Romared Match Thoughts Peterborough United v Barnsley

[animallittle3]

Well without wanting to repeat myself this really is a huge transfer window coming up in a couple of days .

With everything still to play for it would be a tragedy that this ends up becoming " the lost season " which could quite easily happen but doesn't have to be either .

We all know our defensive limitations need addressing but the other issue is that once we have to make the changes from the bench we become weaker as a consequence , both Watters and Cosgrove offer only limited value and Jalo is way too young and inexperienced and needs further development .

It's a 16 man game today and it is what it is but whilst Collins isn't Duff he's not a magician either .

[pass_and_move]

Our high press was put in place last night because Collins was well aware of Peterboroughs style of playing out from the back. On an iffy surface it worked a treat in that first half. However, Darren Ferguson is no idiot with a wealth of experience as a manager. He tweaked it at half time and got the ball forward quicker which meant we weren't able to replicate our first half high press.

Despite the frustration of losing a 2 goal lead, I really enjoyed the game and took far more positives from it than negatives.

Collins has changed our style for the better in my opinion. The opposition can dictate our approach to a game which is worth bearing in mind to some fans. The high press can't be put into place against most teams in this division because there's not many teams who actually pass the ball on the deck and we don't necessarily have the right players to play high press per se.


Despite our defenders not being up to the task, we've found some form of consistency from earlier in the season which is great credit to Collins and is overlooked in my view. 1 defeat in 13, especially with this defence is not to be sneezed at.

If the board do the right thing this Jan then we can have a shout at promotion

[Shadrack the Red]

Our high press was put in place last night because Collins was well aware of Peterboroughs style of playing out from the back. On an iffy surface it worked a treat in that first half. However, Darren Ferguson is no idiot with a wealth of experience as a manager. He tweaked it at half time and got the ball forward quicker which meant we weren't able to replicate our first half high press.

Despite the frustration of losing a 2 goal lead, I really enjoyed the game and took far more positives from it than negatives.

Collins has changed our style for the better in my opinion. The opposition can dictate our approach to a game which is worth bearing in mind to some fans. The high press can't be put into place against most teams in this division because there's not many teams who actually pass the ball on the deck and we don't necessarily have the right players to play high press per se.


Despite our defenders not being up to the task, we've found some form of consistency from earlier in the season which is great credit to Collins and is overlooked in my view. 1 defeat in 13, especially with this defence is not to be sneezed at.

If the board do the right thing this Jan then we can have a shout at promotion

I agree with every thing you have & whilst I try to give both players and managers plenty of time before I judge Collins is slowly winning me over , it has been said many times that he was dealt a bum hand by our owners which really no one can argue with ,but he is getting results and there certainly seems to be a strong bond between this group of players which is key as team spirit helps a lot, yet reading various forums etc there is still a core of fans who want him removed , frankly I find that unreal given that we only 2 days away from a transfer window plus we have lost once in the last 13 & of course you then have to find a replacement which can take a lot of time & one thing I find even more bizarre is that some even want him out even if he got us promoted , sometimes in life it does not matter what you do you simply cannot win .

[Barnsley Chop]

A lot of positive comments, which is great to read.

[animallittle3]

I appreciate I may be on my own here but an entertaining game only works for me when we get the three points .

Give me a second half last night at 2-1 where we completely shut the game down with good game management , use the subs to kill the game and do a totally professional job .

[pass_and_move]

I appreciate I may be on my own here but an entertaining game only works for me when we get the three points .

Give me a second half last night at 2-1 where we completely shut the game down with good game management , use the subs to kill the game and do a totally professional job .

You first need professional defenders to do that kind of thing buddy

Seriously though, that's why I think Collins should be given credit. 42 points at the halfway stage is a great effort in all fairness when we signed the 'potential' in defence back in pre season.

What I'm weary of is that the board will probably use this seasons points haul as an excuse to say that there's nothing wrong with the status quo and not address the obvious weaknesses. Certain fans will go with that ideology too as daft as it sounds.

When you think that some higher quality defensive recruitment should've been done last summer in the wake of who left the club, it's no exaggerating that we could've been top of the league right now because we wouldn't have lost or drawn most of the games that we have.

[Shadrack the Red]

I appreciate I may be on my own here but an entertaining game only works for me when we get the three points .

Give me a second half last night at 2-1 where we completely shut the game down with good game management , use the subs to kill the game and do a totally professional job .

We all want 3 points however do you not think that both teams went for the win , there was no time wasting & as the game went on it got more pacier & exciting there was really good football for a third division match , when we beat Stevenage I said that it was an awful match but we got the points, last night we let two slip but I do not think that anyone judging it as a football match could not deny it was entertaining .

[Young_Nudger]

As long as I’ve been watching Barnsley the supporters obviously prefer to win but they also want to see entertaining attractive football.
A reason why many supporters didn’t like Ismael.
I’ve heard this many times when leaving Oakwell - ‘well we won but it wasn’t good was it’.

[animallittle3]

When I played local football and was heading to around the 30 years of age mark we had a coach who completely changed the way I looked at football and his influence on me as never left me .

We used to argue at that time about Kevin Keegan's Newcastle in the pub following games , I was enthralled how Newcastle were so entertaining and my coach said they were in his opinion cr@p , Keegan was naive and ultimately they wouldn't win anything , Harlem Globe Trotters he called them .

He went to great lengths to explain to me why he thought the way he did about Keegan and Newcastle and I can remember the night the penny dropped for me and how right he was .

The famous Liverpool v Newcastle game that finished 4-3 to the Scousers and is almost universally praised as one if not the most entertaining Premier League game ever played .

I began to admire other aspects of the game rather more than the end to end , goals galore and you score three we will score four mentality that was Keegan's mentality .

I can actually be entertained watching us hold on to a lead away from home , shut the game down , game management and a bit of shytehousery thrown in .

Even at the age I was he improved me massively as a player and I wish I'd come under his wing when I was 18 because I played and looked at the game totally wrong up to that point .

I'm not saying I'm right about how football should be played or even what's entertaining and what isn't because we all see this game differently and long may it continue .

[SBRed48]

For fans going to a match should be a leisure/ entertainment experience, a break from routine where emotions can be released.

Being amongst a crowd with a flat atmosphere watching the team bore the fans and grind out a win is the opposite of that.

A balance between the two watching winning, attractive football is, of course, the ideal. "A statement of the bleedin obvious",as Basil Fawlty would say.