The Longside Fans Match Report of Barnsley
John Spicer
By EET
September 30 2005
The game started as it was going to continue with Barnsley making no real impression. Some sources claim we only had 37% possession
Probably the best Branch in the world
Final Score: Burnley 3-0 Barnsley
Team Line Ups
Subs: B Jensen, F Sinclair, K Lafferty, C McCann, G Noel Williams
Subs: N Colgan, B Hassell, P Hayes, B Conlon, S McPhail
The Overview
The game started as it was going to continue with Barnsley making no real impression. Some sources claim we only had 37% possession a statistic which anyone who was there last night will know is far from being accurate as I remember we had most of the possession in the first half. As the first half went on it looked like it was only a matter of time before we took the lead, but then Daniel Nardiello found himself unmarked in the left hand side of the penalty area as the ball was crossed to him by Chris Shuker. He decided to volley the ball first time rather than bring it down and as a result he missed the target. Not soon after we took a deserved lead from a Garreth O'Connor corner on the left hand side (from the attacking point of view) in the 27th minute. Garreth O'Connor played the ball into the near post where Branch flicked it on for Keith Lowe to pounce for his first Burnley goal and also his first goal in professional football. We pushed for a second as half time approached, but we went in just one goal to the good. We continued to dominate the game in the second half and Ade Akinbiyi got his seventh of the season to keep his Burnley average of more than one goal for every two games. It came from long ball down field by Coyne which Ade controlled excellently over his shoulder before dodging to the side of the oncoming Scott Flinders before passing the ball into an empty net and doing a somersault to celebrate. Just minutes later Garreth O'Connor had a goal bound shot inadvertently blocked by Akinbiyi. Not more than a minute or two later though Akinbiyi made amends when he went into the Barnsley penalty area drawing defenders towards him enabling him to pick out John Spicer who calmly rolled the ball inside the keeper's left hand post. Gifton Noel-Williams replaced Adeola Peter Akinbiyi and Frank Sinclair replaced keith Lowe for the last quarter of an hour of the game. Not long after that Micah Hyde was substituted for Chris McCann. We could have extended our lead after the third goal with a long range bullet from Graham Branch well saved by Flinders as did the impressive Chris McCann who seems to have an excellent long range shot that he'd already demonstrated when he hit the bar against Carlisle. Chris McCann also had another long range effort deflected. All in all it was an excellent team performance and Danny Coyne had virtually nothing to do all game.
The Referee
Referee Andy Penn put in a good performance to continue our run of good referees. He refereed fairly and let the game flow. He produced two yellows during the game one for Graham Branch and one for Anthony Kay. Both fully deserved by the players in question. Branch's coming from kicking out then having a confrontation with some of the Barnsley players when he obviously felt he had been fouled.
Man of the Match
Although the official club 'Man of the Match' was given to Micah Hyde it is not him who I have decided to give it to. There was one man who stood head and shoulders above the rest and was very unlucky not to get a goal or two. That man was Graham Branch. He caused Barnsley a lot of problems running down the wing and crossing the ball into the box and forcing his way into the box from the right wing as well. He was the star of the show and surely as long as he is fit must start on saturday against Brighton and Hove Albion.
EET
Many thanks to EET for providing his personal insight into the match, If anybody else would like to provide a Match Report on this match or future games please contact 'The Longside' by emailing thelongsider@yahoo.co.uk