet. Or, both feet and both effing hands. That’s exactly what happened, as we gifted Barnsley each and every one of their four goals.
Controversial opinion, maybe, but I thought we looked decent enough in the first half. There was lots of application, but things broke down in the final third. Ben House put a proper shift in, but his so-called soft feet have deserted him, and often his touch let us down at the last moment. Still, we looked like we could hurt Barnsley with a high press, and they coughed up the ball on a couple of occasions. The first goal was to be crucial – if we got it, the angry home crowd would have quickly turned. When they got it, our confidence just disappeared in an instant. What’s worse, it was a complete gift.
It’s a big punt forward from their defender, Jacko can’t head it out of the danger zone, and that leaves Montsma and Roughan to sort it out. Jeacock inexplicably comes off his line, and at the last minute, Roughan veers away, allowing Keillor-Dunn to waltz in past Montsma and loft the ball over Jeacock. I’m still not sure where the blame should be placed, with Jeacock for his positioning, partly, but also with Roughan, who ran in another direction like he was a FIFA character and the computer had just switched you to another player. Look, it’s a great finish from their lad, but the goal is a gift, another gift. Two weeks ago, we gifted Leyton Orient three, and that made it four.
If I’d known it’s be seven in two away games I’d have gone and done something else all afternoon I think.
That’s 13 minutes in, and for the next 20, we looked okay again. We responded well without really creating anything until just after the half-hour mark when, once again, we handed them a goal. Jacko doesn’t deal with a ball forward, slips and loses out, and it’s a simple pass and finish. There’s work to be done again, and I’m sure Adam Phillips will say quite a bit of work, but we’re giving the ball away in front of our 18-yard line with nobody behind it to defend. It’s criminal, it really is, and if we’re to move forward this summer, finding a replacement for Paudie is absolutely paramount because on yesterday’s showing, we don’t have one waiting in the wings.
Mind you, have a look a the keeper as well. I have liked Jeacock, but as Phillips strikes the ball, he’s diving to his left, defending an area that would have seen the ball go wide. I’m not looking for scapegoats here, there’s too many to count to be fair, but it’s not great keeping.
The problem I have is whatever I say now is irrelevant. Did we do well up until half time? We did okay. Freddie could have made it 2-1 not long before the break, but sliced his effort high and wide when he should have done better. So what? It doesn’t matter if we score goals, because we can’t stop the opponent scoring them. Every week I come on here and talk about how we aren’t that bad, we just concede silly goals, etc. Sadly, I’m at a point now where those individual errors are a fundamental problem.
This might surprise you – the xG stats from yesterday were 1.18 for us, 1.24 for them. We conceded four goals, from xG that suggested we should only have conceded one. Unpopular opinion (there’s a lot of these) but it actually proves, in my opinion, that the problem we have right now is not the coaching, nor the manager, but the players. Sure, people will say ‘but Jez signed the players so he should go’, but actually, we need a bit of a reset in the summer, and I don’t think the staff are the issue. Nobody complained when Jez brokered deals to get Morgan Rogers and Brennan Johnson, or when we sold Lukas Jensen and Lasse Sorensen for a combined million. No, recruitment isn’t the issue; performance is. The players who have made errors are better than they’re showing, and they’ve been big players for us in the past. We cannot keep making these silly errors but, if we do stop them, we’d be a couple of places higher and I’d be happy.
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