Match Preview; Middlesbrough Away

  ”An Emil Hallfredsson strike fired Barnsley to a second straight win as the Tykes closed in on a play-off spot.”

So reads the opening line of the BBC’s usually conservative match report from Saturday. Sounds good, doesn’t it? The belief around Oakwell that Mark Robins is not just content with survival is rapidly becoming tangible. The squad looks strong, and particularly these last two wins have been very pleasing. It’s like our holes have been filled. Andy Gray is finally establishing himself as the regular and efficient striker we have been missing all season, while Teixeira has brought in enough competition and class to the midfield to turn that spark of creativity back on. Things are looking up.

Barnsley 1-0 Watford; It’s not Preston, but it is 3 points.

We went into this game sporting, predictably, the same set up and personnel who thrashed Preston’s hide.  It didn’t work out that way again because Watford came to try and end a losing run, and they closed us down quickly in their half, something Preston didn’t do. But, we did all we needed to do to raise ourselves up to a fantastic 9^th place, just 3 small points behind 6^th.

The majestic, flowing, spacious attacking was just not happening against an organized and disciplined Watford defence. They weren’t going to give us anything we didn’t fight for, but fight we did. Yet again Doyle was sublime, and together with Colace they wrestled control of the midfield zone, and gave our defence an easy job. They too were faultless, particularly Darren Moore, who put in one of those performances that just gives forwards nightmares. The pressure stifled much of our 3 man attacking midfield, and Anderson was poor. Andy Gray could rarely be found on the ground, and so his life was made much harder by a string of aerial balls. He did a great job despite this adversity, and was given help by Teixeira. The Tex was pure class yesterday. His skill left me at times incredulous, and his control and passing were second to none.

Match Preview Watford Home

So, following on from the performance of the season on Tuesday, we have the hugely important mission of carrying that forwards and to try and build up some good form. We did so much right against Preston, the main thing of which was the attack. Robins said ”It was not about a formation. It was all about the passing, control, movement and goals.” Sure, they were what won it, but would it all have clicked together without the formation? He was certainly very right about the players though. He said, “There are lots of good things to take from Saturday and we have a lot to live up to. If the players can continue to believe in themselves in the way I do then I’m sure they will continue that.” There is no reason for our hugely talented bunch of players not to have total self belief.

Soundoff; Darren Moore, is he up to it?

Darren Moore could quite feasibly be described as an enigma at the moment. He has a towering and even terrifying presence, partnered with what must feel like decades of experience. He is a megalith, holding the record number of promotions to the Premiership. There can be no doubt that Davey was right to sign him at face value, and he has definitely repayed that signing.

But this post isn’t meant to be a monument to the success of a great man. All the best players get bad before they retire. My question is,  has Big Dave reached that stage?

Preston 1-4 Barnsley, back with a bang.

How the hell we can lose 4 out of 5, and then produce the best performance of the season I’ll never know for sure, but hell, do we care? It was electrifying from the Reds last night, and we deserved every goal we got, and more. 

Later I will say differently, but the real Man of the Match here is no doubt Mark Robins, trotting out a new formation with new signings, and didn’t it work? Doyle and Colace were given the role of dominating and running the game, a role which they performed in more than admirably (again), while ahead of them he brilliantly solved our problems with passing and possession in the final third.  

Three attacking midfielders created a close, skillful, varied and accurate game which was at all times unpredictable and deadly. This was vastly helped by the three men doing it, Anderson, Hallfredsson and the bright Texeira all made good decisions, passed accurately and dribbled intermittently but skillfully. They were fluid, all longing for the central role primarily occupied by ADS, often overlapping and throwing away the markers. Of course those three couldn’t score on their own, and Andy Gray pulled of a 5 Star performance as both a post player to provide lay offs, control and one-twos, but also as the final cog in our smooth, beautiful passing machine.