In the latest of his regular blog's, Hillary Street-Ender takes a look back at Saturday afternoon's Sky Bet League 1 clash between Walsall and Barnsley, and considers what impact the Saddlers' current run of form could have on their first ever visit to Wembley Stadium on 22nd March.
Following hard on the heels of the disappointing result and performance against Leyton Orient came the trek to bottom-of-the-table Yeovil, the sort of fixture that often trips us up and one from which I didn’t really expect us to get anything. A trip to deepest Somerset is a jaunt too far to do after work so I contented myself with taking in the Heath Hayes v Westfields fixture while keeping an eye on the score at Huish Park. Those of our fans who were there reported that we played really well and were deserving of our one-nil victory, courtesy of young Hiwula, in a game that saw both sides have a penalty saved and one in which a defeat might have seen us pulled too close to the relegation zone for comfort. The player’s minds had seemed to be elsewhere during the Orient game but it seems they’ve managed to refocus going into today’s trip to South Yorkshire to take on Barnsley. My last visit to Oakwell came more than twenty five years ago, meaning that I find myself at a stadium that’s the one the Tykes have always played at but which is one that’s been redeveloped on three sides since I was last here. The three new sides are all pretty impressive looking but the most interesting by far is the fourth, a side that’s still so old school that it’s a wonder fans using it aren’t required to wear a flat cap.
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We begin the game without three of our four regular midfielders – Cook and Forde are missing through injury and Cain is on the bench – with Baxendale and Flanagan starting and with Sawyers pulled back slightly from his usual role. The Tykes have Milan Lalkovic in their starting eleven and new signing Jabo Ibehre on the bench so there’s the chance of Former Player Syndrome playing it’s part. Barnsley have improved a lot since poaching manager Lee Johnson from Oldham, hovering around the play-off places, and are very quick out of the blocks as the game gets going. We go behind when O’Donnell flaps at a corner and allows Waring to head home from very close range as we reach the quarter-hour mark and I can’t help but wonder if his confidence has been affected by being culpable for the second goal in the Orient game. The first half is one during which we offer little threat on goal and in which possession is continually wasted with hopeful hoiks forward generally being the order of the day. Oakwell, much like Valley Parade, is situated on the side of a hill and today there’s a strong, swirling wind whistling around the ground making conditions difficult and this helps to make the first period a very drab affair with incidents of note being few and far between. The Tykes almost increase their lead when a low ball from the wing is met by Waring who side-foots his effort wide when he really ought to score. We’re poor for the first forty five minutes but the home side are only marginally better and the teams leave the field at the halfway point having played out one of the most tedious halves of the whole season. For the second period Purkiss and Baxendale are replaced by Grimes and O’Connor – how that move fills us with confidence – but all to no avail as we show little in midfield or in attack and finish the game having made just two – off-target – attempts on goal in one of our worst performances in quite some time and the worst I’ve seen since the FA Cup replay at Shrewsbury. Once again Plan A isn’t working and the manager doesn’t know what to do to stem what’s becoming an ever-steadier tide of Barnsley attacks. That we hang on until the last twenty minutes before conceding again is something of a minor miracle but it’s that man Waring who finds the net again when side-stepping a defender before rifling a low shot past O’Donnell. The Tykes have gained the upper hand more and more as the half has elapsed and a two-nil lead is a fair reflection of what we’ve seen up to this point. At this juncture the travelling faithful know that there’s to be no comeback but our noses are rubbed deep into the brown stuff when Winnall sweeps a shot wide of O’Donnell to make the score three-nil to bring to an end what’s been a lovely, bright and sunny Yorkshire afternoon.
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What we’ve seen has been an inept, toothless performance and it’s difficult not to conclude that the minds of those out on the pitch are not properly on the job in hand. The gaffer can’t really threaten to ring the changes for Wembley because we have no serious alternatives when it comes to selecting who will play. Whoever might come in would just do so on a like-for-like basis which is why everyone knows what to expect from us before games begin. Carry on in this vein and we might just find ourselves being embarrassed when we finally set foot on the hallowed turf.
Things need to change but we know they won’t.
By: Hillary Street-Ender.