By TarnTalk
March 18 2026

The Super Reds drew 1 – 1 with relegation threatened Wigan at Oakwell on Tuesday night with the reds needing to be rescued by 96th minute equaliser from Lennon on debut.

A draw was probably a fair result in the end with the reds much improved after the break following a truly awful first half.

The reds looked sluggish and leggy and struggled to live with the high energy of the visitors.

The midfield was the main problem. Connell, Kelly and Yoganathan all had off nights, but it was the setup as much as anything that was causing problems and this has been a theme in recent weeks.

At times the midfield, well, just wasn’t occupied by a red shirt. With O’Keeffe pushing on more like a second winger, no dig at him by the way, he was one of our better players and it is how the manager wants to play, Connell often found himself dropping in to cover at right back when Wigan broke.

Add to that Kelly drifting out to the left and Yoganathan pushing up alongside McGoldrick or over to the right, it meant our three-man midfield consisted of none at times.

The defence has come under a lot of criticism at times this season, and rightly so. However, recently they have not had the protection from the midfield in front of them. And I don’t think that actually has anything to do with the players selected, even though they were all poor last night, but it has more to do with the set up and how they are being asked to play.

Now, on to the goal we conceded. First of all, it was awful from Connell. He should have focused on the ball and only the ball instead of trying to use his body into the man. If/when he got outpaced you couldn’t have really criticised him for losing in a foot race, but the criticism has to come with how he tried to deal with it.

In terms of Goodman’s involvement in this. Yes, he should have come, and yes, he would have got there if he had. Once he hesitated, he should have retreated to his line. His position in no mans land made the finish much easier. Goodman otherwise had a good game, and he only takes a small percentage of the blame in the goal, a much larger proportion goes to Connell.

There is a bigger picture regarding the goal though, and if some of our idiotic fans weren’t so inexplicably hard to jump on any mistake Connell makes – I’m going to rant about that later- then they would see that main problem was nothing to do with Connell or Goodman.

It comes down to something that you learn when still in single digits playing for the school team. If the opposition are leaving one up from a corner, then we have two players back and it is quite simply inexcusable that we didn’t.

If we had then when Connell does that, there is another player to cover and stand him up until players recover their position. Also, if we are gambling on an extra man in the box and leaving it one on one then you need to leave a quick player back. Taylor would beat Connell by 10 yards in 20-yard race. It was a complete mismatch. Hourihane said post-match that they’d even discussed Taylors’ pace from such positions prior to the game so why was it allowed to happen? It was just a complete shambles all round. It is no wonder we never keep a clean sheet.

The second half, without being at our best, we improved significantly and were probably worthy of draw. The subs made an impact which was pleasing to see, and I was thrilled for Lennon to get a goal on debut. Hopefully that will give him some confidence and hopefully he will be trusted with more game time between now and the end of the season.

Donny up at home next on Saturday and then the lads get a much-needed rest for the international break. A lot of them look like they are running on empty at the minute. We seem to lack fitness compared to most of our opponents and have done for three seasons now, so it is not on the manager. The relentless nature of Saturday, Tuesday with such a small squad lacking in fitness is really starting to take its toll.

COYR