Bolton 1-1 Barnsley

Well Ian wasted the first 45 minutes with the Kacha man spending all day on his Ars.  Midfield cut out completely with plenty of hoof ball. Second half was better.  I thought Barnsley were the better side overall and deserved the draw. Needless to say, we have a job on next Friday.
COYWM

How poor was that? I’m actually feeling quite pleased to have come away with a draw because we certainly didn’t deserve it. If anything it gives me more confidence for Friday night because we surely can’t play as badly as that again. Thank goodness for Trafford because without him today we could have gone the same way as the Wendies. Start again Friday and forget today, we can still win this if we play anything like?

As the manager pointed out after the match, the Posh game last night had the effect of making both teams that little bit more cautious and it wasn't until Barnsley scored that we started to play with any sort of freedom.
We go again and what might help is that Oakwell is one of the widest pitches in the country - a yard narrower than Wembley and 3 yards wider than ours.
But what would help even more would be for us to get our passing game together from the off and play quicker through the lines. Barnsley's mid 3 pressed very high and we resorted to bypassing them with long balls that their big defenders lapped up and they won just about every second ball as well. With Barnsley over-committing, slick one touch passing - which we managed briefly in the second half - would carve them open like a knife through butter, but we have to show the quality and bravery to do it. That is what Evatt is aiming for after all and if we fail at least we'll fail being us.

A really, really disappointing performance.

What did the manager say to them before the game? They played the first half as though it was a pre-season friendly.

The goalie and defence were pretty good, but the midfield and attack were terrible. How many times did Dempsey & Morley pass straight to a red shirt? Sheehan was anonymous.

Our biggest problem in attack is that no fooker can control the ball. Every time Barnsley fizzed it into an attacker they kept hold of it. Every time the ball was passed to one of our strikers the ball was lost immediately - it seemed to bounce of shins and knees every single time. Evans should be on the phone to Cole Stockton right now begging him to join us.

Biggest game of the season in front of a big crowd and they give us that.

Shambles.

Oh, and fooking Connell was the best player on the pitch. Typical.

Oh, and not having a keeper on the bench is suicide. All it takes is an injury or sending off in the first 5 minutes and your season is over.

Seething.

Natasha Whittam wrote:Oh, and not having a keeper on the bench is suicide. All it takes is an injury or sending off in the first 5 minutes and your season is over.

Seething.

I totally agree about the keeper situation.

It's completely idiotic of EVANS to persist without any backup goalie.

If we should get to Wembley will he risk  it yet again?

I think everyone agrees with the idiotic keeper situation tbh.

karlypants wrote:I think everyone agrees with the idiotic keeper situation tbh.

I do also...

...BUT to be fair to Evatt, he's played something like two full seasons now, mostly without a back-up keeper on the bench and it hasn't bit him in the bum so far...

It would just be his and our luck if we lost the second leg (or even worse the final) if he fails to name a keeper on the bench and Trafford is injured or sent off, in what would inevitably be our last game of the season.

Sluffy wrote:...BUT to be fair to Evatt, he's played something like two full seasons now, mostly without a back-up keeper on the bench and it hasn't bit him in the bum so far...

While I think you should always have a sub keeper on the bench, the worst that can happen in a league game is you lose 3 points.

But to do it in a the play-offs when your whole season rests on one game is utterly reckless.

If the worst did happen Evans should be sacked immediately.

We played with the handbrake on first half and only woke up when they scored. We should have looked to get a lead from the first leg, now it's going to be very tough on Friday and i'm not that confident we can beat them at their place.

Actually I have more confidence we’ll win at Oakwell than I did at home Norpig. It’s a one game season now and when we need to dig in we usually can so I think we’ll come out on top. I do agree about the keeper, even though it is Dixon who I have no confidence in. Wouldn’t it be a tragedy if Traf in his possibly last game for us committed a silly foul or said something wrong and got sent off costing us the match? Strange things can happen but hopefully won’t and we’ll come through.

To be fair to IE, when I am on football manager I never have a sub keeper on the bench. The statistics are like 1 in about 40 matches you need to use a sub keeper, it’s not worth wasting a sub for. You lot need to toughen up.

Mad Dog wrote:The statistics are like 1 in about 40 matches you need to use a sub keeper

So we're due then.