Barnsley v Accrington Stanley

HEAD COACH
The Head Coach
M ICHAEL
DUFF
Good afternoon, Reds, and welcome back to Oakwell.
The New Year hasn’t begun how we had hoped. We started poorly
against Bolton Wanderers, then the red card killed us. Apart from the
opening exchanges, I thought we actually put in a decent performance
considering the circumstances, but we put that behind us and take the
positives from the game.
The performance at Derby County wasn’t good enough, and we were
disappointed to exit the Emirates FA Cup so early. It has not been very
often said that a lack of desire can be labelled at this side so far this
season, but the effort levels that day were not up to standard. The
players knew that it wasn’t acceptable, and it was a learning curve for
our young team.
On another note, during that game we also lost Tom Edwards to a
nasty knee injury. Everyone here at the Club wishes Tom all the best
with his rehab, and the door is always open for Tom to pop in and say
hello to the lads.
Charlton Athletic was, again, a different story to the aforementioned
games. When you have 23 shots on goal and have 65% of the ball,
you have to make the ‘keeper work, and that is something we didn’t
do enough of at the Valley. Encouragingly, we were getting in the right
areas and looking a threat; it’s just a case of finding the final piece of
the jigsaw when going forward.
We are pleased to welcome Max Watters, Bobby Thomas and Barry
Cotter to Oakwell since I last addressed you in Oakwell Review. In
Max, we hope to have a player who can add a different dimension to
our attack. He’s trained with us for almost a couple of weeks now, and
every day he is learning more about what we as a staff demand from
the strikers in our side.
Bobby is a player I know well, having worked with him whilst I was
a coach at Burnley. He’s had a good season so far on loan at Bristol
Rovers – putting in good performances in this division – and we hope
he can bring that momentum to the Club with him. In Barry, he is
a player that possesses great athleticism and energy, and we look
forward to working with him on the training ground.
Today though, we focus on a tough opponent in Accrington Stanley.
We saw first-hand how solid and organised they were on Boxing Day,
and it’s up to us to find a way around that. I would like to wish a warm
welcome to John, his staff and players from Accrington.
Thank you for all your support on the road in recent weeks. Let’s hope
today is the game that helps us turn things around.
Enjoy the match,
Michael
OAKWELL REVIEW 7 BARNSLEY VS ACCRINGTON STANLEY