It was a similar story for the super reds at Shrewsbury last night as the game ended in a 1 – 1 draw thanks to a late equaliser by Herbie Kane from the penalty spot.
It was another slow start from the reds and another early goal conceded. From then on the reds had multiple chances to score which they couldn’t take and were easily the better team without being able to find that elusive breakthrough. The opposition goalkeeper having another stormer. Yet again Barnsley were the better most dominant team without really playing overly well.
And again the reds showed great character and resilience to keep going to the end and it was yet again another injury time goal that was needed to take anything away from the game.
All of the above is a familiar pattern for Barnsley this season. The injury time goals more latterly but the rest of it seems to be the case in most games.
We sit in fourth in the table and there is no doubt we have done extremely well this season to be there. But, there is also the feeling that there could be so much more to come from this team if we just tighten up at the back a little bit, start games a bit better and are more clinical in front of goal.
There is however also a feeling that an injury or two to any of the regular starting eleven could completely derail the good work done so far such is our lack of strength in depth throughout the squad.
The goal we conceded was poor and poor from the perspective of several players.
Whilst Twitter erupted with all the Williams’ haters placing the blame solely at his door. The below description from the Barnsley Chronicle sports writer doesn’t even mention Williams as being culpable:
‘The goal saw Mael de Gevigney’s headed clearance fall to Tom Bayliss who then beat the Frenchman before playing Daniel Udoh in on the left to whip in a low cross which looked to be turned in by Tom Bloxham, although it was initially awarded as a Nicky Cadden own goal. Whoever scored it, it was poor defensive play as Bloxham got in between Josh Earl and Cadden while the Reds were generally slow and flat-footed throughout the move. Jon Russell, the defensive midfielder, was not in position to help de Gevigney after his initial header.’
I do think that there was fault at the door of de Gevigney, Williams, O’Keeffe, Earl, Cadden and Russell. Had Connell been playing then he would have probably been in position to clear the original header but Russell had closed down further up field so should he have kept his position or when he vacated it should someone else have been covering?
Communication, positioning and being flat-footed seemed to be the biggest problem in this goal rather than what each individual did or didn’t do. I do believe part of this could be solved by bringing in an out and out centre back and moving Williams to right wing back but it seems there hasn’t been an opportunity for the manager to do that yet and I do think both Williams and O’Keeffe played pretty well in general last night. I would certainly say it was one of O’Keeffe’s best games for the club.
One thing I do know is that the Twitter hate mob seem to only see errors that Williams makes and no other player. If Williams had missed the tackle as de Gevigney did then it would have been that at fault for the goal. If Williams had fallen over on the line like Earl did then that would have been the fault for the goal. If Williams had have put the ball in his own net as Cadden did then that would have been the fault for the goal.
The only place where Williams should have done better was after the de Gevigney header he should have been the one to close the ball and attempt the tackle but instead de Gevigney had to follow his own header and leave the man he had which Williams then had to mark. Initially they both seemed to stand there as I think they expected Russell or another midfielder to be mopping up in that position.
Once de Gevigney missed the tackle and the Shrewsbury player came out goal side then Williams took a few steps forward to close him as well as trying not to give an angle for the pass to the man he had just been marking. He had to do this or the player in possession of the ball had all the space in the world to run in to. It did however mean he had left that man and he was able to receive the pass. He did however make the angle more difficult as the pass sent the player a lot wider than could have been the case as that player could have been through on goal otherwise.
There is an argument to say he should have gone and closed down out wide but O’Keeffe naturally went to do that but with no real intent and Williams took up position in the middle, it was all done naturally as if it was drilled in to them in training. We then failed to deal with the cross and it ended up in the back of the net.
Plenty of blame to go round to many players including Williams but not solely to Williams as the blinkered Twitter hate mob seem to think.
Make no mistake, I am no big fan of Williams playing at centre back but the fans need to stop with this hate and get behind a lad who has been a very good player for us in his correct position and is willing to do a job for the team by playing out of position despite the daily abuse he receives for it. He has made mistakes this season and has certainly had bad games. But he has also had a lot of good games which go unnoticed and never get mentioned.
I do hope that his confidence hasn’t been knocked to much over the last couple months and that Pines is the answer at centre back so that Williams can move back to right wing back and hopefully be the player he was for us last season.
