THE AWAY END
BARNSLEY v MIDDLESBROUGH
John Powls, 29 Dec 2009
The Build Up To The Game
It's been a funny old week on the websites - not surprising, given the time of year. Many regular contributors to blogs and message boards checked out for the holidays and others seemed to want to talk about anything and everything, other than footy.
The subjects ranged far and wide and into ever more obscure and tangential areas. Still, it saved everyone picking at the still unhealed wounds from The Away End at Sid James's.
But, as the Boxing Day game began to hove near through the fug of a Xmas just passed, it emerged that Sean St. Ledger's return to Preston was more than just 'gardening leave' pending a transfer to Boro.
Column Continues Below...
Strachan's protests (methinks, too much) that he wanted Ledge to stay, made you wonder whether he had his fingers crossed behind his back in the presser! But the nature of the three-way contract that set up the loan, North End's finances and the Irish International defender's wages may mean this story has a little way to run yet.
The club also confirmed that Isaiah Osbourne's loan had been extended to the full ninety-three days, but that Dave Kitson and Marcus Bent will be returned, to Stoke and Brum, respectively after the Barnsley match. Kitson has been ill anyway, missing the Scunny game, so was already unlikely to be seen again in a Boro shirt.
Then at least we had some footy to see and talk about with Boro trouncing Scunny on Boxing Day in one of the most one sided games Phil and I could remember - and that was even in the ten minutes before Scunny conceded an iffy penalty to Jezza's patent collapsible legs and lost the culprit, Byrne to a straight red.
But, with Boro's penchant for the 'banana skin' and our home record this season, and under Strachan, no-one across the DiasBoro took a win for granted. A clean sheet was very welcome too. The win came at the cost of Pogi injured with a hammy that might keep him out for weeks in a season that's already been blighted with injury for him.
We were sure that the Boro manager would also want a word in Leroy Lita's ear for getting himself a red card, with minutes to go, in what had become a nothing game by that point. That lack of discipline could cost Boro - it should certainly cost Lita.
The traveling Parmo Army were out in numbers again at Oakwell. The bookable three and a half thousand tickets were sold out and it looked like most of the two thousand available for walk-ups had been snapped up too for this Bank Holiday game. As with the Scunny game, it had the feel of the anteroom for the January window for Boro.
Phil and I believed The Away End would certainly see the Teessiders face a much sterner test from Mark Robins' Barnsley than they faced against Scunny. Particularly since The Tykes' Boxing Day game fell foul of the icy conditions in the surrounds of Preston's ground. Mind you, Boro could hardly have been physically challenged by their game either but you wouldn't know it from those added to the injury list.
The Game
The biggest cheer, bar none, on Boxing Day was when 'Me, Mark Page' announced "In goal - Danny Coyne" and the love affair between the Boro goalie and The Parmo Army continued before and during this game.
The Away End were simply magnificent - non-stop loud, ferocious and funny. This Boro simply don't deserve them and they don't deserve the sort of spineless - in all senses - collapse Boro served up in the second half.
The thoughts of one of our number, 'Talking Tactics' Ian Gill follow in quotes:-
"Statistics may not tell the whole truth but in terms of possession and shots Barnsley were on top.
The first half was uneventful with just the odd shot and none odder than Hoyte's. His cross from the left touchline zoomed goalwards and even thirty yards out it was clear their keeper was in trouble."
Hoyte later claimed it was a deliberate attempt on goal and not a cross that accidentally found the target. That's his opinion - he's almost alone in holding it, but only he knows. The Away End spent the rest of the game calling on him to shoot from increasingly implausible positions on the pitch.
Gill continued: "The major point of interest in the first half was that Hoyte tore forward several times but there was no end product as he had to stop and turn back on to his right foot. Boro had three left backs on the bench.
"At the start of the second half, Boro returned to being sloppy. They had a chance cleared away very early on then just fell apart for twenty minutes as every cross seemed to cause problems.
Once we were 2-1 down there was no way back despite a bit of huffing and puffing."
With most of Boro's players looking as though they were still in the dressing room, the shortcomings of yet another defence unused to one another and with one of their number square-pegged came home to roost as Foster headed home simply, from an equally simple cross.
