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Coca Cola Championship |
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Barnsley 1 |
Watford 0 |
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Halfreddson 55 |
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The reds entertain a Watford side one place lower than us in the Championship table, with the anticipation created with the midweek absolute demolition of Preston at Deepdale. With new additions to bolster the squad, and now just four points away from the play-offs, it is set to be a positive experience at Oakwell today.
As I said previously any team that finds good form (we certainly did midweek!) can make a push to feature in the play offs come end of season, this is one more result towards that goal, and how important! They are all important but we didn't have the same team gelling like it did at Preston, but we worked hard and carved out a result. Ryan Shottons tackle was only a booking and not a sending off and certainly not a four match ban! Doyley (isnt that something you eat cakes off?) seconds earlier nearly broke Shottons leg on the touch line, none of which was seen by another 'excellent' official at Oakwell! Do I need to point out the sarcasm there?
We were making hard work of it at a foggy Oakwell in the first half with fancy play not coming off, and last passes not finding their mark. It tranformed in the second half after Anderson was substituted. Doyle had an amazingly powerful long drive come off the right post of the Watford goal, passions were raised around Oakwell.
But the reds moved into the top ten of the Championship after a 1-0 win over Watford at Oakwell, well in touch with the play off zone.
Emil Hallfredsson notched his third of the season when he scored just before the hour mark.
We were forced to finish the game with 10 men as Ryan Shotton after I feel being wrongly sent off, he should have been booked, he was stretching for the tackle with one foot, it wasnt a two footed nasty lunge that usually merits a sending off, but we held out for the victory to put us three points off the top six.
By far the best man on the pitch was Filipe Teixeira, making his home debut after joining the Tykes on loan from West Brom. The midfielder was a constant threat and had a hand in Hallfredsson's goal.
Teixeira had a few chances himself and almost marked his Oakwell debut with a volleyed goal in the opening stages but the ball flew wide. He worked amazingly hard throughout, and a player of his calibre could be the difference between play offs or top ten. He is a great signing again testement to the footballing mind of Robins.
Arsenal loanee Henri Lansbury felt he should have had a penalty when he was felled in the Barnsley area but referee Fred Graham was not interested, Lansbury was annoying on the day as he was moaning about everything, and trying to start trouble throughout, not a good example.
Whatever Tykes boss Mark Robins said to his players at half-time did the trick as they looked a different team after the break, spurred on by coming very close to the opener in the 54th minute when Nathan Doyle let fly with a lovely effort from 25 yards and rattled a post, shame it didn't creep in as it would have been a contender for goal of the season. This was a very positive for the period for the reds as a minute later Teixeira did well to keep the ball in play and found Andy Gray, whose pass sent Hallfredsson galloping through to fire the reds into the lead.
He got round full-back Adrian Mariappa and blasted the ball past Loach, who got a touch but could not prevent it rolling in via the inside of the post.
Then the reds were unfairly reduced to 10 men when Shotton was very harshly shown a straight red card for a challenge on Doyley, who was like an animal in this game, not a footballer.
Our lead was nearly doubled in the closing stages when Gray raced through only to be denied by Loach.
And Tykes keeper Luke Steele secured three points for his side with an amazing stoppage time save from a Lansbury freekick. It was an ominous moment at Oakwell, and the end of another 5 minutes! of injury time (more like 7) Watford were given a penalty in the very same position and timing of Dicko's against Cardiff. It was a well struck effort but Steele amazingly got there to keep all three points for the reds.
Man of the match: Filipe Teixeira, showed brilliant skill and worked incredibly hard on his Oakwell debut.
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