How many shots does it take to beat the Wycombe keeper?

As soon as the final whistle brought yesterday’s game to an end, a familiar refrain could be heard from many of the Barnsley fans that were heading for the Oakwell exits: “We should be beating teams like Wycombe”

Yesterday, they were right.  In a scrappy game where most of the real chances came from defensive mistakes, and the ball was give away with depressing regularity, Barnsley had 17 shots at the Wycombe goal. SEVENTEEN.  Thirteen were on target. And we had nine corners.

So how come we only scored the one?

In all fairness Frank Talia, the sounds-like-he-should-be-in-the-Soprano’s Wycombe keeper, had a superb game, the highlight being an unbelievable save from Dyer at point blank range.  That is where the case for the ‘defence of the attack’ has to end, though.  If you have thirteen shots on target, more than one should go in.

Who’s to blame?  Let’s start with the two strikers.  Fallon is rapidly becoming the new Nicky Eaden, a scapegoat for all of the home fans’ frustrations.  As much as you try and support a young lad from out of the reserves, it was hard to be positive about yesterday’s performance.  Okay he scored (just – Talia managed to claw his far post header away, but the ball was adjudged to have crosses the line) and he did win a couple of flick-ons.  Overall, though, his lack of strength on the ball meant he spent far too long on his backside, out muscled by the Wycombe centre-backs.  He was also slow to react to an opportunity created single handedly by Dyer in the opening seconds, and missed a couple of other decent chances later on.

As for Dyer, it was by no means his best game for the club, but he did work very hard and he obviously worried the Wycombe defence. He created the goal for his strike partner, and but for that incredible save by Talia, would have scored the winner. On the other hand, Dyer was caught offside on numerous occasions, and should have done better with at least two further chances.

The other main culprit was Kevin Betsy.  Having failed to score at all for the club last season, Barnsley fans had come to the conclusion that Betsy was another Martin Bullock, the sort of player that gets a nose bleed every time he gets in the opposition’s penalty area.  He started this season in the same vein, but then Betsy somehow managed to score three goals in two games.  Maybe this was it, the big breakthrough?  Yesterday’s performance proved that Betsy’s name appearing on the score sheet will continue to be a rare treat, as he scuffed, sliced and mis-kicked his way through several good chances.  The most frustrating attempt came near the end when, Betsy had a clear run on goal, but rolled a passback-like shot into the grateful arms of Talia.  I don’t think I was the only person in the ground yelling “PUT YOUR FOOT THROUGH IT MAN!”

As for the other potential goal scorers, Bertos was very quiet yesterday, and Lumsdon flitted in and out of the game, as he has done for most of the season. Maybe if Gorre & Sheron had been given more time, they might have had more of an impact, but it was not to be. Still, we’d been tanked in the two home games prior to this, so a draw can be seen as an improvement. Probably.