Barnsley (a) review - Unspectacular But Effective

Town finally succeeded in exorcising past Playoff demons at the third time of asking by beating Barnsley 1-0 at Oakwell on Saturday afternoon. Having failed to gain revenge first for 2010 against Peterborough, and then for 2009 against Millwall, we at least erased memories of 2006 by beating the Tykes in what was a very efficient if unspectacular performance.

After finishing my Wetherspoons breakfast and sinking a few pints in Walkabout I made my way down to the stadium to see that my pre-match prediction of Oliver Norwood dropping to the bench had come true. The Northern Ireland international has undoubted ability but Simon Grayson agreed that with two attacking wide players and two centre forwards, Adam Clayton and Keith Southern is currently our best midfield pairing. This rung true as Town were good value for a 1-0 win with most fans arguing between Clayton and Southern for man of the match.

We lined up with the expected back five of Hunt, Clarke, Lynch and Dixon with Smithies in goal behind them. Clayton and Southern took up the reigns in the middle of the park with Scannell and new signing Church on the flanks, while Novak and Beckford started up front. A minutes silence was impeccably served before a representative of the British armed forces abseiled from the top of the main stand to deliver the match ball. The game kicked off with the sun shining down on the fantastic away support who had made the short journey to South Yorkshire.

A very sunny Oakwell on Saturday afternoon

The home side were the better team in the first half but suffered from a real lack of a cutting edge in the final third. Kelvin Etuhu looked dangerous down our left and seemed to have the beating of Paul Dixon but his final ball was very wasteful. Marlon Harewood also looked quite dangerous, holding the ball up well and spreading the ball out wide, but it was clear to see Barnsley need additions to their forward line. Keith Hill had apparently tried signing Simon Church prior to his arrival at Town last week, and it would eventually be Church who provided the ball for us take the lead.

Upon leaving the stadium a few Barnsley fans were adamant that the turning point in the game was referee Mark Haywood's decision to only give Alex Smithies a yellow card for handling the ball outside his area. The Town keeper flew out to the edge of his area to claim the ball but slid further than he'd expected and clearly handled the ball about a yard over the line. Given that the two closest players to the incident were both defenders I think a red card would have been very harsh and the referee made the correct call.

Outside of that one incident the home fans didn't have much to get excited about in the first half. Although their build-up play was attractive they were impotent further up the pitch, wasting numerous chances when they'd made space out wide. The one half-chance they did manage to create was from a set piece when a good ball into the box was headed wide by Harewood who had rose above Keith Southern on the edge of the six yard box.

Barnsley's profligacy was punished ten minutes before half-time when Sean Scannell made his only contribution to the game to start a flowing move which ended in Jermaine Beckford netting his third goal in six games since signing on loan from Leicester. Scannell beat two men and cut inside to play a neat ball down the left to Simon Church who drilled a lovely cross along the six yard box which Beckford headed past Luke Steele at his near post.

On loan Jermaine Beckford scored his third goal in six matches

The second-half started with Town sitting back and allowing Barnsley much of the possession, but once again the Tykes created nothing of note. Adam Clayton and Keith Southern looked very good in the middle of the park and eventually Town got a stranglehold on the game and finished the last half hour looking very comfortable. Lee Novak, who had been very poor in the first half, epitomised the hard working nature of our team and improved significantly in the second period to offer a much needed outlet.

It was Novak who came closest to killing the game off for us as his mazy run ended with a decent effort which was well saved by a diving Steele (or Smithies if you watch the Football League Show). The former non-league player looked every part the Championship player in the second period and worked well alongside loanee Simon Church who looks to be a very astute signing. The only other incident of real note was when substitute Alan Lee went down as he rounded the keeper, but Steele clearly played the ball and the referee waved away Lee's signature over the top protests.

On the subject of Alan Lee, he was superb in his cameo role from the bench, as was Danny Ward who for the second time in a week came off the bench to make a great contribution. Simon Grayson used our strong bench very well as first Ward came on to offer a better threat down our left side, and then Lee came on to hold the ball up and effectively kill the game off. After getting things wrong against Peterborough and Millwall the gaffer has re-discovered his midas touch to see us claim seven points from a possible nine from our last three matches.

Player ratings:

Alex Smithies - 7
Jack Hunt - 7
Peter Clarke - 8
Joel Lynch - 7
Paul Dixon - 6
Sean Scannell - 6
Adam Clayton - 9
Keith Southern - 8
Simon Church - 7
Lee Novak - 8 (Alan Lee - 8)
Jermaine Beckford - 7 (Danny Ward - 8)