Barnsley 3 Stockport County 3: Pantomime season at Oakwell

writing a report praising a professional Reds performance, a comfortable

win over lowly Stockport and three more points in the play-off push......but

the tide turned through a couple of individual errors and we could even

have lost at the death.

The game started in scrappy fashion but when Tony Vaughan headed

home Stephen McPhail's corner after 14 minutes, it gave the team the

confidence boost needed to get the ball down and play.

Plenty of decent chances were created by a hardworking Reds midfield

and Michael Boulding, Jacob Burns and Michael Chopra all had

opportunities.

Stockport were generally poor but battled well and should have equalised

through Warren Feeney who outpaced the Reds defence before shooting

against the post.

Feeney again showed his pace on 41 minutes but his failure to square the

ball and Tom Williams tremendous last ditch tackle prevented what should

have been the equaliser.

County were made to pay just two minutes later with a fantastic Chris

Shuker strike from almost 25 yards out which the keeper could do nothing

about.

Within two minutes of the start of the second half, the game should have

been over as a Burns corner ended up in the net after a looping Vaughan

header.

However, in typical Barnsley fashion, we sat back and allowed County

plenty of possession and a couple of great chances which Feeney and

Daly didn't take.

It took an awful defensive error from Antony Kay on the hour to let County

back in the game as he left the ball for keeper Ross Turnbull without

looking and allowed Feeney clear on goal and this time he found the

target.

Matt Carbon then came on for the injured Paul Reid and Kay replaced him

in midfield.

Stockport's second came on 72 minutes in controversial fashion as

Turnbull comfortably plucked another high ball from the air. Daly seemed to

foul the keeper and the ball fell for County substitute Stuart Barlow to

increase the panic at Oakwell despite the protests to the referee.

Neil Austin then had to replace the injured Tom Williams on the left and the

Reds team and defence especially looked very vulnerable while still

creating enough decent chances to kill the game by scoring a fourth.

The now seemingly certain equaliser arrived ten minutes from time when a

low right-wing cross bypassed the entire Reds defence and was knocked

home easily at the far post by Rickie Lambert sending the County fans

unsurprisingly wild.

Both sides could have still have won the game with the Reds coming

closest through a McPhail header which hit the bar after which he was

replaced by Daniel Nardiello for the final five minutes.

Boos predictably greeted the final whistle and the disappointment

seemed to be felt by the team as they trudged off the field. Typical, just as

the crowd goes back over 10,000 we let this happen and the fair weather

fans say nothings changed.

Where it went wrong today is hard to pinpoint, Stockport were given their

first two goals through individual errors but the chances they missed

before them showed how fragile our defence/midfield had become - the injuries to Reid and Williams certainly didn't help - but our play in the second half was poor and we kept losing possession through too many long high balls. Tactics which might have worked with Barry Conlon on the field.