Wigan vs Barnsley

[Jamo]

Well it's pretty simple. Oh wait no, it's not. We could go to the league champions and win and still not finish 6th, or we could lose and finish 6th. We've a horrific record vs Wigan and our players have looked knackered the last few weeks so while I don't think we'll win hopefully Sheff United/Millwall will do us a favour.

Whatever happens, we've done fantastically well to be in this position after the 8 defeats in a row, being bottom of the table in mid December and watching us lose to Altrincham on an open terrace in the pissing rain. Should be a cracking atmosphere with Wigan fans in party mood and 4,700 Barnsley fans making the trip over the Pennines.

Come on lads, one last push. You reds.

 

[GFC4EVA]

C'mon wigan

 

[NorthernSoul]

That was laughably pathetic. First 30 minutes we did ok, dominated and blasted over twice inside the box and should have doubled our lead.

Then we give away a stupid penalty and Barnsley are level against the run of play. That picks up their confidence and suddenly they're up for and are the better side for the rest of the half, our players aren't even arsed about chasing the ball. Second goal, we just stand and watch and let them score. We probably should have had a penalty early second half but not long after we deflect a shot into our net. Then we give away a stupid free kick, which was a fantastic strike. Barnsley have not even needed to create a single chance all game as we created them for them. Harsh on Lee Nicholls, didn't make any saves but couldn't do anything about the goals, all the chances went in.

I've never seen less effort put in from us from 30 minutes onwards. As soon as Barnsley equalised we completely gave up, given Wildschut tore them apart in the first half, he was withdrawn at half time. I don't think we could have done more to gift the result to Barnsley!

Was a great atmosphere today. Hope Barnsley win the play offs. They can repay the favour next season!

Tell you what the ref did Barnsley a huge favour at the end, broke the rules by brandishing a yellow card to Adam Hammill for violent conduct which is a red card offence. If he hadn't have booked him, he'd have been charged after the game and given a 3 match ban, due to being given a yellow it cannot be changed!

 

[Jamo]

Hard to disagree with any of that tbh. I didn't see what happened with McCann and Hammill so can't comment.

What a fantastic day. Scorching sun, 4,700 Barnsley supporters roaring the team on and to top it off we go and win 4-1 at the champions. Unbelievable scenes.

I thought we were nervous first 20 odd minutes and created little while letting Wigan have a lot of the ball. After we equalised though we were the better side and were troubled only sporadically by Wigan while not creating masses of chances ourselves. After 3-1 it was a stroll in the park, topped off by a cracking free kick from Brownhill. Both fans were in good spirits during and after the game though which was great to see.

Congratulations on the title Wigan lads/lasses, hopefully we'll be joining you in the Championship next year!

 

[SMH]

On the beach really sorry Scunthorpe. Many players had off days aided I'm sure by the lack of training and high amount of partying. Barnsley did very well though take nothing away. I don't know what Northern Soul's talking about though regarding Nicholls! Diabolical goalkeeping for Barnsley's 2nd and 3rd. If this was a test to see if he is to play a part next season he failed miserably. It's impossible to make snap judgements on a game where we were on the beach with nothing to play for but if Caldwell learnt anything from today it'll be that we'll need a new keeper to go with Jussi in the summer.

 

[Hedonist Puncture]

We were split 50/50 on whether your would turn up for the match. Apparently you didn't. The curse of the fixtures!

 

[SMH]

Small margins as well. We could have easily played Jussi and it may have been so much different but Caldwell was well within his rights to test our second choice keeper and see if he will be worth keeping in his plans for next season.

The key point of the game was the final 10 minutes of the first half. Once Barnsley made it 1-1, they battered us for the rest of the half. If we had managed to hang on until half time, we could have gone out and played differently and Barnsley may have done the same considering they'd still needed a goal with Scunthorpe winning. Unfortunately we conceded and then came out for the second half basically not arsed, leaving Barnsley to dominate and finish us off. Watching the goals back and that second Barnsley goal is a perfect example of a team on the beach. Not a chance would Power or Perkins have let Isgrove walk through them there if we had something to play for. It was like they were nervous of getting injured.