By TarnTalk
September 24 2025

Men against boys is the old saying and this was certainly that. The teams were clearly at completely different levels as the Super Reds endured a difficult evening against Premier League Brighton.

It may sound daft, but despite the scoreline I don’t think that Barnsley played badly but the difference in class was there for all to see. A friend of mine said ‘you think we’ve got good players until you see them against good players’, and that pretty much summed it up.

Brighton scored some fantastic goals and were very clinical with any opportunity that arose. They were also very cynical with snuffing out any attacking momentum we had with tactical fouls. Maybe the ref should have produced more yellow cards earlier on to prevent this.

I won’t be critical of any of the players in this one, I just hope that they are able to put the result to the back of their minds and move on to the next league game full of the confidence that their league performances have deserved.

My one main take performance wise is that I think Cleary should start on Saturday against Port Vale.

He was our best performer against Brighton. He’s direct and pacey and happy to take on his full back. He is just the type of player we need in the team.

His performance last night, and in fact most times I have seen him, makes it even more baffling that Hourihane has chosen to bring Russell on ahead of him on the left wing in the last couple of games.

I can now hear many fans say to themselves who would he start ahead of? For me there are two possible options, but he should certainly be starting.

I think Vickers has been poor the last few games, so I’d have no hesitation in resting him at the moment. I also think Cleary may possibly be better on the right wing than the left.

The other option is to pick Cleary on the left and drop McGoldrick. And that is not because I think McGoldrick has been poor. But Cleary is more suited to that position and by starting both McGoldrick and Keillor-Dunn every game means that there is no option on the bench to change things up front.

My team to play Port Vale:

Cooper

Watson

Shepherd

Earl

Ogbeta

Bland

Connell

Vickers

Phillips

Cleary

Keillor-Dunn

COYR