Barnsley 0 – 1 Sheffield Wednesday
It is fair to say that as a Barnsley fan at this moment in time I feel gutted, robbed, cheated and proud all at the same time.
The ten men of Barnsley put up an heroic performance to come within seconds of taking Sheffield Wednesday to a penalty shoot out.
As a fan sat in the stadium it was certainly the most cruel of ways to lose but every player that pulled on a Barnsley shirt that day can hold their head up high and say they gave it their all.
The decisions of the referee and the VAR are the big talking points from this one and it seemed to me that decisions throughout were in favour of the ‘bigger club’.
The first half was a dire and cagey affair with neither team being able to claim that they had the better of it. Both sets of fans were also nervous and quiet as the occasion seemed to get to everyone. I’m sure many neutrals watching on the TV at home would have switched over to catch up on Emmerdale Farm with the quality of that first half so poor.
Credit to Sheffield Wednesday for gaining promotion but they cannot play football and just hoof it up front to the big lad and we fell in to the trap of doing exactly the same for the majority of the first half.
The second half was another story. The introduction of Norwood for Tedic gave the team renewed energy and the Phillips sending off took it to another level. The Barnsley fans found their voice and easily out sang their local rivals who had almost double the amount of fans in the stadium. The super reds were certainly the better during the second half but it would always be a difficult task to keep that going throughout extra time.
The Phillips red car wasn’t a red card in my opinion, probably worthy of a yellow but nothing more. Listen to Jobi McAnuff on Sky after the game and I think he sums it perfectly. Once the ref gives a red, the VAR isn’t going to change it, they never do with those types of challenges. At the same time, if he gave a yellow then there is no way it would be upgraded to a red. What should be happening, which we are poor at in this country, is let the ref go to the screen and have a look himself. He may still think it’s a red but he also may think actually it’s only a yellow. This is too big of a game for things like that not to happen.
Worryingly, the red card wasn’t the worst decision that the officials made between them. I can forgive the ref for missing the penalty on Kitching but how on earth did the VAR not see it. At this point we still had eleven on the pitch and should have had a penalty and could have been 1 – 0 up. I’m not sure the ref got many decisions right all day and I definitely had a feeling that they subconsciously favoured Sheffield Wednesday because they are massive.
After being the better side throughout the second half, extra time was always going to be tough and Wednesday did pile on the pressure and you had a feeling it would be hard to withstand and keep them out. But we defended as if our lives defended on it, throwing bodies in the way of everything and Isted outstanding in the sticks.
We even had a a terrific opportunity to take the lead and I would back Connell to hit the target there nine times out of ten but it just wasn’t to be and we were sucker punched with the last kick of the game.
Gutting to perform like that and work so hard and not have the opportunity to take it to penalties but I don’t think I have ever been prouder of the every player who stepped on to that pitch. None of them deserved to be on the losing side and it is just a shame that poor officiating didn’t allow for the two teams to fight it out equally.
We go again next season. I’m hoping we can hang on to everyone including the manager and if we do I’m confident it will be an automatic promotion push. Unfortunately I think we will lose a few players as we always do and it will be a summer rebuild job as usual. Hopefully I’m wrong and we have one season where we say we’re going for it and it will only take ridiculous money to sell anyone it isn’t the usual Barnsley way.
I’m proud of every single player and the coaching staff of the way we played at Wembley and what we have achieved this season and the result yesterday shouldn’t take anything away from that.
COYR
