Tykes Charged by F.A.

The F.A. have hit Barnsley with the charge of breaking regulations on April 21st at the Ricoh Arena in their crunch match against Coventry City which ended in a 1-1 draw.

Barnsley had led for over 80 minutes thanks to a goal from striker Daniel Bogdanovic from 12 yards, but a last minute penalty let the Sky Blues back into the game and cost the Tykes 2 valuable points.

Erstwhile Barnsley target Freddie Eastwood belted a shot goalwards from the edge of the box which struck defender Rob Kozluk and went out of play behind the goal. The referee Steve Cook waved for a corner to the home side but then went over to speak to his assistant who advised him that the ball had struck Rob Kozluk’s arm. Subsequently, the penalty from which Elliott Ward equalised was given, prompting mass protests from the Barnsley players.

The club have been charged with failing to ensure it’s players and/or officials conduct themselves in an orderly fashion and have until May 27th to respond to the charge.

Given that it was a highly dubious decision, the referee had a perfect view of the incident and decided on a corner initially and there were 3 massive points riding on the game, it’s understandable that the Barnsley players reacted the way they did, but inexcusable.

Let’s just hope that the football governing bodies remain consistent and mete out some similar punishment to Chelsea for the disgusting behaviour, understandable or not, which took place on live television on May 6th.