after the knee jerk here's the solution....

[renno]

If Sunderland take full advantage of their 2 games in hand (Which I expect them to do) and we dont win the next 2 home games I think the order of the day is to preserve the players we have for a tilt at the play-offs.

I would simply rest the players for 2 of the last 3 games (plymouth and Blackpool), get them all playing in the final game at Bristol and just take advantage of what could really turn out to be dead rubbers of games

Players who are on 4 bookings would be whole heartedly encouraged to seek their fifth booking be this through an ill timed challenge (obviously not causing damage to the recipient that would be long standing), going to sit in the opponents technical area (if substituted) to encourage light hearted but card worthy banter and if this hasnt been accomplished then simply eff and jeff at the referee as they walk off at full time to encourage a booking,

This plan could work a treat

[pass_and_move]

While ever it's mathematically possible to get automatic then we must stick at it and try to build up the belief again in my opinion. A know what tha saying Renno but bear in mind that Portsmouth are in the shake up too. Sunderland may well slip up with all the games they play in April. Sunderland play Portsmouth in the penultimate rarnd of fixtures. Although it feels like it after the weekend this aint over. Let's see where we are in a couple of weeks going into Easter.

[Ponte_Steve24]

See where we are after the Fleetwood and Shrewsbury games. That will hopefully be six points. True we're reliant on slip ups from Portsmouth and Sunderland but we played better whilst chasing anyway.

[SBRed48]

No, it's all ovva. Wi might as well gu ooam nar. The dunt want to gu up.

[Romared]

Roy Orbison fomee , no ambition !!

[french_frog01]

I've been reluctant to post following Saturday in the hope I'd be able to step back and assess things in a more positive light. However I'm struggling and I have to agree generally with the comments on here. As it's been said we've been pretty average for a good 4-6 weeks now, scraping through certain games until the last couple became a step too far. I'm a fan of promoting youth and not paying big wages to players on the way down but we are suffering from a lack of squad depth and now we're in this difficult position we are suffering from a lack of experience also. Look at some of the experience in the Sunderland and Portsmouth squads (Cattermole, leadbitter, mcgeady, pitman, bogle, burgess), full of players that have experienced winning and more importantly losing whilst under pressure. We couldn't predict injuries and suspensions but January was a dire transfer window and there are plenty of free agents around who we could've dangled the carrot to offering them a 6month deal to help us get out of the league and increase their prospect of getting new contracts in the summer. We've just been typical Barnsley, no long term thinking and an unwillingness to speculate to accumulate. The bit that confuses me is that we have new owners, new managers and new senior management yet we repeat the same mistake? It's like there's a manual on how to do things "the Barnsley way" sat under the west stand that just gets passed down from one person to another!

I really hope the boys prove me wrong but I think even if we win all our remaining games it's highly unlikely that both Sunderland and Portsmouth will slip up. But lets hope so . . .

[pass_and_move]

I've been reluctant to post following Saturday in the hope I'd be able to step back and assess things in a more positive light. However I'm struggling and I have to agree generally with the comments on here. As it's been said we've been pretty average for a good 4-6 weeks now, scraping through certain games until the last couple became a step too far. I'm a fan of promoting youth and not paying big wages to players on the way down but we are suffering from a lack of squad depth and now we're in this difficult position we are suffering from a lack of experience also. Look at some of the experience in the Sunderland and Portsmouth squads (Cattermole, leadbitter, mcgeady, pitman, bogle, burgess), full of players that have experienced winning and more importantly losing whilst under pressure. We couldn't predict injuries and suspensions but January was a dire transfer window and there are plenty of free agents around who we could've dangled the carrot to offering them a 6month deal to help us get out of the league and increase their prospect of getting new contracts in the summer. We've just been typical Barnsley, no long term thinking and an unwillingness to speculate to accumulate. The bit that confuses me is that we have new owners, new managers and new senior management yet we repeat the same mistake? It's like there's a manual on how to do things "the Barnsley way" sat under the west stand that just gets passed down from one person to another!

I really hope the boys prove me wrong but I think even if we win all our remaining games it's highly unlikely that both Sunderland and Portsmouth will slip up. But lets hope so . . .

Good post Frog. Agree with your assessment. I suppose the penny will drop one day in the boardroom when we're a mid table league 1 club going absolutely nowhere and crowds are darn at 6000.

[Hodger1957]

I've struggled to summon up the enthusiasm to post after Saturday.
It's not like it's a surprise what's happened. Most of us saw this coming in January.
Some chose to believe that the owners were doing a good job.
We needed to add to the squad before we sold Potts & Moncur. We were short on options then, now we have no options.
Injuries, poor form, suspensions. Just get on with it. No rotation or game changing selections or substitutions for us.
So, to cheer ourselves up we should join Bill & his mates in a rousing rendition of the team song.
All together

One wheel on our wagon, we're still rolling along.
Sunderland are after us, they look glad, we feel sad but we're singing our happy song.
Higgerdy haggerdy hoggidy hi
Barnsley fans they never say die
A mile up the road there's hidden cave where we can all watch Sunderland go galloping by.

No wheels on our wagon
We're not rolling at all.
Sunderland have passed us by
They look glad, we feel sad but we're singing our happy song.

Repeat and fade.

[Ponte_Steve24]

My word. Apathy has well and truly set in there Hodger. I couldn't give a toss. I knew rot has set in during the Burton game at home. That's when the heads went down.

That was a frustrating evening if ever there was one. The night we handed the initiative to Sunderland in my book. The draw against Coventry just added insult to injury.

What's worse thing is we've being playing sh1te for a while now yet because we've remained unbeaten not a word was uttered and if you said someone was playing crap you'd be hung out to dry.

[pass_and_move]

My word. Apathy has well and truly set in there Hodger. I couldn't give a toss. I knew rot has set in during the Burton game at home. That's when the heads went down.

That was a frustrating evening if ever there was one. The night we handed the initiative to Sunderland in my book. The draw against Coventry just added insult to injury.

What's worse thing is we've being playing sh1te for a while now yet because we've remained unbeaten not a word was uttered and if you said someone was playing crap you'd be hung out to dry.

Disagree mate, there was plenty of justified criticism of the Donny and Walsall games on here, also criticism of individuals.

On the other hand, this is football, its a long old season with a paperthin squad of young uns like ours with no real leaders. Tha can't laik well every game. Sticky patch like this was always in the pipeline. Shame our directors didnt have the foresight to see this but why the hell would they? They're totally unrealistic for a start and they're obviously lacking in common sense football knowledge. Statistics are all they throw at us but when it comes to practicalities they seem to think that their stats based methods are a magic formula and bypass all the practicalities.

When will they learn that the odd tweak and changing of priorities here and there helps things work in your favour short term? Its not very often at all that this club has held darn an automatic promotion place for weeks on end during a season. If we haven't got the foresight to capitalise in this situation when it was there on a plate then we may as well forget it