Feb 19 Barnsley 0-1 Bournemouth Att: 8153

Injury to Purches meant a new face in the side at right back, James O’Connor, collected by the team coach en route. Allegedly he is a loanee from Aston Villa, although after some of his less than cultured distribution in the first half there seemed a distinct possibility that we had picked up a hitchhiker by mistake, and the real Mr. O’Connor was still shivering on the hard shoulder somewhere in Brum. Barry Conlon was absent for Barnsley, which was a relief as he has a nasty habit of putting in good performances against us.

The game began with a few flakes of snow drifting fitfully over Oakwell, and both sides quickly settled into a pattern of relinquishing possession as soon as possible by aimlessly hoofing the ball into the middle distance. A couple of early corners established our ongoing disdain for marking at set pieces, but Barnsley sportingly failed to capitalise and did their best to direct subsequent corners towards one of the many Bournemouth defenders stood around marking thin air.

Few moments of note – an early disallowed goal for Barnsley, Cummings’ free kick on target but comfortably saved, and just before half-time, a suicidal quickly taken free kick by Brian Stock that went straight to Shuker and eventually resulted in Boulding spooning an excellent opportunity ineptly over the bar from 8 yards out.

Special mention though for Steve Fletcher’s attempt to amuse the crowd by attempting a shot from 45 yards when put through, on the doubtless correct assumption that he was more likely to score that way than by outpacing the defenders to the penalty area.

HT: 0-0

The second half began with referee Paul Danson demonstrating the comic flair of namesake Ted by insisting that the Barnsley keeper change his shorts on the pitch. It’s reassuring to see that referees are clamping down on the scourge of wrongly coloured undershorts that is ruining the game. The half had no sooner begun than we were reduced to three fit defenders when Howe limped off. Fortunately the real James O’Connor had turned up by now and put in a very solid display at centre back, and wasn’t shy about organising his new teammates in the process. Browning took over in central midfield with Spicer moving to the right and Elliott, ineffective in attack once again, putting in a surprisingly good performance at right back.

With Barnsley looking quite uninterested in proceedings we began to wake up to the fact that the game was there for the taking. Fletcher set up Hayter for a run on goal, but he pulled his shot across the face of goal from a narrow angle, and the big man then produced a clever flick to put Browning in, but he failed to lift the ball over the keeper.

Success finally came with 13 minutes left. Stock, almost the architect of disaster with a quickly taken free kick in the first half, got it right this time. As the Barnsley defence day-dreamed he found Garreth O’Connor alone in the penalty area, and the midfielder finished with the aplomb characteristic of his recent displays.

Barnsley did manage a couple of efforts narrowly off target in the closing stages, giving Moss some of his few nervous moments of the afternoon.

Hardly a deserved victory from a game where both teams richly deserved zero points, but it has to be conceded that playing badly, winning and going sixth has something to be said for it.

Garreth O’Connor for at least looking interested

AFCB: Moss; J. O’Connor, Maher, Howe, Cummings; Elliott, Spicer, Stock, G. O’Connor; Fletcher, Hayter (4-4-2)
Subs: Browning (Howe 46), Holmes (Hayter 90), Stewart, Connell, Rodrigues.

Richard Barker, Leyton