By Red Army
December 14 2020

Barnsley came away from Hillsborough with a first victory in 11 years as they beat their local rivals 2 – 1 thanks to goals from Woodrow and Frieser.

This match was more than just a performance and three points. It was about getting that monkey off our backs of not winning at Wednesday, more for the fans than anything else.

 

Barnsley fell behind in the opening few minutes to the type of goal you expect us to concede at Wednesday.

 

A long ball forward that should have never have had the defenders in such turmoil followed by a Walton error as the came out and got nothing on the ball.

 

That’s a few errors for the young goalkeeper now in the last few games and it made me begin to wonder if his confidence had been rocked.

 

I think it is fair to say that he put my worries to bed with his performance for the remainder of the match and it is just a case of a young keeper will make the odd error. It is probably the fact that he made so few during the early part of his Barnsley career that makes them more surprising now.

 

The save he made on to the woodwork that came back down and hit him and then back on to the post before being put out for a corner as Walton was disoriented with regards to where the ball was, is the type of effort that would have ended up in the back of the net in any of our Hillsborough visits over the last 11 years. This however was the day when the better team deservedly won.

 

I went in to this one feeling that we had the better side and should be favourites, very rare things to say, but also expecting to lose, a more natural thing to think given our history.

 

Frieser had his best game in red shirt for me but I am still not sold on him and not sure he should be starting. But in all fairness the front three played well. Chaplin has been much better these last few games. Woodrow has played well since the new gaffer came in and has just been missing goals from open play from his game. Hopefully now he can get going and score even more regularly than he has already.

 

Mowatt and James were excellent in midfield as well as were the back five. The only question I would have with the back line at the moment is who should play in Halme or Helic.

 

I have also now accepted that Styles will be at wingback for the foreseeable future given the amount of central midfield options we have and the system we play.

 

I think it is now plausible to think that we will in no way shape or form be involved in a relegation battle so the question then is dare we dream that we can compete and push on in to the top half of the table or should we simply be more than happy with mid table or a comfortable bottom half finish.

 

I would have snapped someone’s hand off before the season if I had been offered lower mid table with no hint of a relegation battle so I am sticking with that but it is nice to dream of a little bit more.

 

And we all know the summer sales will come so we may be back to battling the drop again next season.