FAN’S VIEW 22/23 – No.48 – BARNSLEY AWAY

BARNSLEY 2 OXFORD UNITED 0

I really do want to make this a short one. I know I’ve said this many a time only to drone on but this time I’m determined to stick to it.

To repeat: this season is doing my ****ing head in. We spend our money travelling the length and breadth of the country telling ourselves that the next game might just be the one when we score a goal, or two, from open play and surprise observers in the same way as Southampton did at the Emirates the night before.

But no, oh effing no. Not a bit of it.

On this showing there’s more chance of Danny DeVito being named the world’s tallest man than us scoring enough goals to win a football match.

Yes Barnsley are a good side. A side that has won 14, drawn three and lost only two of their last 19 league games but that’s the sort of team we are bound to come up against every now and again.

Time to step up?  Of course it is. Did we? Of course we didn’t. We can’t even beat the crap we’ve faced so this wasn’t going to happen.

I’ve long clung to the fact that we rarely let in more than one. One would have been enough here to get the Tykes the three points. That they got two was incidental. It’s not really damaged our goal difference in any meaningful way.

Let’s be honest, our strike force is non-existent. Robinson left Liam Manning with nothing. Manning though is doing little to get me fully behind him. Josh Murphy brought on with Djavan Anderson, who looked a threat when he came on against Pompey, left on the bench????

To be fair to Murphy he was no worse than many others and he did play a really good ball to get Yanic Wildschut through on goal. Such incidents are fleeting though and gone in the blink of an eye. Even if we do get anyone in such a position with banjo in hand, the cow’s arse, no matter how large and tempting, is not connected with.

We’re not playing football that gets our fans to their feet

SEVENTEEN ****ing games without a win. SEVENTEEN games I and many others have spent good money to watch where we’ve tried to support the football club we love. For ****s sake it’s bloody difficult.

We deserve to go down. The run we’re on shouts that in a very loud voice and our inability to score goals cements that view for me.

Yet we’re still one place above the bottom four however impossible that may seem. It’s still in our hands. The footballing gods are being very kind to us.

If one match of the last four was going to be lost it was this one. I could partially have accepted that if we’d at any stage remotely looked like we might have a chance of winning, but we didn’t. It’s embarrassing.

On Tuesday we host Cheltenham, who made themselves safe by beating already relegated Forest Green Rovers. If we screw up yet again and don’t win this one I suspect there will be a nasty backlash from our fans. There’s no point pretending this will be anything other than a game where the pressure will be immense. That pressure has been created by those representing our football club on, and off, the pitch this season. So no more being shite please. Deal with the mess you’ve created. Keep us up and stick 22/23 in the trash can marked “seasons to forget”.

Anything good about the day?

Yes there was. The pubs, what else? Just as on the last away trip another new one for us that is a contender for best of the season. Whilst the football could hardly be much worse, other than taking a hammering each week, we’re really getting spoiled when it comes to hostelries.

The Heaven and Ale. Opening time advertised as midday. We thought we’d have to wait outside for 20 minutes, but no. “We’re flexible on match days.” We were made to feel totally welcome as if we were locals. The beers were of top quality from micro and local breweries. The drinkers, other than us, were Barnsley fans, the owners Sheffield Wednesday fans.

The Jolly Tap on the Arcade was worth the visit too. I didn’t have one but the pork pies were only a quid.

There are some things that make away days worthwhile. For a long time now it’s rarely been the football.