Brammer’s Blog

It seems that Mark Stokes’ article on Reuben Noble-Lazarus has caused some controversy amongst Reds’ fans – so I thought I’d add my two penneth for what it’s worth!

Despite what the conspiracy theorists would like to believe, I suspect the reasoning behind the appearance of Noble-Lazarus is mundane rather than Machiavellian. Reuben is clearly a lad with a lot of potential and it would seem logical for the Club to protect its’ financial interests by making him a full professional and handing him a first team appearance. That way the Club will be entitled to a larger compensation package should he decide to leave. What would the reaction have been had Reuben departed for a pittance because the Club hadn’t exploited that opportunity?

Nor do I buy into the ’smokescreen’ argument. Managers are judged on results – always have been, always will be. Did the appearance of Reuben change my opinion of Simon Davey? Of course not. If that was the intention then it certainly didn’t work.

As for Reuben’s trial at Old Trafford – again I can’t see what the fuss is about. It appears Man Utd made a formal approach and both the Club and his parents thought it was a good opportunity to aid his development. If he doesn’t join them permanently then he will have benefitted from the experience, and if he does go the Club will presumably receive adequate compensation.

I think Reuben has been the victim of circumstances at Oakwell. Had the Reds been in a comfortable mid-table position I imagine he would have been involved in the first team squad over recent weeks.

Finally, Mark commented on the ‘Davey Out’ campaign. There is no doubt that there are a minority of supporters who never wanted Davey and will not rest until he has departed Oakwell. Equally, there are a minority of fans who will always back the incumbent boss – irrespective of results and performances – because of their unquestioning support of the Club.

Between those two extremes sit the majority of us who crave stability and want Simon Davey to succeed but are increasingly questioning whether he is the right man to take the Club forward.

However, the Davey in/out/shake it all about debate isn’t helping anyone at the minute. The priority has to be Championship survival, and the only way we can do that is by pulling together and backing the gaffer till the end of the campaign.

It is a sad state of affairs when a Barnsley manager feels the need to take his players away from the town to prepare for matches because of all the negativity surrounding the Club. We all need to take a long hard look at ourselves – fans and media alike.

And before anyone suggests otherwise I have written this article without any influence from Don Rowing, Patrick Cryne, Simon Davey or Mark Stokes!

In many ways the game against Coventry tonight can be seen as Simon Davey’s ‘Joker’.

If he plays his cards right – to quote the big chinned one (Brucie, not Jimmy Hill) – then he can put the Reds within touching distance of safety.

Of all the possible games in hand though, I suspect Coventry away would have been somewhere near the bottom of Simon’s wish list. Historically games against the Sky Blues have inevitably gone the way of the Midlands side (and usually by a four goal margin!). In fact we haven’t beaten Coventry on their own patch since 1923, which doesn’t bode well.

Although the opposition have been in poor form of late (including defeats against our relegation rivals Forest and Plymouth over the past week), they still have plenty of quality in their ranks. Chris Coleman will not want a repeat of those last two performances and he will be looking for a reaction at the Ricoh Arena this evening.

The result tonight is not only about the points, but also about psychology. If the Reds were to emerge victorious it would not only provide a huge lift to the Club, but it would also be a crushing psychological blow to those around us at the bottom. Let there be no doubt about it, tonight’s game will be as eagerly watched in East Anglia, Nottinghamshire and Devon as it is in Barnsley.

Hopefully the lads can do us proud. Whatever people feel about the players and management at the moment, the most important thing – as always – is the Club. We’ve got to stick together over the next fortnight and I’m sure the Reds fans who travel down tonight will give their usual vocal support.

Finally – on a complete tangent – it is good to see Kevin Blackwell getting his comeuppance again. Apparently, only a couple of weeks after dismissing Simon Davey’s complaints about the slow reaction of Sheff Utd’s ball boys, he found himself in the same predicament himself at Turf Moor yesterday.

I think Buddhists call it Karma. Come to think about it, Mr Blackwell does have a Buddha-like physique…

Here’s one for the ’stattos’ amongst you. I’ve just been comparing the relative scoring records of the Reds and Reading prior to Saturday’s encounter.

I reckon we have deployed 10 different strikers during the course of this campaign – Mostto, Odejayi, Rigters, Adam, Cureton, Coulson, Mifsud, Bogdanovic, Hume and Macken. Their combined return is 22 goals.

The Royal’s leading scorer – Kevin Doyle – has hit the back of the net 18 times this season.

So one player at Reading is only 4 goals short of the combined scoring capability of 10 Barnsley attackers!

It just underlines the importance of having a goalscorer at this level. I suspect we will more than match Reading in terms of commitment, quality of football and possession – but when it comes down to it, which team will convert their chances?

