By Peegs
February 19 2003

On a cold evening Cheltenham put up a shamblic performance in slipping to a 3-1 home defeat against fellwo sturgglers Barnsley. Cheltenham gave away an early lead given to them by Tony Naylor. With injuries and suspensions it was a makeshift line up, Steve Jones and John Brough came into the back four inplace of Dave Bird and the suspended Jamie Victory, Marvin Brown was preffered to Mark Yates in midfield, John "The Wasp" Finnigan again missed out with a bruised foot sustained in the Mickey Mouse game against Forest Green.

Cheltenham got off to a perfect start in this crucial game. Mike Duff took a throw in infornt of the in2print , Devaney gave him the ball back and his low cross came to Naylor in the box, the diminutive striker turned and struck a shot that snuck in at the far post, there was nothing Marriot in the Barnsley goal could have done.

The Robins should have continued to press forward and add to there lead instead after 18 minutes Barnsley claimed an equaliser, it was a goal given away rather than one earned. A long ball forward by Neil Austin should have easily been cleared by Greg Strong, instead the big defender tried to head it back to Book with disasterous consequences and Mike Sheron nipped in before planting the ball past Book. In a relegation 6 pointer you don't gift the opposition a goal like that.

One of few Cheltenham chances on the night fell to Devaney mid way though the first half, a McCann cross arrived to him 15 yards out and his side footed volley was heading in until it was cleared off the line by a Barnsley player, either side and it would have been 2-1 Cheltenham.

However Barnsley were looking dangerous, they were passing the ball around and moving to find space something that Cheltenham didn't do all evening. With half time iminent Sheron should have given Barnsley the lead, a Kevin Donovan cross arrived at his head but his header didn't test Book as it drifted harmlessley wide.

H/T 1-1

It was very very cold as the players came out for the 2nd half and hopes were high for some Cheltenham goalmouth action in the 2nd half and some goals to warm us up, how dissapointed we were then by what the 2nd half had to offer.

Cheltenhams only real shot of the second period was by Marvin Brown early on, a corner arrived to the on loan Bristol City player and his shot went hopelessly over the bar and into the Barnsley fans at the Whaddon Road End.

Hugh McAuley -who was to be fair a little harshly treated by fans considering everybody on the pitch was pants - had one good bit of play in the match, this was by clearing a Lee Crookes header off of the line however it wasn't long before Barnsley took a deserved lead.

On 63 minutes Town's right side of midfield and defnece went walk abouts and Dave Mulligan found himself with acres of space on the right hand side, he delivered a pin point cross which Bruce Dyer headed in across Steve Book, it was debateable wether Book should have come to claim it but you could hear Book shout that he was coming to get it.

To put it simply Cheltenham were playing rubbish. It was hoof after hoof after hoof, especially the back four the only outlet they had was hoof. This is Division 2 football, if we want to stay in thsi Division we need to pass not hoof! simple but last night we persisited in the hoof game and it simply wont get you results in this Division.

Barnsley continued to pass and move - take note Cheltenham - and Alex Neil had a poweruful run and shot that went just wide of Bookies post.

The substitutes bench was somehow only bought into action with 5 minutes to go when Damian Spencer came on for the tiring Tony Naylor, was Brayson one of the subs fit? sucha lacklustre perfomance by the 11 men on the pitch why not bring on a player like him? The point of sending on someone for 5 minutes os just one of the question you could have from last night's non existent performance.

With injury time upon us and many fans suffering from frostbite in the stands Barnsley carved open the Cheltenham defence again and scored a 3rd. Sheron passed the ball to Dyer in the box, he simply held the ball up and laid it to the on rushing Gary Jones who smashed the ball past Book from 15 yards.

The ref blew the final whistle to a chorus of boo's around Whaddon Road and to be honest you cannot really blame the fans for booing as this was a pathetic showing from 11 players who we pay the wages and turn up and suffer frost bite for!

Paul Baker understood the fans frustration at the performace (if you can call it that) and issued a statement on the Official site apologising to fans for the game.

Bobby Gould also has to look at his tactics. Why was Steve Jones played in centre defence and Mike Duff at right back? Why buy McCann to solve are left sided problems and stick him in centre midfield, surely Dave Bird would do a better job in centre midfield than Hugh McAuley and god do we need John Finnigan back fit and in the starting line up.

Fingers crossed Gould gives the players an ear bashing pre Colchester match and we can get back to the kind of football played against Tranmere Rovers.

F/T 1-3

CHELTENHAM TOWN Book, M.Duff, Jones, Brough, Strong, Brown, McAuley, McCann, Devaney, Naylor (Spencer 85), Alsop.

BARNSLEY Marriott, Crooks, Morgan, Austin, Donovan, Neil, Jones, Ward, Mulligan, Dyer, Sheron.

Attendance 3,568