Post by animallittle on Jul 3, 2008 20:08:12 GMT 1
During the half time interval my old man rang me on my mobile and asked if we were under the cosh as much as it sounded on the radio,i replied we were,and a 2 or 3 nil defeat at the moment would not be a bad result.
When the second half got under way i noticed Simon Davey had made a slight tactical change,Howard our captain and best player had pushed further up the pitch to play just off the front two from his normal central midfield role,other than that things were pretty much as you were,with Liverpool pouring forward and Luke Steele making some outstanding saves to keep us in it..........or damage limitation as i saw it.
Around the hour mark we won a free kick 45 yards from goal in a central position and the big lads Souza and Foster came up from the back,Howard in his wisdom decided to play the free kick short out wide to Devaney and he mis-controlled allowing Riese to pinch the ball off him,however Anderson De Silva quickly won it back and fed Devaney again,this time his control was excellent and not only that he managed to earn himself half a yard on Riese and bend over an absolute peach of a cross which was met full on by Stephen Foster still up from the back from the original wasted free kick,the ball thumped into the back of the net right in front of a stunned kop and we were un-believably level.
I managed to keep myself under control just allowing myself a slight pump of the fist,not so at the Anfield Road End our fans were all up as one and were now in full voice,The Liverpool fans were up too but they had a different agenda,they were really laying into the players and some of the comments were really viscious and i thought if we can some how hang on this would be one hell of a result and a decent pay day for the replay at Oakwell.
Gerrard came on for Liverpool with 20 minutes to go and then came an incredible miss by Crouch the tall lanky Liverpool forward,for once Steele was beaten and with the goal at his mercy and facing just a simple tap in,he hesitated for a split second and from know where both Hassell and Souza managed to throw themselfs in front of him and deflect the ball away and i began to think for the first time that this may be our day.
Chance after chance went begging for Liverpool and Steele was putting on a master class behind the goals for us,he was simply outstanding and its the best goalkeeping performance i have ever seen from a Barnsley no.1 and incredible to think this was his debut,and the more chances Liverpool created and wasted the more the crowd got on their backs and i was really enjoying it now and so were the lads behind the Anfield Road End who were all stood and looking as though they were kicking every ball.
The time ticked down to 92 minutes and i just wanted the referee to blow his whistle because it would have been very cruel on our players and fans to concede now we were this close to a replay,time for one more isolated Barnsley attack and i was screaming inside for someone to get in the corner and run the clock down,but no Brian Howard had other idea's,he burst into the box after turning Alonso this way and that and was sent clattering to the ground.....a cast iron penalty and everyone around me knew it.....the bloke sat next to me apologised and shook his head and i was just numb with the in-justice of it,no need to bother though,Howard picked himself back up,won the ball and raced towards the penalty area again,only this time he let fly from just outside and the ball nestled into the bottom left hand corner of the Liverpool goal,there was to be no slight fist pump this time,i jumped out of my seat and celebrated just like i was on the Ponty,i danced around that much i finished up 5 yards to my left and in the aisle,the Liverpool fans around me just glared and then one or two made a move in my direction and with that i ran to the bottom of the aisle steps and to the safety of a couple of stewards,almost straight away the final whistle went and the celebrations began.
Part 5 To Follow Shortly
When the second half got under way i noticed Simon Davey had made a slight tactical change,Howard our captain and best player had pushed further up the pitch to play just off the front two from his normal central midfield role,other than that things were pretty much as you were,with Liverpool pouring forward and Luke Steele making some outstanding saves to keep us in it..........or damage limitation as i saw it.
Around the hour mark we won a free kick 45 yards from goal in a central position and the big lads Souza and Foster came up from the back,Howard in his wisdom decided to play the free kick short out wide to Devaney and he mis-controlled allowing Riese to pinch the ball off him,however Anderson De Silva quickly won it back and fed Devaney again,this time his control was excellent and not only that he managed to earn himself half a yard on Riese and bend over an absolute peach of a cross which was met full on by Stephen Foster still up from the back from the original wasted free kick,the ball thumped into the back of the net right in front of a stunned kop and we were un-believably level.
I managed to keep myself under control just allowing myself a slight pump of the fist,not so at the Anfield Road End our fans were all up as one and were now in full voice,The Liverpool fans were up too but they had a different agenda,they were really laying into the players and some of the comments were really viscious and i thought if we can some how hang on this would be one hell of a result and a decent pay day for the replay at Oakwell.
Gerrard came on for Liverpool with 20 minutes to go and then came an incredible miss by Crouch the tall lanky Liverpool forward,for once Steele was beaten and with the goal at his mercy and facing just a simple tap in,he hesitated for a split second and from know where both Hassell and Souza managed to throw themselfs in front of him and deflect the ball away and i began to think for the first time that this may be our day.
Chance after chance went begging for Liverpool and Steele was putting on a master class behind the goals for us,he was simply outstanding and its the best goalkeeping performance i have ever seen from a Barnsley no.1 and incredible to think this was his debut,and the more chances Liverpool created and wasted the more the crowd got on their backs and i was really enjoying it now and so were the lads behind the Anfield Road End who were all stood and looking as though they were kicking every ball.
The time ticked down to 92 minutes and i just wanted the referee to blow his whistle because it would have been very cruel on our players and fans to concede now we were this close to a replay,time for one more isolated Barnsley attack and i was screaming inside for someone to get in the corner and run the clock down,but no Brian Howard had other idea's,he burst into the box after turning Alonso this way and that and was sent clattering to the ground.....a cast iron penalty and everyone around me knew it.....the bloke sat next to me apologised and shook his head and i was just numb with the in-justice of it,no need to bother though,Howard picked himself back up,won the ball and raced towards the penalty area again,only this time he let fly from just outside and the ball nestled into the bottom left hand corner of the Liverpool goal,there was to be no slight fist pump this time,i jumped out of my seat and celebrated just like i was on the Ponty,i danced around that much i finished up 5 yards to my left and in the aisle,the Liverpool fans around me just glared and then one or two made a move in my direction and with that i ran to the bottom of the aisle steps and to the safety of a couple of stewards,almost straight away the final whistle went and the celebrations began.
Part 5 To Follow Shortly