It was a very even first half, with Barnsley scoring a good goal out of nowhere. The second half was us attacking but not creating many real chances and Barnsley using every trick in the book to stop us. 8 yellow cards only because the ref was lenient. O'Hare bore the brunt of it obviously, but every time we got on the overlap our player was tugged down, tripped or pushed over. O'Hare missed two decent openings (one in the first half), but he was pushed over in the area as he tried to get the second chance away - the ref missed that one completely. Our penalty was another hacking down, this time in the area, but after the five minutes of protesting and shoving from Barnsley's defence, Gyokeres stepped up, looked nervous, and pushed a weak penalty towards the keeper's dive. A penalty kick lacking conviction, even down to his jaunty run-up.
“Every trick in the book”. Hmm, I thought it was THEM playing that game. Number 10 O’Hare was a live wire but also a nasty piece of work. They did well to share the fouls out between them so the ref couldn’t get his card out to any of them. Then he couldn’t stop but it was all against our dirty players. A refereeing masterclass, where you’re trying to get EVERY decision wrong
I think if I was. Coventry fan I would be very disappointed to have come away with nothing. We did play a cynical game second half. However that doesn't make up for the trips and kicks dished out every 2 mins from them. I couldn't believe how much he waved the cards second half when he let almost all the infringements against us go. Stopped counting at 8 fouls (only those given) on Palmer first half then he gets booked from not backing away at a free kick. Says it all really. We do need to be better with our temperament though as most of those yellows were dopey ones.
Every player at times plays on the officials . Coventry got away with more than us imo . On the bookings it could have been eight apiece as much as it could have been two apiece . Players are all guilty of this but some officials are more competent of dealing with it than others and today’s ref hadn’t a clue .
I agree with the analysis of play overall, they were probably the better side (just) and we did commit a lot of fouls on either flank. The referee being "lenient" though is a pisstake, unless he meant for Cov - they committed so many fouls first half with no further punishment, as well as in the second half, yet apparently our fouls warranted bookings. The pen was a joke as well.
Just before our first player was booked, I said to the bloke next to me "the ref needs to book one of their players because they were constantly fouling" he said "first booking will be the first time one of ours puts a foot in".
Only it wasn’t. It was the first time we delayed taking a free kick. Something that every player does without penalty normally.
Delighted with the win, but I think they were worth a draw. We weren't at our best and they missed some presentable chances.