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Barnsley Fans Verdict: Lacklustre Royals Snatch A Point

Bowen’s men managed to scrape a point from bottom of the league Barnsley even though their performance was below par to say the least.

By harry.chafer

Well, that was pretty awful wasn’t it? Over the last few games performances have begun to worsen again and, when you’re not winning, Mark Bowen’s style of play can be quite painful to watch sometimes - and that was the case on Wednesday night.

The Barnsley game was a continuation from both the Wigan Athletic and Birmingham City matches where performances have not been up to scratch at all. On Wednesday we were slow, sloppy and really shaky at the back - which is something Bowen had improved when he first came in.

In all honesty, we were lucky to get a point after conceding a very, very poor goal from Michael Morrison trying to play out from the back. After that, we had a small spell where we looked mildly dangerous and Lucas Joao managed to grab an equaliser. But let’s just hope this is a small blip in our climb up the table.

Here’s how the fans reacted to some of the key talking points to come from the game...

Another poor performance

If the fans weren’t happy on Saturday, they were fuming on Wednesday evening. When Bowen came in and picked up those positive results, confidence was flying in the camp - but somehow, that confidence has just seemed to vanished and we look devoid of ideas again.

I don’t think it’s any coincidence that these performances have come since John Swift and Ovie Ejaria have been injured - but we cannot be a two-man team. The players need to learn to step up in these situations and you can’t say that’s the case (even with Ejaria back in the team against Barnsley).

The shoddy performance was summed up by Barnsley’s goal which was just comical defending. But the conceded goal wasn’t the only thing that had the fans angry...

Mark Bowen

Bowen was never a popular appointment in the first place, and a few bad results in a row were always going to be the catalyst for criticism and pressure on the former Stoke City assistant.

At the end of the day, we are very early in the Bowen era and - as I said so often with Jose Gomes - managers deserve time to stamp their mark on a team. However, performances like the ones on Wednesday, against the Blues and Wigan, will only fuel the fire of pressure.

Here’s what the fans had to say about Bowen after the game - a game in which he got his tactics all wrong...

Injury news

The fans’ night went from bad to worse as Bowen stated his post-match media duties that key player and fans’ favourite Andy Yiadom will be out for around six weeks with the injury he picked up on Saturday afternoon.

Puscas also went off injured with what looked to be a serious shoulder injury after a heavy challenge in the second half. Bowen has also said that it could be a bad one, which is yet another blow to us.

However, there was some positive news with the return of Swift expected to be much sooner than originally expected - which is absolutely huge. Everybody knows how important Swifty is to us so the sooner he is back the better.

Here’s what the fans had to say on Twitter...

Conclusion

A poor performance against bottom of the league and a game we were very much favourites for. It was the kind of performance that we need to eradicate as quickly as possible otherwise we’ll be heading back down the table rather than up it.

Stoke away up next - another huge game and one that we need to get a result in, ideally a lovely Christmas time away win.

URZ

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