Robins Disappointed With Misfiring Reds

It was billed as the biggest game since Wembley for the Reds and a bumper crowd filed into Oakwell to watch the Premier League Champions defeat lowly Barnsley 2-0.

Barnsley had enough chances to win ten games in truth but failed to test Ben Foster in the United goal much at all. With no less than seventeen shots, Barnsley managed to find the target just five times, with the majority of those efforts straight at the United 'keeper.

Speaking after the game to the club's official website, Barnsley's manager Mark Robins spoke of his disappointment: 'We created 15 or 17 chances and really should have put one of them away.' Barnsley's best chances came in the second half, Anderson Da Silva heading wide from close range and Adam Hammill shooting weakly at Ben Foster when clean through on goal.

'You have to take your chances when you are playing against the top teams and we have learned that tonight.' The Reds created the majority of the clear cut chances in the match but were punished by two good finishes from Danny Wellbeck in the first half and Michael Owen in the second half.

Robins did praise his team however for the sheer amount of chances they created: 'There will not be many teams that create that amount of opportunities against any Manchester United side.' In fact you'd have to go back to August to find the last time anyone had as many shots as Barnsley did against Manchester United, that being Chelsea in the 2-2 draw at Wembley in the Community Shield.

Robins continued: 'We showed we have a lot of quality but we were lacking a little belief at times.' The performance from Barnsley certainly did them no harm and impressed many neutrals and tv pundits alike. If the Reds can take that kind of performance into the league and find the net with one or two of those many chances then we should start to climb the Championship table fast.

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