Boring, Boring Barnsley....

On the eve of this game, Peter Ridsdale, Patrick Cryne and BMBC were finally confirmed as the new owners of Barnsley Football Club. On such an occasion, and with the in-form Tykes looking for a fourth consecutive league win, a victory against Grimsby seemed almost inevitable. That said, the Mariners were on a good run themselves having won their previous two fixtures, and with Michael Boulding scoring freely, and new signing Iffy ‘I always score against Barnsley’ Onoura in their starting line up, the game promised goals.

Unfortunately, the Barnsley victory or the free-scoring game failed to materialise and the two sides could only produce ninety minutes of consistently tedious football. In fact, ‘consistently tedious’ is probably an understatement. This was a truly awful game.

Admittedly, injuries to Gorre and Lumsdon had robbed the Tykes of two of their most positive players, but there had been some cause for optimism with Jacob Burns and Stephen Carson making their home debuts. For Grimsby, Darren Barnard returned to the scene of his greatest footballing achievement – THAT volley against Huddersfield – and received an initially positive reception from the Oakwell faithful. However, this soon gave way to some fairly irritating jeering from a minority of Reds fans every time Barnard was in possession.

The first half was a non-event from a Barnsley point of view: the Reds just never got going, and the Mariners carved out two or three good chances which should have them seen leading at the interval. A combination of poor finishing (Boulding firing wide of the far post; Onoura heading wide from eight yards), good goalkeeping (Ilic blocking Boulding’s close range strike) and Barnsley’s good fortune (Iain Anderson’s effort rolling across the goal line with Ilic beaten) prevented Grimsby from taking a deserved lead.

The Reds could offer little in response. In Barnsley’s best spell, midway thorough the half, Rankin’s diving header was comfortably saved by Davison in the Grimsby goal, and Burns headed Carson’s cross wide. Generally, though, Barnsley were poor, and lacked any real creativity. The midfield was particularly poor: Burns was struggling to impose himself on the match, Kay, being played out of position on the right hand side, could only continue his run of poor form and Carson struggled to make the most of some promising situations. As such, Betsy and Rankin had few opportunities to test the Grimsby defence.

The second half could only get better for the home side, and Barnsley almost snatched the lead within ten minutes of the restart. Rankin’s shot was deflected into the path of Betsy who looked certain to score from six yards out. However, Betsy’s hesitation allowed McDermott to block his goal bound effort. Frustrating though the miss was, it was at least a sign that Barnsley could win this match.

On the hour, Fallon replaced Kay, and Betsy took up the right midfield slot. The next opportunity fell to Grimsby, however, who were awarded a free kick on he edge of the Barnsley box. As the players formed a wall, that man Barnard lofted the ball goalwards (a tactic he had employed when scoring for the Tykes
against Bolton in our Premiership season). IIic was alive to the danger, however, and safely gathered the quickly taken free kick.

The Reds then had a similar opportunity, but Carson’s well struck shot was straight at the wall. Barnsley were applying more and more pressure at this stage, without ever really looking like scoring: Fallon saw his header tipped away by Davison but Carson’s corner (like the majority of his corners) was easily gathered by the Mariners keeper.

With a couple of minutes remaining, Barnsley were handed a golden opportunity when Barnard was adjudged to have fouled Rankin in the penalty area. There was certainly some contact, but the decision looked to be a harsh one. In Gorre’s absence, there was some confusion as to who would take the penalty: Betsy initially picked up the ball with intent, but after some prompting from the touchline, Tony Gallimore was given the job.

The scenario was a headline writer’s dream: the ex-Barnsley fullback had given the penalty away, and now the ex-Grimsby fullback was the person to take it. Like Barnard, Gallimore had been getting a bit of stick from the opposition fans, and having converted a spot kick in the LDV Vans victory at Notts County, Gallimore appeared to be a good choice. The Barnsley fullback fluffed his big moment, however, rolling the ball agonisingly wide of the far post. This prompted an explosion of noise from the travelling supporters, who immediately struck up a chant of “There’s only one Tony Gallimore”. Meantime, Barnard celebrated by taunting the home fans.

It was a messy end to a scrappy game. In truth, the Reds did not deserve the win after a poor performance. The majority of the team were below par, and Carson and Burns made little impact on their home debuts (the latter in particular was off the pace for much of the game) although it would obviously be harsh to write them off on just one showing. To outline just how terrible this game was, Lee Crooks, Barnsley's overweight, slow and lazy midfielder was given the Man of the Match award. And the really scary thing was, he actually deserved it...