Barnsley v Exeter match thoughts

[animallittle3]

It's a game Roma alluded to in the PL thread and it's a game that's never left me all these years later .

I'm 15 years old at the time and excited to see this club's first bit of success in my young tenure , promotion from the 4th tier , I was a bit young for the 67/68 promotion to really understand the significance of it even though my old man and two uncles took me to the promotion winning game at Chester .

It's April 1977 and we go in at half time 3 to the good , at no point as a 15 year old do you see what's coming in the second half , you only learn that the hard way as the years roll on .

3-0 became 3-1 , a consolation at best for The Grecians , 3-1 quickly became 3-2 hmm and before you know it's 3-3 and then 4-3 to the visitors .

It was a stunning comeback and I was absolutely numb .

The thing is what's generally forgotten about is just how big a game this was at the time , it was basically a one game shoot out between ourselves and Exeter for the last remaining promotion spot with only one game remaining after this one .

I can tell you this , we go 3 nil up at half time on Saturday and I'm celebrating nowt .

[Acido]

I think Ive only known us play them once actually, in season '80.
My first season and it was the Clarke/Hunter Third Division promotion season (what is now Lg One of course!).
Could that be a good omen I wonder. 😉

[pass_and_move]

Leetnin dunt strike twice Animal, well hopefully not!

A reckon they'll come up here and defend with 1 man up top. It could be a tricky fixture this, they're newly promoted and still riding the crest of a wave. To be fair they've had a decent start anorl. Ad tekka scrappy 1-0 win wi a Devante Cole knob end bundling it over the line late on in the game.

[Redrascal]

Think duff said they like to play 2 thirds up pitch,could be difficult to defend,hopefully out midfield will win the battle and release our forwards,early goal would be great.

[Romared]

A think I've been to their ground 3 times ? Long trip but always a good away day , decent fan's from what I remember , can't see them bringing many on Saturday though ,

[animallittle3]

A think I've been to their ground 3 times ? Long trip but always a good away day , decent fan's from what I remember , can't see them bringing many on Saturday though ,

Visited twice , 79/80 a 2-1 defeat and 80/81 a 1-0 win courtesy of Glyn Riley .

Nice city too , usually have a day out there when we go to Torquay for a break .

[Acido]

Isn't their ground also called St James Park, just like the one at Newcastle. 😊

[pass_and_move]

Isn't their ground also called St James Park, just like the one at Newcastle. 😊

Who'd have thowt wid be laikin at Highbury and St James' Park in league 1 🤔

[Acido]

Who'd have thowt wid be laikin at Highbury and St James' Park in league 1 🤔

Yeah and Flockweed, sorry Fleetwood also play in the Arsenal style kit as well. 😉

[animallittle3]

A real banana skin of a game if ever I saw one .

We are on a decent run and a home game against opponents we should on paper beat plus the fact they've just lost their manager .

Interesting afternoon ahead and it will certainly give myself a good look at where we are at currently .

[Romared]

Not only have they lost the manager but also some backroom staff too, under 18s coach in charge today , I agree it's a possible banana skin , I also think we should be hammering them to erase the memory of that sickening defeat in 77 ,
Forza di Reds UTFLWG !
nothing in today's YP about Thomas's injury ?

[perkytyke]

We have to get a result today, all of the teams above us have relatively easy games and should all win?
These will come and shut up shop today hoping to get the first goal then defend it! We need to break them down as early as possible, God help us if they score first.

[Romared]

Geeor worryin Perks wis bi reyt ! Tickled me yesterday , drove past Hogsville twice and the sign outside said next home game CHELTENHAM TOWN , surely it should have read CHELSEA !

[animallittle3]

Same team as last week other than Aitchison in for Luke Thomas .

[POGGYWELL]

22686

Subs: Walton (GK), Edwards, Larkeche, Phillips, Connell, Martin, Tedic.



EXETER: Blackman (GK), Caprice, Sparkes, Hartridge, Harper, Collins, Stansfield, Nombe, Key, Brown, Sweeney (c).

Subs: Brown (GK), Smith, Chauke, Cox, King, James.

[Romared]

Absolute rubbish this by Reds , look like strangers , Mads and defence 🙈 fair play to Exeter by far the better team so far ,

[animallittle3]

I've nothing constructive to say so I won't .

[Jules88]

Poor. Feels like they think they can just turn up.

[Jules88]

Im doing a Ponte…. Off to pub

[Doggydo]

I can put up with a couple of players having an off day but it’s been every player, we were second to the ball all game, the midfield have been shocking and couldn’t find a pass and the defenders couldn’t get in a tackle. Fair play to Exeter they were by far the better side but we have been woeful.
I never thought I’d see the day when I’d be saying we missed Thomas.

