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Opinion

What Barnsley fans had to say about Newcastle fans and the match

7 years ago
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Barnsley fans had seen their team on a bad recent run and were hoping for a change in fortune against Newcastle United in front of their highest crowd for years.

In the end it was the 5,901 travelling supporters who were celebrating going top of the Championship as Barnsley made it five defeats in their last six matches, after a run of five wins in six.

A hard fought first half ended goalless, before Newcastle stretched away for a comfortable two goal win in the second.

So what did the Barnsley fans think of Tuesday night?

An interesting selection of comments, ranging from believing Barnsley matched Newcastle, to those that thought NUFC outclassed the opposition.

Some intriguing thoughts on the Newcastle fans (pictured above), Robert Lee’s son playing, Rafa Benitez and the way the game panned out.

Comments taken from top Barnsley fans message board bbs.barnsley:

‘It boiled down to the gulf in class which for me showed up alarmingly all over the field….we appeared rushed, relied too much on the long ball from the back.

Seemed to lack the fight needed to bridge the gap between skill and experience..yes at times Newcastle lacked some composure but we never really settled or were allowed to for that matter.

The boys are learning their trade and it’s not their fault that the gulf in class collectively is having a major effect on the outcome of the games…they can only play to their best ability.

Its going to be a long season if tonight is anything to go by and better teams than Newcastle will take us apart.

Fair play to Newcastle they did enough and went away with the points.’

‘The crowd was good shame about nearly 5,000 empty seats and only 12,500 home fans.

Our recent bad run and not letting Newcastle have the west stand cost us money and a 20k crowd.

To say away following was given as 5991, they were very quiet in the first half.

Voldemort got away with a lot last night.’

‘Rafa, class manager that he is, had done his homework. Kent and Hammill were totally snuffed out and hopeful balls into the box were never going to reach our diminutive forward line. We weren’t good enough to be passing it through a better Newcastle midfield – hence we were unable to create much in the way of chances.

Newcastle were very patient, and that again I think is a product of Rafa’s guidance. Let’s not forget that in their last Premiership game, Newcastle put five past Tottenham.We were a League One+ side playing a Premiership one.

I enjoyed the game last night, and I think there were plenty of positives to take away. Let’s not forget that this time last season we were losing to the likes of Shrewsbury, Crewe and Fleetwood.’

‘Fulham were outstanding on Saturday. Newcastle were no better than us last night apart from taking their two chances. I really thought we were going to surprise a few and beat them.’

‘The difference in class individually was evident.

The close control and distribution of the ball from the Newcastle players was streets ahead of our lads .

They tried their best but apart from a 25 minute spell in the first half we were 2nd best.’

‘Tom Bradshaw and Elliot Lee came on and floundered around for 25 minutes or so, contributing virtually nothing at all to the cause. I wonder if the Newcastle fans realised that Lee was the son of one of their former heroes, Robert Lee? The lad must have something but he is never going to show it for us.

A good evening for atmosphere with the away end packed and in full voice plus the home sides of the ground looking well populated as well.

In the end though we have to succumb, once again, to the moneyed classes of this division and there will be plenty more of those to come between now and May.

Jonjo Shelvey was allowed to talk to the referee throughout and then, because they were such good mates, he got away with the kind of tackle that got Scowen sent off on Saturday. A yellow was nowhere near the punishment that he deserved. Oh well – what can we expect? Referees will never side with the likes of us when they have the billionaires on their case every match, will they?’

‘Barnsley retained the 4-4-2 system that I had been so critical of on Saturday (Barnsley 2 Fulham 4) and Newcastle lined up 4-2-3-1, an initial statement that they did not intend to concede. My half time discussion hinged around why we had conceded 2 on Saturday by half-time but today we had conceded nil. In my opinion, as a team, we had not played any better.

Our passing was still woeful, we struggled to retain possession and most of our passing forward was of the back to front variety, mainly because our close passing was so poor. As a result, our forwards were isolated and unable to get into the game.

And yet, defensively we had coped easily with Roberts taking Gayle and Jackson picking up any spare man. Of course, with so much long ball, our midfield was more compact and they were never as stretched as happen on Saturday, though Newcastle contributed by being much more defensive minded than Fulham. By the end of half time, all that I could offer was that Newcastle were not as good as Fulham.

Shortly after half time, just as in the Fulham game, we conceded to go behind. A free-kick was not cleared properly the ball was knocked back into the throng and Gayle sorted out the melee. It was a mess, and once again we had dug our own hole. The difference this time is that the formation had nothing what so ever to do with it. Indeed, our 4-4-2 coped quite well with the Newcastle system and we finished slightly ahead on possession. But the Newcastle system was there in order to avoid conceding, and you could see our shoulders drop when we did. The players knew that their chance had gone.

The game was lost after that first goal and as the game opened up, there was only one possible winner.

I did not even think that Newcastle played particularly well. It was typical Rafa Benitez, turn up, play the system, avoid all excitement and most of the entertainment, win and move on.

I am sure others will want to point out the difference in cost between the teams but for me tonight was a free game with no expectations, and I was not disappointed.’

‘The trouble is that once we were 0-2 down all the sound was coming from the away end, not surprisingly.

As much a I love seeing both ends full I hate seeing thousands of away fans bouncing up and down at Oakwell.’

 

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