Match Day Thread Barnsley v Swansea City

Barnsley v Swansea City

Competition - Sky Bet Championship, Play Off Semi-Final, 1st leg
Venue - Oakwell
Date - 17 May 2021
Kick Off - 8:15pm

Following their 2-0 defeat at promoted Watford in the final game of the regular season, next up for Steve Cooper’s Swansea Squad is the first leg of the Play Off Semi-Final away at Barnsley.

Last Saturday, against Watford the Swans shaded a goalless first half with Andre Ayew and Matt Grimes denied by Hornets goalkeeper Ben Foster.

After half time, Andre Gray instinctively turned in Ken Sema's cross to put Watford ahead before Isaac Success added a second late on with a fabulous strike.

The result means Swansea finished fourth in the table, with Watford second.

At the same time as the Swans were playing the Hornets, Barnsley were taking on Champions Norwich and took the lead when Carlton Morris robbed the ball off Andrew Omobamidele and teed up Cauley Woodrow for a simple finish.

Emi Buendia headed the visitors level from a teasing Max Aarons cross.

Conor Chaplin restored the home lead with a brilliantly directed downward header.

A typically classy move brought the Canaries level after the break, when substitute Adam Idah struck from Todd Cantwell's pass, but they were unable to earn a 30th league win of the season.

The point was sufficient to enable Barnsley to finish 5th and secure a Play Off match against Swansea.

Bookmakers make Brentford favourites to be celebrating at Wembley come 31 May, with Bournemouth next in the betting ahead of Barnsley, with Swansea the outsiders courtesy of their inconsistent late-season form.

The teams have met in the Play Off stages once before, a game that resulted in heartache for the Swans:

Turning to next Monday evening, I’m hoping that the Swans will return to South Wales at least level, and certainly no more than one goal adrift.

My heart says 1-1, but my head says 2-1 to Barnsley

 

Damn... That game was a lot more entertaining than what I remember! Think I spent the majority of it with my stomach in my ass

 

Cheers Taff, here we go!

The bookies are rarely wrong but maybe our inconsistency will work in our favour. Ok, straw clutched , moving on.... we are capable of playing well but how will Coops set us up and what will his match instructions be? I'm guessing we'll set up to be tight and rely on our usually solid defence in the away leg. No matter how we set up it's really hard to know if we'll play well or poorly. Basicallly, I have no clue

Barnsley will fancy their chances, no doubt. They're in a good run of form and hopefully over confident. Talking of away leg... is it that much of an advantage these days? Without the fans I would say there's more of an edge playing away but with limited fans and a bit of noise it'll be interesting. I certainly think we can get the draw and with a good noise at the Liberty I think we can win the tie.

 

Thanks Taff.....as alluded to earlier Coops will use a new game plan up at Oakwell...we will go for a win by two clear goals to bring home....feeling positive

 

Thanks Taff. We need to come away from there with us being on level pegging at least. It won't be goalless so its a 1-1 for me.

 

I’m going into this game in my optimistic mood. Fancy us getting the win, but need to keep the lad quiet up front so 2-1 Swans for me.

 

Spectemur Agendo.

Is that from a Harry Potter film?

 

Spectemur Agendo is a Latin motto meaning Let us be judged by our acts. I believe this chap has it as his family motto!

 

Tony Harrington will be the man in the middle for the first leg of Swansea City’s Championship play-off semi-final at Oakwell on Monday (8.15pm).

The Cleveland official took charge of the Swans four times during the league season, overseeing wins over Nottingham Forest and Rotherham, and defeats to Huddersfield and Birmingham.

Harrington will be assisted by Shaun Hudson and Richard Wild, while Geoff Eltringham is the fourth official.

 

Great post match Taff.

Excitement building.

2-2

 

1-1 tonight then 2-1 , nice

 

There has been a late change to the officiating line-up for Swansea City's play-off semi-final first leg at Barnsley tonight (8.15pm).

Tony Harrington had been due to take charge of the game at Oakwell, but it will instead be Geoff Eltringham who has the whistle in Yorkshire.

County Durham official Eltringham - who was the man in the middle for Swansea's defeat at Watford last time out - had originally been the fourth official.

 

Good luck tonight fellas. Hope you get the result you want.

 

Barnsley 0-3 Swansea City

 

Strange but don't feel excited about these playoffs ? A hopeful 1-0 win but prob a draw.

 

That very gracious of you .
I expect the rest of the gang will be along shortly

 

Is the Griffin Park Grapevine getting a bit twitchy yet?

 

Well it’s that time of the season. So jump on board, put your seatbelt on and get ready to ride the playoff rollercoaster. It’s going to be a wild one.