We ain't quite right, we keep getting cut

Last updated : 21 October 2007 By Tony Scholes
On a day when Bryan Robson thought Sheffield United had battered Preston and a day when Paul Simpson thought Preston had battered Sheffield United, it was refreshing to know that the two managers at our game had actually watched the same ninety minutes.

"I think a point was fair really," said Barnsley boss Simon Davey. "We were disappointed with the way we played in the first half but came back into it after the break and there was only one team in it.

"We had a couple of penalty shouts waved away as well and we put them under a lot of pressure in the second half. The players knew what they had to do after half time and we did not have to say much to them in the dressing room. We got the goal and could have won it. We now want to take that on to Monday night at Hull."

It was Miguel Mostto's first goal for Barnsley and Davey said of his Peruvian striker: "It has been a long time coming but everybody is delighted for Miguel. Hopefully he will go on and score a lot more for Barnsley now."

It was a frustrated Steve Cotterill who spoke after the game, knowing the Clarets really should have gone on and won the game after taking an early lead and dominating the first half, and knowing that's been the case in other games.

"We have done okay this year and what I probably am is just a little bit frustrated and a little bit angry because we ain't quite right. We ain't bad either, but we can be better and the whole dressing room knows it.

"What's happening at the moment is we keep getting cut and it is stopping us from moving on. We ain't getting knocked out and we just have to be a bit quicker to avoid those cuts and then we will provide the knock outs."

On to the game itself he added: "I thought we were excellent in the first half. I thought both teams went end-to-end until the last minute and it was an excellent advert for the Championship. I'm just bitterly disappointed we haven't turned our first half dominance into what could have been several goals to the good.

"We're not totally happy with how we are defending set pieces, probably since the loss of Michael Duff, but there's nothing we can do about that and we have to move on. We have wondered whether to do zonal marking, which is something new for us, or to stay as we are. We still feel it is an area we want to improve on and sometimes that can influence what players you pick in certain areas."

Cotterill also explained the absence of Robbie Blake and how difficult it was to replace him because of other factors involving Ade Akinbiyi and Kyle Lafferty. He said Ade had been sick on Friday night and that Kyle had suffered delays in returning from Sweden.

And of Blake he added: "Robbie tweaked his hamstring at Cardiff in the first half and he has had treatment and trained, but it is not quite right. The last time we went with a player who wasn't quite right at Bristol City, Chris McCann, we lost him for three weeks.

We have got these six games in 24 days and if we lose him now we could lose him for the three weeks and there was absolutely no way we were going to put him under that sort of risk. So they weren't ideal preparations, and at the end of the day, we have to be okay with the point."