Barrow v Oldham match thread

[Middleton Nick]

To be fair I don't mind us keeping possession and moving the ball about, but it is that final third where the problem lies. Lack of ideas and creativity.

[blue nige]

Folk with short memories. We struggled under Evatts teams to break side down that came and parked the bus, so this is nothing new. Let's be patient, see what January brings before we start losing our heads completely!!

I admire your loyalty Ian but Scunthorpe, Crawley, Rochdale and now last night!, difference between then and now we were TOP ! Happy New year!

[Big E]

Folk with short memories. We struggled under Evatts teams to break side down that came and parked the bus, so this is nothing new. Let's be patient, see what January brings before we start losing our heads completely!!

I admire your loyalty Ian but Scunthorpe, Crawley, Rochdale and now last night!, difference between then and now we were TOP ! Happy New year!

Not denying it was a poor performance, just trying to put some perspective on it. Like you say we were flying under Evatt and still found it tough to break down stubborn sides, so no shock a side low on confidence struggled. The 1st goal was vital last night, if we'd have had that bit of luck (need luck as we dont have much quality up front) it's a different game, but that's been the story of the season so far..

HNY

[Bombadel]

Watching the interview on iFollow, seems to formal, always prefer the Adam ones on RC. Simpson mentions the conditions last night with the wind, which MC agreed with (and a heavy pitch), seriously? We’ve played in 60 mile an hour wind before, last night was like a very mild winters night, yeah we did have rain earlier but it didn’t seem that bad

[MisterPleasant]

Fact is if Oldham had had a good front man last night they would have won.

If we had had a good front man WE would have won.

[janwilder]

Josh Kay cut a frustrated figure last night. Time and again in space down that left hand side but we were far too slow in getting the ball out to him and he had to come back to the half way line countless times to get a pass. Could no one see him!!!. It’s no good him getting the ball there there’s with too much to do. We were going wide with the ball far too early.

This post

I was saying last night to family that we are far too laboured in passing and it's all very pedestrian. Let's say for sayings sakes Festus Arthur is in possession of the ball and he passes to Platty, who passes to Broughy. By the time the option to play to Josh Kay is there, he's got a wide player pinned near him and a full back waiting beyond that. When chasing a game, Josh Kay is someone you want to get 1 on 1 with space. Now, there's certainly a risk element in missing a man when passing across the back line but my god, it was so apparent that someone needed to fire the ball out into Kay quicker. Then he's 1vs1 and also Brough gets around the side for an overlap.

Someone needed to show some balls and take the accountability and risk. Players should be able to fizz a 20-30 yard ball out to wide players. Evatt used to have Dan Jones zinging 50 yard big switches

[bluessupporter]

Fact is if Oldham had had a good front man last night they would have won.

If we had had a good front man WE would have won.

Agreed - but WE are not bottom of the table!

[bluebird90]

Watching the interview on iFollow, seems to formal, always prefer the Adam ones on RC. Simpson mentions the conditions last night with the wind, which MC agreed with (and a heavy pitch), seriously? We’ve played in 60 mile an hour wind before, last night was like a very mild winters night, yeah we did have rain earlier but it didn’t seem that bad

Really poor excuse that. You adapt to the conditions and what is thrown at you, it’s December in Barrow - there should be a plan in place to adapt to the conditions.

[pjdaly]

I still feel there is more wrong than just lack of a striker. The team played without fear against Ipswich, swift inter-passing and movement, getting at them and never giving them a moment to settle. Yet against Oldham, all that confidence, movement and intensity had gone missing. Is it all in the mind? Does the team think (against Ipswich): "nothing to lose, we can go for it", whilst against a club they should beat, it is all about "must not make a mistake"?

I'll try and get the negatives out of the way before attempting to find some positives . . . I did a quick reckoning and realised I must have watched Barrow playing at Holker Street in excess of 1200 times (is it any wonder I'm like I am?) and yet I'm not sure I've seen a more unimaginative and uninspiring performance than that one last night. There's a lot of Barrovian Bedlam apparent in this thread ("bedlam" as in outpouring of mad despair as opposed to ecstatic celebration) and that is particularly clear when we see our most dedicated of followers, Spirit of 1990, unleashing as he has done on page 4 of this thread. Don't misunderstand, I get it and share it after last night's showing!

