Reflections on a derby day victory

I won't rub it in, despite the enormous urge to do so. But I will say this, beating Cardiff and doing so in a manner where we were the better side, feels... well it feels bloody fantastic!

The game had been built up as a clash of styles and that was evident throughout. what i found ...

Barer than a Liz Hurley dress

McPhail is out for three months. Curses! It's been a running theme during the Dave Jones era to operate with a squad thinner than a Vicky Beckham and Jarvis Cocker love-child. Not only is the group light in quantity, it's also saddled with a paucity of quality. As a way of furthering my point, let's hypothesize a game between our best* XI and a cobbled-together Roman numeral equivalent back-up side. Indeed, if one of the many FA cup competitions decided to copy the primary Dutch model and allow reserve sides to enter, this fictitious match could even penetrate a fixture list (I'm sure TV viewing figures would be through the roof)!
* - IMO.
BEST ELEVEN
Marshall
Matthews Hudson-Gerrard McNaughton
Burke McPhail-Ledley Whittingham
Chopra-Bothroyd
Minor, occasionally major weaknesses lie in the centre of defence where the not-terrifically-fast pairing can be exposed by pace and a lack of leadership in line-clearing/reading situations. In midfield, Ledley's several-year-long inconsistency mark him out as a weak link, someone who quick-acting midfield movement can dupe.
OTHER EMPLOYEES (the tea ladies, Tony Capaldi and Warren Feeney narrowly miss out. Scimeca is too frail to ever contribute significantly again)
Enckelman
Quinn Gyepes-Kennedy Comminges
Rae-Taiwo-Blake
McCormack Magennis Etuhu

Reds pay for penalties – Barnsley 2-2 Sheffield United

[caption id="attachment_59" align="alignleft" caption="Kevin Blackwell\'s top secret plans"][/caption]On a cold, cold South Yorkshire night, temperatures ran high as an on form Barnsley side did battle with a Sheffield United side which has been described as ‘decimated’ and ‘injury stricken’. The atmosphere was great, especially considering the abysmal quantity of away supporters, however, due largely to Morgan not playing and Hume only coming on, it stayed heated without boiling over. I can only speak for Barnsley supporters when I say the game was great entertainment. We would think that, because we passed a Blades side, that wouldn’t look out of place a few leagues lower, out of the game.

Why intercity derbies don't really mean anything

As anybody living in these parts probably knows by now, the entire South Welsh Police force will be having a paperwork-free bonding session at the Liberty Stadium this Saturday lunchtime. The itinerary will include separating lager-breathed Danny Dyer lookalikes hell-bent on manhandling one another, lots of human-barrier forming akin to portraying the Berlin Wall in a pleasant game of charades, and constant correction of daft scoundrels who keep mistaking you for a pink animal with trotters and a tail.
Oh, and in the background, a game of football between the two largest Welsh cities is scheduled.
Along with their elder brother, the metropolis derby, intercity derbies are still regarded as the bedrock of British football. Foam-mouthed pundits will reel off the likes of United vs Liverpool, Blackburn vs Burnley, and Norwich vs Ipswich with all the enthusiasm of a wind turbine during a hurricane.
Yet other than a rowdier ambience, burgeoned ticket sales, and a free-for-all on the town that hosts the stadium for burglars, these games mean diddly squat in terms of one branch of regional politics triumphing over another. And anybody who tries convincing you otherwise is as misguided as Popeye is if he thinks tinned-spinach counts as one of his 5-a-day.

South Wales Battle Royal!

This Saturday sees the 'big one', between my beloved Swans and our neighbours C****ff. By now I'm sure you all know the significance of this fixture, the passion, the unbridled hate and unfortunately the occasional violence.. by the way there's a footy game in the midst ...

Two can play that game you're playin'

Due to work commitments, I missed the opening zwanzig minuten of debt-free (?) Cardiff City's Beeb-televised clash with Nottingham Branches and Leaves. Fans and the TV bigwigs were salivating at the prospect of this encounter between the Newcastle-chasing duo: it was whole vs skimmed milk lids; Walker's Ready Salted vs the same brand's Cheese & Onion crisps; Pepsi vs Tizer; roquefort vs Red Leicester; and ultimately, a battle to see who'd be the most incomprehensible in the post-match interview - destitute Liverpudlian vs knock-yer-wee-block-off-sunnie Govan Docks product. An aspect of the game - a bitty, feisty goal and point apiece affair - that genuinely intrigued me was the chance to see the past and present of academy-spawned right-backs donning the same pitch in a meaningful encounter. Chris Gunter was a first-team regular with the Bluebirds before being whisked away for a clandestine love affair with Spurs. Alas, for all the allure of Premier League romance, Gunter's upward-transfer turned out to be a condom-split-culminating quickie in the back of a Renault 5.

You don’t have to beat Posh to be privileged

And beating Posh doesn’t mean that we are privileged. But, we did play quite well, as you must do the win in this league. What this was, was something Davey always struggled with. Peterborough were without doubt, the worst team we’ve played this season. We didn’t play fantastically, but had the right balance between all the different factors required to take three points that many teams like us will take this season. Clinically picking up points where we need to.

'Phew' at these few

By virtue of failing to capture a transfer target last summer, it appears that we've had a fortuitous moral escape. Marlon King was briefly lusted after, but thankfully negotiations barely went beyond a few e-mails/faxes/phone calls. Or texts, whatever it is club chairmen do these days (Ridsdale to Dave Whealan: "HI DAVE. CN WE SGN KNG PLZ? 'PISTOL' PETE" Whealan: "AYE, BOO TIT'LL COST YER...LOL"). King has just been jailed for 18 months on a sexual assault charge, amongst other things. While players at our own club have also spent the past week making headlines for the wrong reasons (yes, YOU, McCormack, you ignorant bundle of dog doo), the few million that was likely to have changed hands in luring King down here would have that made transfer a disastrous and costly investment.

United: they stood strong.

Ah well, we tried. We really did try. We, and the nation via Sky, watched a lot of good performances from the Barnsley players. All we can ask going into a game like this is for a good solid performance. And that’s what we got, against a sublimely talented young United side. We could have got a lot more out of this, but 12 shots off target tells a story. If United had created our range of chances, they would have scored 5 or 6.