By TarnTalk
October 27 2025

 The Super Reds lost to a poor Rotherham team for the first time in over 50 years at Oakwell.

The Reds certainly dominated the game as Hourihane suggested in his post-match interview. 67% possession, 19 shots to the visitors 4 with 5 on target against 2, would suggest that Barnsley should have come away from this with all three points.

Hourihane said that the players couldn’t give any more and we were done by a sucker punch. I agree to some extent but despite dominating I feel that we were dragged down to Rotherham’s level with the manner of our performance.

At the beginning of the season, we were playing high tempo attacking football. This was a sluggish and laboured display where we never truly got out of second gear and believed that would be enough to see off our South Yorkshire neighbours.

There was no energy or tempo. We moved the ball far too slowly and it was more like the possession type of performance we had in the last couple of seasons under Collins and Clarke.

It is not only the players in possession of the football that were to blame for not moving the ball quickly enough. Whilst at times they certainly dwelled on it, at other times the movement off the ball was so poor that they had no other option but to do so.

There were also many occasions when a simple and quick early ball was on, but they went for a more difficult ball that was never truly on. The simpler option would have been the better one, but they had so much time on the ball that they were wanting to make things happen and choose the difficult option.

Whilst I think Hourihane was far too kind with his summary of the performance, I do think the fans’ reaction has been over the top. Yes, we could have played with more urgency, but we did dominate and were slightly unlucky. We did, however, never look capable of breaking them down once they were in front and sat back even more.

Cooper had little to do and couldn’t be blamed in way for the goal.

De Gevigney, Roberts and Shepherd were all pretty steady and dealt with what they had to deal with. Ogbeta had decent first half but completely went to pot in the second. Everything he did was utterly disastrous.

In midfield Bland and Kelly performed OK when involved but simply weren’t involved as much as they could have been.

Connell saw a lot of the ball, 86 touches with only Shepherd on more with 87. Other than defenders Connells’ 86 was 34 more than any other Barnsley player.

It was a mixed bag from Connell in terms of distribution and at times he was guilty of what I mentioned earlier in terms of not moving it quickly enough and making the wrong decisions but the number of times there was no movement or options was ridiculous.

Connell seems to get absolute pelters from fans when he is slightly below par but a slightly below par Connell is still one of the best players on the pitch. One thing I have noticed this season I that when Connell is really on it, we win comfortably and play well. When he’s slightly off, no one else steps up and that’s why we end up with results and performances like this one.

We also missed the quality that Phillips brings to the team for all those who think we’d be better off without him as well.

Cleary was the standout yet again. He is far from the finished article and often his final ball lets him down, but he creates those opportunities himself and often he actually does put it into a decent area in the box but no one is there to capitalize.

McGoldrick had a good first half but looked like an almost 40-year-old in the second half. He was so slow and tired that he was getting not only beaten to balls that were straight to him but outmuscled as well. Yet we needed a goal and have no option from the bench to bring on.

The big issue at the moment is Keillor-Dunn and not only that he didn’t play well but what is his position? I don’t know. I don’t think the manager does. He played off the right here but wasn’t involved. His best attribute is without doubt his finishing, but can you play him up front on his own? Just how do you get the best out of him and the team function at the same time? This is a problem for Hourihane to sort, and it needs sorting quickly.

Reds Ratings:

Cooper               6

De Gevigney    6

Roberts              6

Shepherd          6

Ogbeta               4

Bland                  6

Connell              6

Kelly                     6

Keillor-Dunn   5

Cleary                 7

McGoldrick      6

Next up is York in the FA cup and I feel that it is a must win game for confidence if nothing else.

COYR