SBRed Match Thoughts Barnsley v Bolton Wanderers

Today was possibly the best we?ve played all season. Certainly at home anyway.

Jalo was superb. Took his goals well and was terrifying their defence all game. Connell was an absolute warrior through and ran the midfield. Russell looked very good in the opposition?s third. Others were good too.

I?ve been banging the drum the 4 at the back for ages now and after today, if we go back to 5-3-2 with wing backs, I?ll be annoyed. Let?s sign some full backs in the summer and go back to 4 at the back for a full season.

Pleased for Hourihane too.

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Originally Posted by NerfHerder

Today was possibly the best we?ve played all season. Certainly at home anyway.

Jalo was superb. Took his goals well and was terrifying their defence all game. Connell was an absolute warrior through and ran the midfield. Russell looked very good in the opposition?s third. Others were good too.

I?ve been banging the drum the 4 at the back for ages now and after today, if we go back to 5-3-2 with wing backs, I?ll be annoyed. Let?s sign some full backs in the summer and go back to 4 at the back for a full season.

Pleased for Hourihane too.

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You are spot on Nerth , i also have banged on and on about going back to a back four but I was told it wasn"t the Barnsley Way, absolute tosh , today was the Barnsley way , a 4 man back line what actually stuck to defending as a unit , a midfield that fought hard for the ball and were led by the superb Connell , he wore the captains armband and set the tone , he was outstanding , and for once we played with wingers, Jalo showcasing his obvious talent and Humphries putting in a strong skilful shift and of course we had Dunne playing up top who worked tirelessly pulling the Bolton defenders all over the shop with the end result being our best performance of the season and the fans getting some long overdue entertainment, lets hope Conner has finally got the message through to the paymasters that they cannot dictate to manager on playing style , leave it to those that know what they are doing !!! . We all know that one swallow does not make a summer but despite results of late being poor there has actually been signs of green shoots appearing, lets hope we continue to pull in the right way , we will see !! I know this, walking out of the ground today there was a buzz and a feeling amongst the faithful that I had not seen or felt for a long time .

https://youtu.be/uf05pSmtBJc


Highlights.

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Originally Posted by Shadrack the Red

You are spot on Nerth , i also have banged on and on about going back to a back four but I was told it wasn"t the Barnsley Way, absolute tosh , today was the Barnsley way , a 4 man back line what actually stuck to defending as a unit , a midfield that fought hard for the ball and were led by the superb Connell , he wore the captains armband and set the tone , he was outstanding , and for once we played with wingers, Jalo showcasing his obvious talent and Humphries putting in a strong skilful shift and of course we had Dunne playing up top who worked tirelessly pulling the Bolton defenders all over the shop with the end result being our best performance of the season and the fans getting some long overdue entertainment, lets hope Conner has finally got the message through to the paymasters that they cannot dictate to manager on playing style , leave it to those that know what they are doing !!! . We all know that one swallow does not make a summer but despite results of late being poor there has actually been signs of green shoots appearing, lets hope we continue to pull in the right way , we will see !! I know this, walking out of the ground today there was a buzz and a feeling amongst the faithful that I had not seen or felt for a long time .

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Yep agree with that. Let?s hope we can have some momentum for the last few games and take some positivity into the summer and next season.

As you say, there was buzz after the game. Even though the Ponty End wasn?t quite as full as it usually is, the noise was good. A happy Oakwell is a great place to be.

The only thing I'd question with regard to the defence today was how many times we were caught square .

One long ball in between the two centre backs and Bolton were in one on one .

Fortunately they only capitalised the once , they could have had more .

Switching to a different defensive system at this stage of the season is a big ask so I'll cut them a little bit of slack .

Some real work to be done in pre season on playing with a four at the back .

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Originally Posted by animallittle3

The only thing I'd question with regard to the defence today was how many times we were caught square .

One long ball in between the two centre backs and Bolton were in one on one .

Fortunately they only capitalised the once , they could have had more .

Switching to a different defensive system at this stage of the season is a big ask so I'll cut them a little bit of slack .

Some real work to be done in pre season on playing with a four at the back .