Alas I fear we all know the answer…

As Simon Davey reflected after Saturday’s game ‘football can be cruel sometimes’ and it was difficult not to sympathise with him.

It certainly wasn’t a classic performance from the Reds who – like a disappointing Watford side – had to contend with persistent drizzle and a cabbage patch of a pitch. Yet having edged in front courtesy of Jon Macken they looked like they were heading for a comfortable (and critical) 3 points.

Ultimately it was an individual error which cost us, from the usually dependable Heinz Muller who failed to punch an innocuous looking cross away. Perhaps it was due to a lack of concentration because he hadn’t really been called into action during the second period.

If dropping two points in the dying stages of the game wasn’t bad enough, we then heard that Forest had overturned a 2-1 deficit to emerge victorious against Bristol City. As Simon Davey rightly pointed out, it’s those kind of twists and turns that we are going to witness right up to the end of the season.

Davey’s counterpart – Brendan Rodgers – acknowledged his team hadn’t performed and felt it was because his players had taken their foot off the gas having reached a position of safety (I wish we had that problem!).

Incidentally the Watford boss was very impressive in his post match press conference, being both articulate and humorous. You can certainly see why Watford have gambled on the 35 year old. They say nice guys come last, but his record at Vicarage Road so far suggests otherwise.

I’m reliably informed by Barnsley One Editor Mark Stokes that Brendan is the second most popular figure from Ballymena (after himself)!

Once again the post-match interviews on Tuesday night provided plenty of entertainment.

After the touchline fracas between the two management teams towards the end of the game, journalists were keen to find out what all the fuss was about.

It appears that Simon was unhappy with the ‘multi-ball system’ adopted by United (referring to the tactic of having numerous ballboys around the pitch who would instantly give United players the ball so they could keep the pressure up on the Reds).

As Simon pointed out, these ballboys suddenly disappeared when we had a throw-in, allowing United a breather and time to re-organise themselves.

His counterpart, Kevin Blackwell, claimed he didn’t know what Simon was on about and that he wasn’t in charge of the balls anyway!

If that wasn’t bad enough, as part of the half-time entertainment two giant inflatable balls were rolled out in front of the Reds fans. Do you think they were taking the mick?!

Talking of balls, anyone remember going to Shrewsbury Town when they used to play at Gay Meadow? The River Severn flowed around the back of one of the stands and they used to lose so many balls that they employed a local coracle maker to sit in one of his boats during matches and retrieve any that wound up in the water! If Kevin Blackwell had been in charge he’d have probably had him in a speedboat…

It was another disappointing away day for the Reds on Tuesday night, and one which followed a similar pattern – decent defending, creative football played in midfield…. and absolutely no likelihood of us taking the lead.

The first period was fairly even with neither side really having much impact, but in the second half United stepped up a gear and they were always the favourites to clinch the three points, it was a matter of when they scored, not if. The best the Reds could have hoped for was a 0-0 draw.

Although United’s first goal was scrappy, the second – from Lupoli – was a clinical and accurate finish which illustrated the gulf in class between the two clubs’ strikers. In open play we can match anyone in this division, but as soon as we get to the final third we seem to hit a brick wall (physically and mentally).

Our inability to convert penalties in the last couple of games has just compounded our attacking frailties. It is the same with set-pieces around the box which are now inexplicably being taken by Bobby Hassell. No disrespect to Bobby, but 7 goals in over 350 career appearances does not suggest he’s a dead ball specialist in the Beckham mould. It’s a damning indictment of the strikers at the club that they neither take penalties or shooting opportunities from free-kicks.

Two glimmers of hope from the United game were the appearances of Adam Hammill and Daniel Bogdanovic – who were creator and finisher respectively for the Reds goal. Surely both will be involved in the first eleven on Saturday?

Finally, credit to the referee, who for me was the best performer on the pitch. To be appointed to officiate in that game was certainly a poisoned chalice, but Mr Hegley did a fine job in letting the game flow whilst also keeping a lid on events if they threatened to get out of control.

The fixture against Forest may not have been that entertaining, but it was certainly made up for by Billy Davies’ post-match press conference.

Mr Davies gave a good impersonation of Buster Bloodvessel as he spouted a number of bizarre comments including;

1. Forest were the best side by a mile, should have been two or three goals up at half-time, only one side in it etc (Barnsley had 58% possession and 7 shots on target versus Forest’s 4).

2. The referee didn’t help them (even though he booked four Barnsley players against Forest’s one).

3. He was ‘misquoted’ by the press over his remarks about Chris Morgan. He actually said he wanted defenders like Lucketti and Morgan who are strong and experienced (they are hardly the best defensive pairing in the division, so why refer to them knowing the sensitivity of the issue in Barnsley?)

