Barnsley v Forest

Barnsley conceded three goals in a ten minute spell before the break to condemn them to 4 - 1 home hammering to Nottingham Forest.

Reds striker Marlon Harewood gave Barnsley a deserved 1 - 0 lead when he rounded the keeper to slot home after a great pass from Mellis but from then onwards it was disaster for Barnsley.

Greg Halford equalised with an 18-yard shot, Simon Cox added a second and Chris Cohen's strike made it 3-1. Barnsley goalkeeper Ben Alnwick should have saved all three but he wasn`t the only culprit in the goals as Stephen Foster made an error for the third and Scott Goldbourne had a nightmare for the second and third. But following those errors Alnwick should have been on hand to save.

The first goal trickled into the corner as Alnwick inexplicably went the wrong way. The second was a tame shot spilled by the keeper and followed in by Forest. And the third after a number of errors saw the keeper let the ball fly into the net when he should have saved fairly comfortably.

The first error had obviously hit Alnwick`s confidence. The Barnsley fans in their wisdom decided to give him a bit of confidence boost by chanting for Luke Steele. After this performance Steele must surely be restored in goal but the last thing Alnwick needed was the fans reacting in this way.

Boss Keith Hill rang the changes in the second half in a bid to claw their way back in to the game. Both wide men were sacrificed and both had been poor but the decision to move Scott Goldbourne to a more advanced left wing role was baffling.

Dawson was then withdrawn for Dagnall. Again a good decision to introduce Dagnall for something more up top but Dawson for my money had been one of Barnsley`s better performers on the day. Mellis is more likely to create the spark that the reds needed, as he showed with the pass for the goal, but he was bone idle today, as he has been quite a bit recently, and he should have been withdrawn and possibly dropped to give him the kick up the ringer after recent displays. His body language and effort in the two games this week have been terrible but I like him as a player and Barnsley need him to perform so let`s hope his attitude can be sorted out.

Jermaine Jenas sealed victory for Forest in what may be the last game of his loan spell. 4 - 1 the final score and poor display overall from the reds. I think Keith Hill needs to drop a few after this match.

Overall since the Birmingham game teams have found it fairly easy to nullify our threat. We`ve found it hard to break teams down and struggled to cope when teams close us down quickly and when they get men behind the ball we struggle to get beyond the 18 yard line.

Our passing needs to be quicker. We`ve become good at keeping possession and playing it on the floor now it needs to become quicker. The tempo definitely needs to be upped and I`m sure the results will come again.

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