But Jim, I'll address your remarks and say how much I agree with you. So much of it starts in the head. Just watching it last night I cannot deny I had a dreaded "we cannot afford to lose this one" negative vibe in my head whereas against Ipswich there was that feeling of it being a free hit and that meant less mental stress. It's human nature and we have to have players of character and bottle to handle that. I have always maintained that back in the fateful 71-72 season we had enough talent in our ranks to reach the safety of mid-table but ability was not enough and the bad attitude of some players brought about our downfall. You could spot certain players from a mile off not working hard enough.

To strike a more optimistic note, it's only a few weeks ago that we watched dire performances against the likes of Rochdale and Crawley and it all looked hopeless and yet, out of nowhere, we looked a totally different side when we played so very well and deservedly beat Swindon. Yes, our attack was impotent and we needed penalties but we earned those breaks. Who really saw that coming? As Cooper himself said at that time, the intensity (ie mental approach) was much greater. All I'm saying is, seasons often feature ebbs and flows and turning points can come even when nobody expects it. Sometimes it takes a new manager or just one player (eg the appointment of Bayliss and Sheridan at Xmas 2007, the elevation of Rob Kelly in 2021, the arrival of midfield enforcer Maurice Whittle who almost single-handedly alchemised a team that was plunging in 1979-80 just as we have been doing in the last three months).

Of course we need more attacking quality and everybody knows that. At this moment all we can do is hope that MC can get some fresh blood in in January that will get us goals. But all I'm saying is that just one or two strikers with a bit of attitude up front could lead to the entire team being revitalised in terms of belief and determination. Swindon was only a few weeks ago so we know this bunch CAN play well in two-thirds of the pitch. We just have to hope the manager can find a bit of quality to make us come alive up front and if we can get that then the quality we possess in the first two-thirds will rise up accordingly. We are NOT a bad team even though we looked terrible last night.

[barrowaberdeen]

Sense.

[russell_anderson]

I watch almost every match on Sky Sports and BT Sports plus many on IFollow from the Premier League down to the National League and last night's match was the worst exhibition of football by the 2 worst teams I've seen all season.

[blue nige]

What saddens me most ( regarding our position) we've gone from 1500 crowds to around 2600 average, for me I never thought I'd ever see that ,also all the young kids there last night , we surely can't have come this far to blow it, it would be criminal I agree with Paul take our best 14 players plus 3 quality signings and I know we'll be ok but it needs a combined effort the fans are doing their bit ,but the players and Cooper have to show they want it not now and again, all we ask is to show commitment and a desire to win IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?

[cottingham bluebird]

I watch almost every match on Sky Sports and BT Sports plus many on IFollow from the Premier League down to the National League and last night's match was the worst exhibition of football by the 2 worst teams I've seen all season.

You obviously didn't see man utd the other night they couldn't put to passes together and even passing it out of play now they were bad and a premier team with players on over 100000 a week we are league 2 for a reason.
Stop slating them and get behind them I guess you've never had a bad day at work

[russell_anderson]

I watch almost every match on Sky Sports and BT Sports plus many on IFollow from the Premier League down to the National League and last night's match was the worst exhibition of football by the 2 worst teams I've seen all season.

You obviously didn't see man utd the other night they couldn't put to passes together and even passing it out of play now they were bad and a premier team with players on over 100000 a week we are league 2 for a reason.
Stop slating them and get behind them I guess you've never had a bad day at work

I did see Man Utd and, for their level, they were awful. However that level is a million miles better than what was offer at Holker Street last night. I expect to see a better level of football watching Premier teams and Championship teams than watching Barrow but I don't expect watching Barrow to be worse than watching National League teams and, for most of this season, it has been!

[bamber678]

You obviously didn't see man utd the other night they couldn't put to passes together and even passing it out of play now they were bad and a premier team with players on over 100000 a week we are league 2 for a reason.
Stop slating them and get behind them I guess you've never had a bad day at work

I did see Man Utd and, for their level, they were awful. However that level is a million miles better than what was offer at Holker Street last night. I expect to see a better level of football watching Premier teams and Championship teams than watching Barrow but I don't expect watching Barrow to be worse than watching National League teams and, for most of this season, it has been!

League 2 is a terrible standard. It’s no better than NL and slightly worse than L1. In context Man united played below their expected standard but I don’t think barrow play below ours. Last night was frustrating to watch but we still forced their keeper to make 3 really good saves and if we had a striker we would have scored 2. Doesn’t sound like we are terrible when you break it down and don’t be pessimistic