4. Chris Morgan and Iain Hume are ‘best mates’. Quite how he knows this having never managed either player he didn’t elaborate. I can’t see why Hume would be socialising with someone who fractured his skull. That would take a level of forgiveness even Nelson Mandela would balk at.

5. It was Billy Davies who helped keep us up last season by loaning us Macken and Nyatanga whilst at Derby – ‘People have short memories’ he said. In which case presumably he will also be taking responsibility for relegating Derby with the lowest Premiership points tally ever?

The diminutive Scotsman could clearly start an argument in an empty room and it is no surprise that he is renowned for bust-ups with previous employers.

I suggest you listen to the audio coverage of the press conference on Barnsley One. For those of you – like myself – who once considered Davies as a possible Barnsley manager of the future ask yourself ‘would I want this man representing my football club?’. I certainly wouldn’t.

It is that time of year again when the Player of the Year awards are announced, and Barnsley One readers have been the first to cast their votes.

I have to say I’m surprised at the result, with Bobby Hassell taking the top prize. That’s no disrespect to Bobby – who has been one of our most consistent performers over the past few years – but he has had another testing campaign which has seen him perform at left-back, right-back, centre-half and central midfield. Perhaps it is because of those difficult circumstances that he has got the plaudits, because no matter where he is asked to play he gets on with the job without complaint and never lets the side down.

Hopefully the accolades he is getting from Reds’ fans will convince him to put pen to paper on a new contract.

The players who came 2nd and 3rd respectively will not come as a surprise. Jamal Campbell-Ryce has put in some exceptional performance this term, and importantly for a team as shot shy as ours he has also weighed in with some crucial goals. If he could only be a little more consistent and learn not to get dragged out of position then he would unquestionably be a Premiership standard player (for my money he has more ability than current England winger Aaron Lennon).

In third place came Hugo Colace, although I have to say he would have been my personal choice as Player of the Year. It was no coincidence that once he finally got clearance to play our terrible start to the season began to turn around. He is an intelligent and combative midfielder who doesn’t always grab the eye, but my word you notice when he’s not there. Importantly he knows his limitations and he does the job he supposed to do – covers plenty of ground, gets tackles in, wins the ball and passes it forward. It is an unfussy but very effective style of play and you can see why he once captained the Argentinian U-21’s.

Other names I would have put in the hat would be Darren Moore, who recovered from a dodgy start to his Barnsley career to become a colossus at the back for the Reds (has he lost an aerial challenge this term?!), Stephen Foster who has led by example and been our main attacking threat from set-pieces, and Iain Hume not only for his performances on the pitch but the dignity he has shown off it since his horrific injury.

Of course Player of the Year awards are always subjective and it usually comes down to personal favourites. This season – for a change – I suspect the numerous awards will be distributed between several players rather than one individual. Is that because we’re spoilt for choice or is it a result of the mediocrity we’ve witnessed this campaign? I’ll let you decide…

Great to see some initiative being shown down at Oakwell with the ‘Forest for a Fiver’ campaign. It looks like the public of Barnsley have responded in large numbers with several parts of the ground already sold out.

Perhaps it was the full house at Pride Park last week which stimulated the club to make the offer? There is no question that a capacity crowd generates a far better environment for the players to perform in.

The atmosphere at Oakwell over the past few seasons (local derbies aside) has been pretty poor, and in most games the only time you hear the crowd is if there is a goal or the referee gives a bad decision. We need to try and recapture the cheering and singing of old and make Oakwell the intimidating place it once was for visiting teams. 

Credit to Patrick Cryne for presumably underwriting the cost of this initiative. He mentioned at the last Supporters’ Trust meeting how successful the discounted Junior season tickets had been, with crowds for equivalent fixtures increasing by around 20% on last term. He also went on to say that prices for next season would – at the very least – be pegged at the same level and ideally he would like to reduce them further. I dare say the Forest initiative is being used to ‘test the water’ to see what potential demand there is in the town and what they would be willing to pay.

Retaining our Championship status would certainly give the club more financial freedom to reduce season ticket prices. Another reason why it is important to get down to Oakwell and back the Reds this (and indeed every) weekend.

…or Quite Interesting as Stephen Fry might say. Flicking through The Observer this morning I noticed a table of Championship teams entitled ‘Can’t Buy A Goal’. Guess who tops it? Correct! We’ve failed to score in 17 of our 38 games this term, which basically means that we only score every other game.

It just reinforces the belief that we’re two strikers short of being a Play-Off side. Yesterday’s game underlined the fact.