BARNSLEY 2 (Potts 4, Thiam 4) CHARLTON 1 (Reeves 74)
Attendance: 11,978 (564 Charlton)Barnsley Davies, Pinnock, Lindsay, McGeehan, Cavaré, Potts (Dougall 77), Bahre (Brown 70), Pinillos, Woodrow, Thiam (Hedges 87), Mowatt.Charlton Steer, Dijksteel, Bauer, Pearce (Stevenson 65), Solly, Bielik, Pratley (Fosu 60), Reeves, Marshall (Hackett-Fairchild 81), Taylor, Grant.
Summary
Extended Xmas misery for Charlton as the two Christmas games on the road delivered consecutive defeats. Barnsley raced into a two goal lead as a sluggish Charlton were poor in the first half. We rallied in the second and pulled a goal back, but we just couldn't do enough to force an equaliser. To cap things, Chris Solly was harshly sent off for a 2nd yellow in the 96th minute and Jason Pearce picked up an injury.
Post Match comments
Bowyer:
“I feel for them because I don’t think we deserved to leave with nothing. We've come to a top side and we deserved something, for me, because of the effort we put in. First half, they scored two unstoppable strikes and that is all it was. Apart from the goals, I think Jed [Steer] made one more save and other than that we had control of the possession. Second half, we scored and I feel sorry for the lads because they’ve given me everything again. We’re down to the bare bones and it’s hard for them.
“We haven’t got the luxury of rotating two or three or four players. It’s unfortunate at the moment and Pearcey has had to come off injured and Chris Solly has got a second yellow card, which I thought was harsh, as well.”
“I thought it was a harsh sending off. He won the ball but the ref says he caught him with his follow through. You’re asking your players to put everything in and give you everything. He’s slid in and won the ball and his momentum has taken him into the lad. You can’t stop that and you can’t help that. That’s just part of the game at times and he hasn’t done anything intentionally. He’s just collided into him after he’s won the ball. What do you want him to do? You don’t just win the ball and stop; that doesn’t happen. Now we lose another player for the next game.”
STATBANK Player Marks
Bielik = 6.59
Reeves = 6.32
Steer = 6.25
Bauer = 6.20
Pearce = 6.20
Taylor = 5.59
Solly = 5.55
Grant = 5.50
Fosu = 5.45
Marshall = 5.39
Dijksteel = 5.14
Pratley = 4.11
Team Average = 5.69
At the game...
@The31YearMan : Too little, too late. You can't let a team with Barnsley's undoubted quality at this level dictate in the manner they did in the early stages and afford them a 2-0 lead. If you allow them, they will press, stretch you and shoot on sight. Before you know it, you could find yourself down 0-2 by the 17th minute.
It's true that we are decimated by injuries but why not start with a bit of offensive intent ourselves from the off by employing both Marshall and Fosu. Fortune favours the brave and all that.
There was not enough passion on display from us in that first half for me which we eventually showed at the end of the match. Barnsley held the upper hand in terms of possession and they sensibly spread the play with Mike Bahre a constant threat in the middle forward position. Whereas the only sort of thing we could muster was a pathetic free kick by Reeves straight to Adam Davies, their keeper on 21 minutes. Then there was a case of Pratley going backwards with the ball followed by loss of possession.
Our offensive ambition resulted in our first corner on 35 minutes.
There were some tiny signs that we were emerging from our slumber as the first half drew to its conclusion. However, the Tykes weren't finish with us yet as they pressed for a killer third from Bahre which forced Steer into a good save at his right hand post.
After a first 45 minutes of going up blind alleys, Marshall started to look much sharper, no doubt after a rocket from Bowyer at half time.
Bahre had another chance to wrap it up and should of scored.
Again, one of the glaring failings of the afternoon as the sun began to set over the South Yorkshire skyline was Bielik's inability to pass quicker to the likes of Taylor.
A flicker of light came when Fosu replaced Pratley and indeed from his blocked free kick, Reeves blasted in the rebound to reduce the arrears.
We went for height in the end with Hacket-Fairchild replacing Marshall in the final stages but with two instances of first Dijksteel and then Reeves relinquishing possession when we just needed that ball in the final third, you kinda of knew that a sweet ending would be probably beyond us. We had become very spirited right at the end and Chris Solly, bless him, took that to the extreme.
We come away with nothing but moving forward we just have to try to stay in and around the play offs with this terrible injury crisis threatening to derail our season.
You never know folks, we might be able to field our full strength team in the play offs and brush aside all before us because our best 11 is good enough to get us out of this tedious division.
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