Barnsley v Scunthorpe United

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Football League Championship

Barnsley :
Steele, Kozluk, Foster (Moore 46), Dickinson, Shotton, Colace, De Silva (Campbell-Ryce 73), Hammill, Doyle, Bogdanovic (Hume 63), Macken.
Subs not used:
Preece, Hassell, Hallfredsson, Gray.

Scunthorpe United :
Murphy, Williams (Friend 29) (A.Wright 63), Byrne, Jones, Mirfin, Togwell, McCann, Thompson, J.Wright, Hayes, Hooper (Forte 77).
Subs not used:
Lillis, Spence, Sparrow, Boyes.

SULSESC REPORT

by Andrew Metcalfe at Oakwell

TWO disappointing aspects relating to tonight's game. Firstly, apart from Doctor Vic and myself, there was not one SULSESC member to be seen.

It would have been so easy for the Southern Softies to drive to the match, and be back home by 2 am, whereas I woke up the next morning in the mountains of deepest, darkest Yorkshire. It took a while for me to realise that I had spent the night in Hebden Bridge at Chez Duke, sampling his excellent stock of strong Yorkshire ales, and then I had the prospects of an alpine trek back over the Pennines to Manchester later that day. That is a tough trip.

The entire Scunthorpe following, of approximately 500, were therefore all hairy arsed Northerners. Sadly, not one made it to Vic's suggested pub, the George and Dragon. What a great choice it was, serving excellent Jennings' Cumberland bitter, and situated only 100 yards from a chippy, serving the best fish and chips I have had for many a day. Ee, it's good to be a poor Northerner.

The second disappointment was that we did not win the game. We could have done, and possibly deserved to, based on a very determined second-half performance. The first 45 minutes were not that bad either.

The first-half was fairly even, and although end-to-end, not a great number of straight forward chances were produced, and the Iron's defence was looking very sound.

After half-time, the next few minutes followed a similar pattern to what had gone before, but this all changed when Barnsley scored in the 53rd minute when Colace neatly tucked away a low cross from the right by De Silva. Rather than Scunthorpe fold, as we have seen many a time of late, just the opposite. They stepped up a gear, and equalised five minutes later. McCann took a corner from the left. It was headed on by Byrne at the near post, and having rebounded off the far post, there was Hayes to accurately head in, from a slight angle. It is always great to score against your old club. Don't we know that from all the ex-Iron players, who always seem to score when they play us.

McCann was trying his best to get a goal with a few free kicks just outside the box, but all were marginally over the bar, including one in the dying moments.

Scunny nearly snatched it, minutes from the end, when Thompson had a glorious chance after great work by Hayes. He connected well on the volley, but put it narrowly wide, hitting the side netting.

So, to conclude, a much better away performance, by a team with no weak links. It did add a bit of spice to the game, with three ex-Barnsley players in our ranks. It is hard to single out many players, when they all played well, but I must mention Hooper, who never stopped working, and Hayes, with a good goal, and an excellent all-round skilful performance.

We must follow this up with, at the very least, a draw at Reading.