Waking Up To A Clearer Picture: Barnsley Win Could Be Sliding Doors Moment

Sometimes, you wake up and realise that for a couple of weeks, you’ve been slipping into a mood, or a dark cloud has moved over your head.

Yeah, that’s right, it’s that sort of article.

It happens, though. It has to me recently, for obvious reasons, but you don’t think ‘oh, I’m really unhappy’ and then the next day think ‘oh, I’m a little bit unhappier than yesterday’. It just happens and you don’t realise it until you catch your wife’s eye and you realise how loved you are, or until your little dog licks your face one morning and it just makes you realise you’ve slipped down a little slope.

It wasn’t a little dog last night. It was a Tom Bayliss chip, so delicious that if they added it to McDonald’s menu, it would sell out in a day. It was a Reeco Hackett brace like a dog lick to the face, and catching your wife’s eye, both at the same moment.

Go on, admit it. For some unknown reason, there has been a malaise drifting across Sincil Bank. It’s utterly bizarre, because we were fourth, we’d won three home games on the bounce, and yet somehow, the mood felt low. What more can a team sitting somewhere like 18th in the budget table do to keep fans happy? How else can they blow a cloud of ‘meh’ away from a fanbase that, being brutal, have probably never had it so good?

I know, let’s put three past Barnsley, send them home with no points for the first time in almost half a century, and with their first defeat of any sort under the watchful gaze of the cathedral since August 1980. Will that do it?

Yes lads. Cheers.

I felt the malaise, predicted a 0-0 more out of hope. I saw posts on social media about not attending the game because of a loss of interest. With 7,000 home fans, down 1,000 on our usual, this felt like anything but a clash between two sides vying for a top-six spot. Maybe it’s the time of year, the recent injury news, the Huddersfield defeat, I don’t know. Whatever it was, City fans were reminded that this is still the best side we have had (with fans in the stadium) since the last time we were regularly beating Barnsley.

I was told before the game the line up was described as negative, doubtless because Jefferies came in and we didn’t start Street, but with Moylan in the ten, it was anything but. We played to the conditions as well, not putting the ball in the air for the first half. It’s easier to do that when the opposition want to play a high line, which is exactly what Barnsley did.

They put it on us for those first 15 minutes, and I feared we’d be in for a really rough night. It was difficult in that period, because we misplaced a few passes which had moans and groans going off around the stadium, but they weren’t sideways or safe passes. We were trying to find smart passes, mainly to Moylan or Hackett, and I can live with that. Being safe, I can live with for spells. Being inaccurate, but aggressive, I can live with. Combine the two and there might be an issue but sometimes, it’s hard to differentiate.

We weathered that storm with a pass accuracy of just over 70%, seeing Barnsley muster four attempts, one on target. They should be a decent side, Reyes Cleary could have had Tendayi on toast for pace, but he was sloppy in possession once or twice. Connell and Keillor-Dunn would walk into 95% of League One sides, but their threat was no more dangerous than Doncaster or Port Vale, not really. They looked better for a quarter of an hour, but that’s because they did come out and give it a go.

In difficult conditions, we got a foothold, a bit like standing at the bottom of a wet, windy hill, finding grip on the path and just going. From around minute 10 to 44, we were the better side, and claims of negativity beforehand seem as ludicrous as the apathy that some of us had found ourselves slipping into. Jack Moylan, often cited as one who can’t impact games as well from the off, impacted the game. Reeco had a playmate in the ten role, someone with trickery and drive to commit players which then freed him up a little. It didn’t always come off, but when it did, it looked good.

I thought Freddie was outstanding, working tirelessly, even scooping over from eight yards when a goal looked likely. Dom Jefferies, a player we all struggled to place in the side after his left wing back stint last season, thrived wide left. It just clicked, and Moylan had two great chances, his one-on-one break and the half volley he put wide. City were back, having never actually been away.

When the goal came, nobody could say it was against the run of play. It was a class team effort, Hackett to Moylan, Moylan to Darikwa and back, then out to Hackett, who did what right-footed players on the left flank do: cut inside and finished incredibly. It wasn’t the best chance of the first half, not the most obvious, but it was one finished off outstandingly by a player finding some real form.

After that the game stayed at a good tempo. Barnsley wanted to bring it to us, which did leave them open, and it got a bit end-to-end at times, but for a neutral, that was fine. For a City fan, it was good too, because we had the goal. They played as if they needed a win with just one game of the season left at times, high, but with mistakes that felt like they came from us putting on pressure. A late Wickens’ save reminded us however poor Barnsley had been in their final execution, they were never done.