Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 2:48 pm
Posts: 4813
Location: In the Armchair.
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THE GREAT BRITISH MELTDOWN – BARROWI think if I’d have asked everyone last week, what would be the worst thing to happen to hinder our promotion charge, top of many peoples list would be Max Dean getting injured, and sadly that is the case.
He has become a bit of a talisman just recently and even when not scoring he’s had a hand in the destination of the points, and none more so against AFC when he was front and centre in the two sending’s off. The clever money is on three weeks off, but you just never know, sometimes these things turn out to be several backward steps, and reassessments show that the initial diagnosis was worse than thought, fingers crossed he recovers quickly.
Super Sub Ellis Harrison steps into the breach, and it’s a big ask for someone that has blown hot and cold since coming to us, and some people might just be pinning some hope in new boy Emre Tezgel who signed on loan this week from Stoke City. Like Max Dean when he came to us he had very little senior football experience, but a big reputation at youth level.
Undoubtedly he will be thrown in the deep end at some stage today, for one I will be praying we have discovered Max Dean 2.0.
We are now wafer thin, and a quick look at the bench shows Tripp and Ilunga have been drafted into the squad, funnily I was only thinking what a big squad we had, and now we appear to be struggling for 11 fit bodies, and I’ve just noticed Wearne is nowhere to be seen after his cameo and assist last weekend, I’m now questioning the sanity of loaning out Grant.
Failing Harrison and Tezgel making an impact, MW might look at pushing Kemp further forward, and if Dean’s injury is worse than suggested, we might even have to bite the bullet and get someone in from those players still without a club.
The players are warming up ahead of this “Green Weekend” of football….sorry….run that past me again…..green…..really……over a 500 mile round trip for the players and the fans, and a collective mileage of over 800 miles for the officials…..oh yes…that’s a very green approach from the EFL….a total box ticking charade, utter bullshit.
Right here come the teams and the pitch looks bloody awful, worse than ours, very patchy areas….do they have rugby on here.
Bloody hell the ball is bobbling about, this is nailed on for a dodgy backpass not making it to either keeper.
30 minutes in and not much going on until we fail to clear our lines and it just goes wide…in other news Salford are beating Wrexham 2-0, and this pitch is worse than I thought.
The ref looks to be a bit of a homer, two Barrow defenders collide with Kemp in close attendance, and Barrow get the freekick.
So far my assessment is , Harvie is having a poor game and appears to be arguing with O’Hora, Williams isn’t looking much better, Kemp is itching to be booked, and Bate tries to do too much and often overplays it.
Another effort whistles past the Dons goal, but the rookie looks like he had it covered.
5 minutes to the break and we finally warm the keeper’s hands as Payne fires from range and Farman pushes it wide for a corner.
Strangely the Barrow commentators are saying, Barrow desperately need the break to be able to regroup…I wonder what game he is watching, as I certainly don’t get that feeling, perhaps they should concentrate on calling O’Hora Warren and not William.…..by the way Wrexham have pulled one back.
Half Time…it won’t take me long to forget that half of football, strangely some Barrow fans are booing, who or what I have no idea.
Stats…we have had 60% possession, 4 shots, 2 on target to their 4 shots and 1 on target.
Here we go then, second half…dare I say this game needs a rocket up its backside and I think its likely we might just see the Stoke youngster later in the game.
The ref wastes no time in giving a 50/50 challenge from Harrison a freekick to Barrow, the chances of him giving us this elusive penalty look fairly remote, it would take an assault with an Exocet missile on one of our players to persuade Mr Reeves to point at the spot.
5 minutes in and DANGER but the Barrow striker fires wide.
Williams is booked when there looked like nothing much in it, worse tackles have gone unpunished. The freekick near the halfway line is punted into box to an unmarked Barrow player who scoops it over the bar from 6 yards.
Tomlinson is next into the book for being a horrible bastard, not really, but he obviously upset the ref.
Barrow have the ball in the back of the net, but there is a clear offside in the buildup.
Harrison is fouled about 30 yards out, it looks a nasty challenge, the Barrow commentators saying it could easily have been red, but Reeves flashes a yellow.
Harrison is down again, obviously still feeling the damage from that crude tackle……Salford are now beating Wrexham 3-1.
And here come the new boy as Harrison limps off….hold your breath, he’s got about 30 minutes to make himself a hero.
Tomlinson looks like he is walking a tightrope, only just booked and then commits a stupid foul, could easily have seen a second yellow.
Getting on for 10 minutes into his debut and I don’t think Tezgel has touched the ball yet.
Oooooh he’s touched it, from the resulting move Payne is felled just outside the box, Tomlinson takes and it’s a powder puff effort.
The tempo is rising, more possession and a Gilbey effort is deflected wide. Shortly after Tomlinson is in the thick of it again, and the keeper just beats him to the ball, again very easily could have been another yellow.
72 mins and off comes Kemp and on comes Etan Robson, personally Tommo would have been my man for the hook, he must be in the last chance saloon.
As predicted in the preview, we are on the attack it breaks down, a long ball, a couple of missed tackles and “Cole the Goal” Stockton scores….and is promptly subbed off……don’t say you weren’t warned.
10 minutes to go….we need more to get anything here, plenty of possession but not much of any end result.
How does Gilbey not score. A ball from Bate to the backstick and from 6 yards totally fluffs his lines and hardly gets a touch.
Harvie is given the hook and on comes Lofty.
5 minutes to go and Barrow are in charge and it’s a corner, the rookie keeper comes for the ball and gets nowhere near it, how Barrow don’t score is a mystery.
The minutes are running out and despite plenty of possession in midfield, nothing is getting close to the Barrow goal.
Here come the board…7 minutes of injury time are shown just as Marschall claws a shot wide of the post.
OMG – a Tomlinson shot is deflected and somehow the keeper gets a finger on it to send it for a corner.
That’s it…times up, and it’s a defeat, we never produced that much despite plenty of ball, just one great chance converted by Barrow.
I can’t say anyone for us stood out, a few looked down on performance. The new boy was fairly anonymous, mainly down to the service he got, we just never got the ball to him.
We certainly need some good news from the injury table, and now it looks like Harrison has joined the growing list.
The stats show we had nothing on target in the 2nd half despite maintaining that 60% possession figure, still not too much damage done, and we remain in 6th, Barrow move up to 3rd, Wrexham losing to Saford drop to 4th, and watching that, you have to say the standard in this division is bloody poor.
Safe journey home to the 275 that made the trip.
See you next week. 
WD
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Read the MELTDOWN after every game, no bullshit, just giving it straight
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