Two points lost tonight and very nearly all three points!
Looked like Stanley managed to ‘Follow Coley’s Instructions’ in the patient possession play out of defence which meant Stanley were generally in control overall for the first half. However Josh Andrews did not get a decent pass to him throughout the half. We did though, go in at half time a goal to the good……35 yards was it? Or 35 millimeters? Valairian will tell us!
The second half started similarly but the referee was letting far too much physical stuff go and hence the game became very disjointed. Quirk had played really well at left back in a ‘back four’ set up. After our substitutions though Quirk was moved into midfield and we finished up with two wingers playing as full backs. Pickles was added to make three centre backs so really we had completely conceded the midfield which simply allowed Barrow to pin us back into our own penalty box! Corner after corner for Barrow predictably led to them equalizing! In the end we were lucky to come away with a point IMHO!
I cannot understand this refereeing method that, whilst it attempts to keep play going, it allows fouls to go unpunished. This disrupts the play of both sides and when decisions are made they are often made inconsistently.
Stanley should have had a penalty late in the match when Adedoyin was blatantly pushed hard in the back. Lillis could or should have been red carded for coming out to challenge with his studs at head height in Josh Andrews’ face! Andrew’s was flagged though for offside so no action was taken!
In conclusion, we pretty much controlled the game for an hour but conceded territory and allowed our opponents to take total control for the last half hour.