Andy Munro on Blues’ trip to Barnsley.
The way things are going against Yorkie teams, it’s just a shame that we aren’t playing Sheffield Wednesday next week, as well as Doncaster. This was rightly billed as a ‘must win’ game and the way the other results went nothing could have been truer.
Lee Clark stuck with Reilly despite his poor showing the week before and perhaps even more surprisingly dropped our normal match winning card of Chris Burke so that Shane Ferguson could play on his wrong side. Almost bizarre but, in fairness, it seemed to work and it could be said that Burke had gone a bit flat in the last match. Mind you, if he’d used that criteria early on for the admittedly improving Novak, that player wouldn’t have lasted more than one match.
We pleasingly went one-nil up through a tremendous goal from Caddis – the same Caddis who many Bluenoses, myself included, were saying wasn’t the same player this time round. Well there must have been enough hat eating to bankrupt a millinery, then the same player gets the first brace of his career from the spot when Ziggy was adjudged to have been fouled. Repeat that again,”Ziggy was ADJUDGED TO HAVE BEEN FOULED”. Probably the first time ever that the man in black has given Ziggy the benefit, and consequently referee Kevin Wright can do no wrong in my book.
Interestingly Caddis then sends Butland the wrong way and, much as I still like and rate young Jack, saving penalties was his one real weak spot. Then Ziggy nets himself, with a delicate chip which perhaps justifies his original and oft derided claim that he’s better on the ground than in the air. Mind you , that’s probably right as he usually jumps 5′ 2″.
Of course, this set the stage for an incredible fight back by the Tykes. Perhaps it was even more incredible given Blues frequent fragility that it never happened. This doesn’t quite wipe out the embarrassing five-nil defeat that we suffered on our home pitch against the same team but it gets close.
Next up are Doncaster and I suppose the question is whether Lee Clark is tempted to slip into his Tinkerman role. On balance, I would only make one change with potential match winner Burke coming in and leave the fresh legs on the bench but only for the first hour. I suppose one thing is certain and that is if we don’t take three points against them then, a tad unfairly, Clark’s selection will be to blame.
