By Red Army
September 1 2015

  Rochdale 3 – 0 Barnsley  

The joys of being a Barnsley fan were all too evident at Spotland on Saturday. Just when the reds get the fans upbeat and confident then they get hammered at Rochdale.

It is a pattern that is familiar for us Barnsley fans and the result on Saturday wasn’t really surprising despite the Everton performance.

I did however see enough from the performance against Everton to suggest we can compete at the top end of the table this season but to do that we need to buy another striker to ease the workload of Winnall.

I am going to put the performance at Rochdale down to nothing more than the fact that 120 minutes against a Premier League outfit on Wednesday simply took too much out of the lads.

As soon as I saw the team sheet I was worried. No Scowen and Wilkinson in for Winnall immediately made me think that we were up against it.

Scowen, having covered every blade of grass on Wednesday, was obviously feeling the strain and Winnall needs managing properly as injuries have hampered his time at Oakwell to date.

Crowley was the other to drop out of the team from Wednesday night but it was the other two being missing that meant a win would be unlikely.

Despite having many central midfield players, without Scowen in there we do struggle. Up front Winnall seems the only option and when he doesn’t play the other options aren’t really options.

Keith Hill will have been delighted to have beat Barnsley after the reds took six points off his team last season. He will have probably been as delighted as the fans around me were distraught.

The fact that we were beaten by Hill, McNulty and Kennedy seemed to make some fans pain ten times worse. For me, our opponents don’t matter, it is how we play and the results we get that I care about.

I will say one word about Kennedy though who came in for a lot of abuse during his time at Oakwell. He is a better left back than the one currently occupying that position for us. He was picked above him in that position when both were playing with us for a start.

I am not slating Nyatanga as he is a fantastic centre back but a left back he is not. Smith should be given an opportunity at left back now and leave Nyatanga to fight it out for a centre back spot.

Playing Nyatanga at left back was a huge contributing factor in getting Danny Wilson the sack in my opinion so I hope that Johnson sees the error of his ways and starts to pick a full back at full back.

Many fans feel we should go out and sign a left back but I think Smith is up to the job. Only a prolonged run of games will show us if he is ready yet and he should get the opportunity starting at Scunthorpe tonight.