[Young_Nudger]

Bad day at the office.
Exeter better in every department.
Barnsley seem to think they can just turn up and win - when obviously they can’t.
Terrible performance.
Very much reminiscent of last season.

Twinkle toes Williams had another poor game.
And as said last week - jury is still out regarding Kane - this time he started slowly and maintained it. Luca is the better player IMO.
As for tactics - Duff is getting our tactics wrong when we play at home.

Cole worked hard with little or no service - he’s a player with speed - but he hasn’t got the upper body strength of a target striker.
How many times did we just lump it forward for a target striker …… and lost the ball - cos we haven’t got a target striker !!!
So why is Duff telling them to do this ???
We haven’t got strength up front so surely we need to play through midfield.

We missed Luke Thomas massively - a player picking the ball up in midfield and driving forward.
Definitely there was a disconnect between midfield and the strikers.

Only player IMO that came out of that game with any credit was Kichen.

[Romared]

Total💩 all of them , well done Exeter better side by a country mile ,

[animallittle3]

Nobody coming out of that debacle today with any positives including Duff .

Anytime you take your main striker off after 30 minutes and replace him with a midfield player you've picked the wrong team , dress it up how you want but that's dropping a pre match boll@ck , all day long .

Aitchison isn't Thomas and never will be , chalk n cheese .

That said the players were individually woeful , no pressure on the ball for Exeter's opening goal and the lad put it away with a tidy finish but none the less totally avoidable .

A goal down and turning it around isn't something we do and the players were visibly rocked by it , poor considering there was 89 minutes plus time added on to turn it around .

Don't get me started on Exeter's second , absolutely woeful .

Only when Connell came on did we put some passing patterns together , why he didn't start today with Thomas out for the foreseeable is a question for Duff .

Done very well so far as Duff and he's entitled to a bad game but none the less he's got it totally wrong today and his players needed to step up and bail him out .

They were found wanting .

[perkytyke]

Seems to me Duff needs to start playing the tactics we deploy away at home? We were lucky with a few results today with Bolton, Pompey and Posh all dropping points!

[Romared]

And let's be fair it could have been 2 or 3 more to the visitors , how did Mads get MOM ? I'd probably agree with Nudge and go with Kitchin , although he always looks a liability he got forward well late on ,

[animallittle3]

And let's be fair it could have been 2 or 3 more to the visitors , how did Mads get MOM ? I'd probably agree with Nudge and go with Kitchin , although he always looks a liability he got forward well late on ,

Agree Roma , they were walking through that defensive line the majority of the game .

[animallittle3]

Seems to me Duff needs to start playing the tactics we deploy away at home? We were lucky with a few results today with Bolton, Pompey and Posh all dropping points!

We can't handle teams playing on the break at Oakwell , this game was a mirror image of the Wycombe catastrophe .

[Doggydo]

I don’t see why we have to have a MOM when all you’ve got is to pick the best of a bad bunch.

[animallittle3]

I don’t see why we have to have a MOM when all you’ve got is to pick the best of a bad bunch.


I think it's a sponsor's thing and part of the match day package .

[Romared]

We can't handle teams playing on the break at Oakwell , this game was a mirror image of the Wycombe catastrophe . and Lincoln , there's a pattern forming ,and future sides will or should see our frailties , their stand in manager stated we had weakness in certain areas , over to you Mr Duff 🤞

[POGGYWELL]

Worst performance of the season we looked like a team of strangers that had just been put together.
I don’t know if we are protecting Connell after his injury but that lad should start every game for me.
My goodness we really needed a game changer today but didn’t have one.
Home tactics need examining but full credit to Exeter they never looked like dropping points today.
Our frailties we’re fully exposed so it’s back to the drawing board in my opinion.
Move on

[animallittle3]

and Lincoln , there's a pattern forming ,and future sides will or should see our frailties , their stand in manager stated we had weakness in certain areas , over to you Mr Duff 🤞

Indeed Roma and the problem is playing with the three at the back in my opinion .

This post probably looks like I'm throwing the baby out with the bath water because of today but it isn't because I've not really seen the back three working as a cohesive unit all season .

They've got away with a lot and the flaws get hidden with the odd game when they've done ok amongst it .

They were ok at Hillsborough and last week at Fleetwood but on both occasions our opponents hardly laid a glove on us .

The best I've seen us defend when we were under pressure was at Cambridge when Kitching was sent off and we went to a four and I said so following the game .

For me it's a flat back four and a four or five man midfield .

