Wanderers Cup fiasco

Had they emerged from Oakwell unscathed, they might have considered it the proverbial blessing-in-disguise but Colin Todd's tongue-in-cheek "we can now concentrate on the Premiership" line was cold comfort.

How his team will respond to this 3rd round defeat at the hands of one of their main relegation rivals will be seen in the days and weeks to come.

But the Reebok boss knows there will be a severe knock-on effect with more disciplinary headaches and added injury worries - not to mention the advantage to Barnsley of yet another morale-boosting Roses result.

Defeat at home to Chesterfield in last year's 4th round was, at the time, a major embarrassment, bordering on humiliation. But Wanderers never looked back and marched on relentlessly and without distraction to their record-shattering Championship triumph

They will do well to take any advantage this time round because, potentially, the consequences are considerably more damaging. Regardless of whatever action might be taken by the Football Association in respect of the ugly flare-up at the end, they have certainly lost Alan Thompson for two more Premiership games; Scott Sellars is now just one yellow card away from his second suspension of the season and Mike Whitlow's knee injury was looking more long-term than short as he ended the afternoon in Barnsley General Hospital after being stretchered off in the 34th minute.

Added to the continuing absence of Gerry Taggart, Gudni Bergsson's imminent two-match ban and the fact that Mark Fish will be away on African Nations Cup duty with South Africa throughout February, Todd has more than his share of handicaps as he looks for a dramatic upturn in Premiership form after seeing his side take just two points from their last five games.

Barnsley boss Danny Wilson, on the other hand, was delighted. "Of course, Premiership points are more important than winning cup games," he acknowledged as his team remained at the foot of the table, just three points worse off than Wanderers, "but all wins give you confidence and that type of commitment will stand us in good stead.

"It's still going to be tough but, if we continue to play like that in the Premiership, we won't go far wrong." It seems a high price for Wanderers to pay for being caught flat-footed in the one, decisive moment of a cup-tie that was remarkable for all the wrong reasons. It had all the niggle and needle you'd expect from two teams who have had such tight, titanic tussles in recent times but was disappointingly lacking in quality football.

Wanderers hadn't managed a win - home or away - in the last four league encounters and, unfortunately the Tykes triumphed once again thanks to the cheek and opportunism of upstart Darren Barnard, who took everyone by surprise - team-mates and opponents alike - with his 27th minute free-kick.

Wanderers were still getting their defensive wall in line as Neil Redfearn, Barnsley's set-piece specialist, shaped up to take the kick after the finnicky David Elleray had penalised Andy Todd for handball - a decision the young defender fiercely disputed. Suddenly Barnard stepped forward, curled the ball round the assembling, unsuspecting ranks of white shirts and caught Gavin Ward on the wrong side of his goal!

"We were punished because we weren't organised quickly enough," Todd complained.

"Credit to them for a quickly-taken free-kick but it was bad play, collectively, on our part."

Not the only moment of bad play in a horrible first half performance that deserved nothing more than a half-time deficit.

Barnsley looked the more comfortable playing into the teeth of the gusting gale with Ashley Ward, Georgi Hristov and Clint Marcelle making life difficult for the Wanderers defence who also found opposition midfield support happy to pile in when necessary. While most Wanderers attacks were windswept out of control, Per Frandsen almost turned the conditions to his advantage with 40-yard snapshot on the turn that dipped just a fraction off-target. The only other worthwhile raid on David Watson's goal saw Nathan Blake pay for a split-second's hesitation.

That they responded in the second period and, by Wilson's own admission, produced a fighting performance that had Barnsley on the back foot for much of the time was to Wanderers credit.

They were certainly not outplayed and, on the balance of play, they will feel they deserved to take the tie to a replay.

Indeed, more accurate finishing would have produced a late equaliser. Sellars was only inches wide with a low, measured drive and, seconds later, set up a glorious opening for Bergsson, who missed the chance to score his third goal in successive games when he skied his volley after beating Barnsley's offside appeals.

For all their possession, chances were desperately few and far between and they were only in with a shout at the end because Redfearn, normally so potent against his old club, contrived to hit the post from a couple of yards with the goal at his mercy.

Tempers flared as frustrations mounted - Wanderers' because nothing was going right for them and Barnsley's because they feared one goal may not be enough - and Harrow headmaster Elleray saw fit to call both captains together after he'd booked Thompson and Darren Sheridan for wrestling off the ball and ticked off Todd and Hristov for squaring up.

Peter Beardsley's introduction added penetration to the Wanderers attack where previously, as Todd had put it, they'd been hitting brick walls as soon as they reached the penalty area. Indeed, Beardo's first delightful touch (he still hadn't tied up his stockings) saw Frandsen caught fractionally offside - a decision the Dane disputed at the cost of another irritating yellow card! Sensationally but sadly, the pot came to the boil in the first minute of injury time when Neil Cox chased the ball into the Barnsley dugout to take a quick throw-in.

What Todd later described as "a bit of gamesmanship by Barnsley" sparked a brawl that, had it been confined to players, would have been over with in seconds. But a posse of police and stewards waded in and the incident turned nasty with punches thrown, staff from both teams caught up in the melee and, in the confusion, a steward being arrested by a police officer for allegedly throwing a punch at Jamie Pollock.

Todd kept well out of it until he emerged from his own dugout to take a firm grip on the understandably furious Pollock.

The Wanderers boss had enough on his mind without adding to his troubles.

When the dust had settled, it was the repercussions rather than the defeat itself that concerned him most.

"We've only got one objective now," he said, "and that is to prepare for the game against Southampton on Saturday."

"Nobody wanted to go out of the FA Cup but things could have gone a lot better than they did."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.