By Red Army
August 15 2017
Barnsley suffered a second successive league defeat as Ipswich came from behind to take all three points at Oakwell.
It was a much more encouraging performance than what we witnessed at Bristol City on the opening day of the season but the reds still came away empty handed and only have themselves to blame after squandering numerous first half chances.
It could have easily have been three or four nil to Barnsley at half time but we could only manage to go in 1 – 0 and that is never a comfortable margin for Barnsley.
Bradshaw netted the only goal of the half and it was quite possibly his best performance in a Barnsley shirt to date. I’m hopeful that the goals he has scored so far this season will give him confidence to become the prolific striker we need.
The first half performance overall was very good. We dominated the game and kept Ipswich at bay. The only criticism would have been that we didn’t take our chances and boy did we have chances.
The second half however was a different story as Ipswich changed things round with a double substitution.
They came firing out of the blocks and we couldn’t really live with them at all in the second half and too much pressure was put on to our fragile defence.
The pressing came we had in the first half had gone. The energy we had in the middle of the park was also missing. Williams who was making tackles all over the pitch in the first half was nowhere to be seen. Moncur continued to drift out of the game the longer it went on and Potts was a passenger throughout even in the first half.
Many fans have been criticising the substitutions from head coach Paul Heckingbottom. He hasn’t got much wrong during his time in charge but maybe he did with these substitutions. I can however see the logic in them as well and the criticism has been way over the top in my opinion.
With two strikers raring to go on the bench and team in need of goals and I can actually see why Bradshaw made way despite the fact that he scored and also had his best game in a red shirt to date.
He had also missed chances and with the team in need of goals giving the Ipswich defence something different to think about with two strikers of different styles could have paid off. Hecky also said he wouldn’t have been able to last the full game so that in itself is good enough.
Most of the fans criticism has come by the fact that the popular view was that Bradshaw, Hammill and Hedges were our three best players on the day. All would have certainly been up there in the top handful.
For Hedges however it was his first start for the club so whether he would have been able to do 90 remains to be seen and he probably wasn’t having the same impact on the game as earlier.
Hammill for me was man of the match and should have probably been the one out of the three who should have stayed on in my opinion.
The young winger was the right man to bring on when we were chasing the game but I think Potts should have been taken off instead of moved out wide as he was poor all game for me.
Those going as far as saying ‘it was the managers fault we lost because of the poor substitutions’ must remember that we were already 2 – 1 down when the last two substitutions were made so even if you disagree with the subs he made, which I think I do, it wasn’t that that lost us the game.
The fact that he’s got this group of players capable of playing the way they played in the first half is quite unbelievable really and the mistakes with the substitutions are things that even the very best managers do from time to time.
On to Forest we go now and if I’m honest I can only see another defeat even if the gaffer can get the most out of this group of players for the full 90 minutes rather than just 45.
I’d make only one change from the team that started on Saturday and that would be to bring Ugbo in up top to partner Bradshaw and I’d drop Potts.
The defence is coming under a lot of criticism at the minute but there are not really any options to make changes at the minute with who is fit and the Yiadom situation.
Whatever this season brings, quite possibly relegation, let’s get behind the team no matter what. COYR.
REDS RATINGS v IPSWICH
Davies 6
McCarthy 7
Jackson 6
MacDonald 6
Pearson 6
Williams 7
Moncur 6
Potts 5
Hedges 7
HAMMILL 8
Bradshaw 7
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