[animallittle3]

Worst performance of the season we looked like a team of strangers that had just been put together.
I don’t know if we are protecting Connell after his injury but that lad should start every game for me.
My goodness we really needed a game changer today but didn’t have one.
Home tactics need examining but full credit to Exeter they never looked like dropping points today.
Our frailties we’re fully exposed so it’s back to the drawing board in my opinion.
Move on

Connell should have started Poggy .

[POGGYWELL]

No hunger, no energy, no quality’ was Michael Duff’s assessment of Barnsley’s 2-0 loss to Exeter, although he did say Luke Thomas’ horrific injury yesterday ‘might have been a contributing factor

“I knew there would be ups and downs. We have had two home defeats in a similar matter. Both teams only had a few shots on target but our intensity and quality wasn’t there. We will try to get to the bottom of it when we get them in on Monday.”
Luke Thomas had suffered a broken leg in training the previous day. He is due to have surgery on Tuesday and is expected to miss four months.

“In training we were doing a small-sided game, he slid in at the back post to score with no one anywhere near him. His leg got caught underneath him and his studs caught in the ground. He broke his leg and damaged a lot of ligaments in his ankle.
“It’s not an excuse for today but it’s difficult when players see their mate, who is a popular member of the squad, on gas and air, screaming in agony. There is a weirdness in the training, players are not really listening because they’re worried abut Luke. We have to re-pick a team. I can’t blame that on the performance but it might have been a contributing factor. We definitely lacked his energy today.”

[animallittle3]

No hunger, no energy, no quality’ was Michael Duff’s assessment of Barnsley’s 2-0 loss to Exeter, although he did say Luke Thomas’ horrific injury yesterday ‘might have been a contributing factor

“I knew there would be ups and downs. We have had two home defeats in a similar matter. Both teams only had a few shots on target but our intensity and quality wasn’t there. We will try to get to the bottom of it when we get them in on Monday.”
Luke Thomas had suffered a broken leg in training the previous day. He is due to have surgery on Tuesday and is expected to miss four months.

“In training we were doing a small-sided game, he slid in at the back post to score with no one anywhere near him. His leg got caught underneath him and his studs caught in the ground. He broke his leg and damaged a lot of ligaments in his ankle.
“It’s not an excuse for today but it’s difficult when players see their mate, who is a popular member of the squad, on gas and air, screaming in agony. There is a weirdness in the training, players are not really listening because they’re worried abut Luke. We have to re-pick a team. I can’t blame that on the performance but it might have been a contributing factor. We definitely lacked his energy today.”

If it's not an excuse then why mention it ?

I get it shook the group , not a pleasant thing to witness and you call time on the session and get indoors and deal with it as a group .

Without wanting to sound totally heartless it's part n parcel of the game , Collins had his nose smashed to bits , blood all over the place and after he went off we scored two more goals at Cambridge .

They seem to deal with that alright in real time .

If you want to make Luke feel better then go out and smash Exeter and get three points .

[Acido]

That for me is a ludicrous excuse, and I hope Duff isn't suggesting it as our reason for totally under performing.
I also go along with the idea that it should have made them even more determined to want to win it. For us fans and for themselves, and for their missing injured team mate especially.

[Acido]

Btw, the uncle McPapas fizzy pizza tinpot trophy match is just going to be a nuisance during the week.
Because as with any league defeat like this, its important how we react next week away at Bolton, back in the league again. And that was always going to be a huge 6-pointer of a game anyway.

[animallittle3]

Btw, the uncle McPapas fizzy pizza tinpot trophy match is just going to be a nuisance during the week.
Because as with any league defeat like this, its important how we react next week away at Bolton, back in the league again. And that was always going to be a huge 6-pointer of a game anyway.

It wouldn't be a nuisance if I was in charge because the majority of em who started the game today would be starting Tuesday night .

[Jules88]

One to bury. Move on. They weren’t on it from minute one. Some phycological stuff to do, and then tell them to move on as regards the injury. Still a team developing here, and perhaps Manager and Captain haven’t been in such a situation as this before with a bad injury In training….. I’ve seen enough to think that this will be sorted by the coaching team, and worked around to overcome the injury to Thomas.( who was a massive driver of our attack this season so far).
A fortnight to adapt, and we will back firing.

[SBRed48]

We are an above average Third Division team but many players are young and inconsistent.

Duff is doing well with the cards he has been dealt but both he and the players had an off day yesterday.

--Duff should have used the Thomas injury as a big motivator along the lines of "Let's go out there and do it for Luke today" rather than them moping. (Tha dun't read "moping" much nardays in sports reports)

--some of Duff's substitutions were questionable in timing and players.

--key players edda poor day.

--Exeter played well