County v Barrow: Match Thread (19/08/2023)

Well, isn't football funny? You can play well and get nothing and you can play poorly and take the spoils. The latter was the case today.

Before a ball was kicked it was obvious what problem we would have. Duffus, who has decent physicality was paired with an even more physical forward. The only player visually who could compete was Horsfall, and heck... let's not concede corners of FKs because they've got a few other big lads too!

And so it panned out that Knoyle and Touray simply couldn't match the physicality Barrow presented, and with Barry (and others) guilty of losing the ball cheaply, a quick ball up saw Barrow gain traction in the game.

Barrow had a good moment down their left, their #26 had the beating of MSH in the 1st half and he made a great run behind which was found well. Duffus got in as well in a different spell but thay was ultimately cleared.

For us, Olaofe turned nothing into something but ultimately hit the 'keeper in his 1v1. But, for the most part, it was a truly terrible 1st half with so many sloppy passes and self-harming decisions it was hard to believe. For example, if MSH and Knoyle are high, we simply can't have Barry trying a head-down dribble into traffic so they can easily turn us over and have an entire side of a pitch to attack. It was incredibly naive stuff.

But the game-changing moment came when Knoyle clattered Duffus in the face with a very high boot. It was the most obvious of red cards. The referee produced yellow. Duffus had to go off having lost a fair bit if blood (guessing it could have been a broken nose).

Barry was also through on goal in the 1st half but needlessly delayed taking a shot and instead claimed a penalty.

The second half was more like what was needed and we started to get a grip of the game. But the final piece of quality was still being lost to rushing/snatching.

With MSH off and Knoyle to WB, we then had Wright's presence at RCB which seemed to instantly nullify Barrow's physicality and my stress levels went down.

Our goal came from some nice play, ultimately working it to the left and Barry showed quick feet to get a shot off. A horrible deflection was needed but still, it was a simple piece of play and because Barry has good speed from standing, it was his most impactful/effective moment even if it hadn't gone in.

Horsfall and Croasdale were ultimately responsible for ensuring the single goal would be all that was needed and, to be frank, without Croasdale I don't think we win that today. The final tactical move to a back 4 (which saw Byrne brought on) then meant we finished the game with a physicality that looked so much more stable than what we started with.

A 3 out of 10 first half followed by a 6/7 was ultimately enough. But we rode our luck with the high boot and some pretty basic 'big man' stuff gave Barrow far more of the game than their overall offering should have got from the game.

Hopefully not, H, cheers for the update.

I've seen the Knoyle high boot, how he stayed on the pitch is beyond me!