They tried it again – that Cherries anthem. A call from
yesteryear to get the crowd going which resulted in 2 old guys clapping along
hoping for Vera Lynn to come on next.
I’m all for us finding our own identity and galvanising the
crowd into song, but no-one under 40 will have heard of it and they certainly
won’t be joining in. I hope that we can get a song together, just something
that doesn’t make us sound like we’re off to play with our woggles afterwards….
The game started brightly for me. In the first minute Ward
did what he failed to do for 90 minutes on Saturday and try to thread Grabban
through after he’d spun off the shoulder of the nearest defender. Sure the pass
was over-hit – but I don’t care – at least he saw the opportunity
Now I’m sure that Pugh’s new child is absolutely beautiful
but she must certainly have a set of lungs on her to keep the whole team up for
the last few nights.
Surely that is the only explanation for such a lack lustre
first half. With the exception of Grabban and Fraser, the rest of the team
ambled about like a scene from Sean of the Dead.
Barnsley, like every team we have played so far, pressed all
over the pitch whereas we just sat back and invited them on, applying no
pressure on them whatsoever.
When we did get the ball, we were so deep that there wasn’t
an effective outlet and so pretty soon, we’d find the ball coming back at us.
Another thing I’ve noticed about this league, players are
adept at shielding the ball – we are not. Our touch was too often too heavy and
if we were fortunate to control the ball, the next pass could go anywhere
Saying all that, we did keep having patches of 5 minutes at
a time where balls where being passed and moved sharply and we cut through the
Barnsley defence, only to overplay and lose the chance to shoot
The nearest Bournemouth came to scoring was from a Daniels’
long throw which bounced waist high to Fraser. No, I’m going to have to
rephrase that – it bounced waist high on Grabban, but to Fraser it was nearer
throat high so his swing at it resulted in the expected shot over the bar.
That was the nearest the Keeper had to dirtying his kit –
his mum’s going to be so pleased
Barnsley on the other hand weren’t the side I was expecting
at all. Led in the middle by a Billy Idol mini-me (11) they skilfully mixed
direct route one football with patient and clever passing – I was expecting a
bruising encounter, but they came to play.
They had an overwhelming victory if you go by chances gained
and none were better than 1 minute after Fraser’s ballooned effort
From a tight angle on the right the post was struck by a
stinging shot and as the rebound fell straight to an on-running attacker, we all feared the worst.
With the goal at his mercy he chose this moment to show he
hadn’t taken his OCD medicine today and as hitting the post once was an odd
number he decided to hit it again to even it up.
The Barnsley fans were disappointed, but he felt a lot
better inside
Half Time 0-0
At half time Howe had desperately tried to find an octagonal
room so that 8 of them could sit in the naughty corner and that humiliation
clearly worked as Bournemouth came out firing
Within a minute Grabban and Pitman combined for a one-two to
put Grabban through one on one. His shot (yes I am going to call it a shot – we
need it for our stats) dribbled past the left post like he’d shanked it with
his ankle.
A glorious opportunity missed and it would capped a good
performance but it wasn’t to be. I may
have been less charitable at that time and I do apologise to all those I may
have offended at the time …
Daniels then went off (injury) and Elphick came on, with
Cook going to left back. This ended our threat on the left. You don’t fully
appreciate what Daniels does for Bournemouth as an attacking force until he’s
gone.
Then the surprise substitution. Rantie came one (no that’s
not the surprise – we were ALL hoping for that) and Fraser went off. Fraser was
our main threat – so maybe he’d picked up a knock ??
Anyway, Rantie was on and the crowd, who I think were
tremendous anyway, took it a notch higher.
Had Rantie scored with his first touch as he turned the
defender inside out and fired just wide right of the goal, the noise would have
woken Poole (not quite loud enough to fully wake Pitman though)
It still raised the excitement off the pitch and the players
responded on the pitch. Rantie looks so fast and at last we were pressing from
the front, which put their defence under pressure, which, surprise surprise,
gave us more chances
Bournemouth were now in control and were getting lots of
success down the right with Francis and Pitman firing crosses over and causing
mayhem in the Barnsley box
It was from one such cross on 77 minutes that a scrambled
clearance found Pugh on the left in the box.
Like a snake charmer he weaved from the right to the left,
back again and again and again until the defender eventually fell catatonic
which allowed him to push past and absolutely smash the ball into the left of
the goal 1-0
The last 15 minutes or so we got a glimpse of what Rantie
will bring for us – and he had an effect I hadn’t thought of. Not only was he a
great outlet with amazing pace which actually encouraged our players to stop
fannying around (one for Nikki) and get the ball to him, but it gave extra space
for our other speedster, Grabban, to run into.
Yes, I know that that should have been obvious, but one
player making another player more effective in such a small timeframe makes me
salivate at what the season might bring.
As with and Bournemouth performance, we were always going to
have 1 scare before the end.
For this match it came with just 5 minutes left on the clock
as Barnsley broke quickly on the right. A low cross was cleverly dummied to the
free man over, on the left.
As the striker wound up to score, or kill Allsop trying,
Ward donned his superman outfit and threw himself in front of the ball’s path,
taking it full in the face – a true “take one for the team” moment – and one
that also proved to be telling
Full Time 1-0
Summary – I’ve seen Bournemouth play a lot better than this
and get nothing. Sure we rode our luck, but we can’t be as sloppy as we were in
the first half again, can we? We are guilty of trying to overplay but I really
do admire the ambition to avoid the long ball hoof
We do need to press harder and stop the worrying passes at
the back but going forward we really do look good although worryingly this good
play doesn’t lead to as many shots on/off target as it should.
We are, however, missing Arter and Ritchie and with Rantie
getting a starting place (this is a certainty, sooner rather than later) I
think we will raise our possession to shots ratio – and with that our goal
difference
Star Man – Grabban – despite the howling miss, played the 90
minutes like he gave a damn and wanted to prove that when Rantie comes into the
side, HE will be his striking partner
Main Stand
East Stand
South Stand
Great Barnsley Support
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