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The euphoria was warranted. After all the poor performances, today deserved an ovational walk around the ground.
You are right though Animal, and with mcatee being so good at ?running into? you would have thought we would have been switched on to it.

That said?. Enjoyed the win, but by god, that was the worst Bolton team Ive seen in a long time.

Felt good walking away today?.. saw a plan.

So very Pleased for Russell. Everyone picks the mistakes out. The lad makes some brilliant passes.

?. Earl, ? we have missed him. He was playing VERY far up the field today.

Mmmm. Satisfying today. Papered the cracks.

Doesn't it add to the frustration though, that we come up with a performance (and a win) like that, now that the season is well and truly over.
And with Bolton, Hudds, Reading, and L.Orient all struggling to get over the line in this last part of the season.
It shows that this really is a big missed opportunity, that we've not taken.
I've never agreed when fans dismiss a season, and say we're not good enough or not ready to go up yet. And let's hope we can do it next season instead, etc.
Surely that's nonsense, because when it comes to promotions, you've got to take them if/when you can get them!. 😕

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Originally Posted by Acido

Doesn't it add to the frustration though, that we come up with a performance (and a win) like that, now that the season is well and truly over.
And with Bolton, Hudds, Reading, and L.Orient all struggling to get over the line in this last part of the season.
It shows that this really is a big missed opportunity, that we've not taken.
I've never agreed when fans dismiss a season, and say we're not good enough or not ready to go up yet. And let's hope we can do it next season instead, etc.
Surely that's nonsense, because when it comes to promotions, you've got to take them if/when you can get them!. ��

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I agree with all you are saying but the simple truth is that we have been poor at home all season and I lay that at playing wing backs at home has been a disaster, teams have just waited for our wing backs to bomb on and countered by playing the ball over the top and catching us out time after time , so predictable , so much space for opposition forwards to run into and exploit, at least Conner has recognised this and is trying to address the problem , it is very clear that we need defenders especially full backs who can actually defend , Bland yesterday did a very good job at right back whilst Earl did ok at left back , Roberts was his usual solid self at centre back and McCarthy had one of his better games but the first thing we need in the summer is the recruitment of another proven centre back and a left full back , maybe Gent might be the answer with some coaching but we have not missed out at all this season , we have been no where good enough at the back and as a unit we have been light years off being a promotion contender .

Not seen the game, just the highlights posted here, thanks for posting them.
Not much to say really, pleased for the fans, pleased for Conor, pleased the for the players (it was not a moment too soon) and I hope the form lasts to the end of our dismal season.

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Originally Posted by Jules88

The euphoria was warranted. After all the poor performances, today deserved an ovational walk around the ground.
You are right though Animal, and with mcatee being so good at ?running into? you would have thought we would have been switched on to it.

That said?. Enjoyed the win, but by god, that was the worst Bolton team Ive seen in a long time.

Felt good walking away today?.. saw a plan.

So very Pleased for Russell. Everyone picks the mistakes out. The lad makes some brilliant passes.

?. Earl, ? we have missed him. He was playing VERY far up the field today.

Mmmm. Satisfying today. Papered the cracks.

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As Shad has alluded to it's about getting the right players to play in a four , the mad Frenchman wouldn't be anywhere near it in my opinion .

Playing with a four in itself doesn't mean you defend better it just offers you more options further up the pitch .

Ultimately it's the players who make systems work and not the other way around as YN's lack of football intelligence reveals .

The other take from yesterday is that it's likely Keillor Dunn , Philips , Connell or maybe even Jalo will be sold this summer and you take them out of yesterday's performance and replace with lesser quality and it much doesn't matter what system we play because ultimately poorer players lead to poorer results .

Pretty obvious to those of us who have a bit of common sense not so obvious when people charged with recruitment don't know what they are doing .

If you are going to play with a four then it's best not to have a huge gap between the two centre backs or indeed both full backs otherwise known as the channels .

You have to play narrower with the only space offered is down the sides and furthest away from any danger and not what you saw yesterday .

Hours on the training ground with the right players fixes that .