That was enough to encourage Mark Robins' re-shaped and re-invigorated Tykes. As they stepped up to the plate, Boro deserted it and lost their shape, direction and organisation, ceding the centre of the park and any control with it.
Hoyte dallied on the ball and was robbed by the lively Bogdanovic who crossed for Colace. Colace had made up yards of ground, untracked, into the middle of Boro's box where our defenders ineffectually looked at one another and he had the straightforward job of heading the Tykes into a lead that they might have extended but seldom looked like losing.
Gill's assessment was simple: "O'Neil kept trying and Johnno kept jinking but there were no options. Bent and Franks struggled to make an impact. Williams looked like a good footballer out of position and Arca did a few twirls - and that was it.
The defence was fine until a set piece came in. Coyne could do nothing about the goals.
The truth is Boro were not good enough. Their final ball lacked quality but it is of some concern is that it didn't matter what Johnno did, no-one is made runs to get onto his deliveries.
The most worrying part was that as players leave and injuries and suspensions bite, a Boro that were not good enough anyway just get worse.
My lad, Alex, summed it up by saying that battling Barnsley were a better footballing team, they outplayed Boro and wanted it more, particularly in the second half."
So, Boro played only one half, crumbling under robust second half pressure from a side that wanted the win more but had only moderate resources themselves. We gave up a lead, still can't defend crosses, let down a magnificent four and a half thousand Away End display with a rag bag team drawn from an inadequate squad, inadequately managed and coached, it seems to be the most 'Typical' and fitting end to this worst of years.
On the Oakwell pitch, the matchday squad, team, performance and result all spoke - in fact, shouted - eloquently of the need for a radical rebuild.
Alhough change is desperately needed, the scale of the changes will take some organising and realising so it is to be hoped that the activity is already underway and the results will be evident early in January.
At the final whistle, Johnno, seemingly 'ticked off', made a hunched and hasty exit down the Oakwell tunnel. In his post-match presser this was implausibly explained away by Strachan on the grounds that it was cold and Johnno was keen to get to the warmth of the dressing room.
Or to pastures new, perhaps?
There's no point in any further inquests after this game. They would just trawl - again - over old and barren ground.
Better to remind the Boro manager of an old aphorism that rings truer than the bells that will usher out 2009 and usher in 2010 and the January transfer window:-
'If you can't change the people, then change the people'.
And do it ruthlessly, decisively and quickly. Those that took a little longer to get out of Oakwell may have noticed Strachan seek some privacy on the pitch to spend ten minutes with his mobile clamped to his ear and deep in conversation. Hmmmm.
Later
BBC's Football League Show, in the early hours of Tuesday, pushed the Boro game back to the round up package and the only inconclusive discussion focused on the 'compare and contrast' Strachan and Robins in the early games of their reigns.
The Tuesday newspaper' reports provided, as expected, no consolation, except perhaps that very few of them mentioned Boro's game at all except for the result and a brief summary of facts.
From a Parmo Army viewpoint, 2009 is a year we'll all be keen to see the back of - an 'Annus Horribilis' that has Boro in the 'anus horribilis', the nether regions of the backside of the football quality universe that is The Championship.
And, having got themselves - with lots of 'help' from MFC - into that hole, they still continue to dig.
For some weeks now - and yesterday was no exception - Strachan and his Boro have been in the anteroom to the January transfer window. Although he's been refusing to talk about it - and did again in yesterday's post-match presser - his silence is deafening.
Even if, or when, the many moves in and out are done, the sort of settled side of case hardened pros with the right balance and qualities that is a major part of the capability required - will take yet more time to shape up and deliver. And this is, in fact, the 'Blind Faith' prospectus that Gibbo promised the DiasBoro back in May but didn't put in place.
And the time that is needed may well be more time than Boro have to mount a concerted challenge for a play off place, given that the second half of the season started with yesterday's game.
A poignant and illustrative counterpoint will play out in next Saturday's FA Cup tie against a Manchester City that Mancini seems to have put some backbone and organisation into, in his first two games in charge.
Remember that season closing eight one? How long ago was that? How far away it now seems.
Let's hope that the turn of the year brings a turn of fortune for Boro and most of all for the long-suffering DiasBoro, Parmo Army and The Away End.
A Happy New Year and all good things for 2010 to you all.
The Away End will return after The Blades game on 16 January.
