19 Oct 2018 13:30:58
My Yorkshire travels take me to Barnsley on a beautiful autumn day to watch the under 23s. Team news, more of a under 23 feel to the side today. Ayling plays, the ban obviously only applies to championship games. No Clarke or Blackman, so buffer starts in goal. Edmondson plays so imagine he is not featuring in the squad tomorrow. Aapo only on the bench which is strange unless he is being kept back just in case for tomorrow. No Shaunessy here, so imagine he will bench tomorrow.

1.) 19 Oct 2018
19 Oct 2018 18:39:49
Well what a weird game that was, finishe 1-4 to us with an. Edmondson hatrick and fine performance by Clarke Odour playing left back but causing havoc all down the left wing.

We went 1-0 down, were guilty of bad schoolboy defending, could have been 3-0 down, they missed a penalty and it took us until 40th minute to get going and Edmundson, after not touching the ball suddenly had chance after chance and took three of them. After the break there was only one team in it and we coasted.

Not quite sure what was going wrong but Struick was hauled of after 18 mins, replaced with Odour and the defence rejigged and gradually we got back into it.

I think somone mentioned before that without too many first team players, the team spirit of these group really shows through. Great display for Edmundson, do his confidence a world of good, Clarke Odour looks a real find, wonderful feet, scared them to death of the left every time he got the goal and made an inch perfect cross for the final goal. He played left wing back but had a free run down the left . Once we got into the game, Gotts, Stevens and Dalby all had good games. Aapo came on for the final 15 or so and again looked calm and classy at the back.

A really good performance because it shows the ability of the coaching team to identify and sort problems in the play. Some of the defending in the first 30 mins was A bit hilarious as we tried to play out of the back and into lots of trouble.

Another really enjoyable outing.

2.) 19 Oct 2018
19 Oct 2018 22:00:54
Cheers Spanish. Interesting insight. The one thing that gets me is re strujic. he’s been playing so well. What happened?

3.) 19 Oct 2018
19 Oct 2018 23:31:43
Good report Spanish, thanks mate.

4.) 20 Oct 2018
19 Oct 2018 23:48:06
To be honest it was so messy during the first 30 mins, with some awful defending, it was hard to see why it was going wrong we just weren’t getting hold of the ball. It was a bit of a weird sub, bringing a left winger on, not doing a straight swap with Aapo, but it started to work and the whole focus of the game shifted. It was a 17 min substitution! Strujic looked shell shocked when he came off and Corberan didn’t seem to talk to him at all. It made the difference because Clarke got more and more space on the left, he was able to draw people down the left and suddenly the whole of the park opened up and Edmondson, Dalby and Stevens started to get more opportunities. I prefer Diaz and Haalme as the centre back pairing, they look pretty solid. Anyone else see the game and have a view?

5.) 20 Oct 2018
20 Oct 2018 09:56:09
Could not get to the game but saw first half on live stream and we did struggle a bit. Some times i think we look to blaming our players for a poor performance and do not give enough credit to our opponents. Barnsley are a decent side, i know a few lads from there who were amazed they lost 4-1. They had a plan and it was working until Carlos made the change, all credit to him. Stevens and Gotts are two stand out players for me as both consistent and never stop playing. Edmondson will score every game if chances come his way, proper striker. To be honest i think our best young CB is out on loan and doing really well having helped his loan club to promotion last season and up with the leaders this season and is ever present. Kitching a lad who not a lot of people know.