Leicester lesson
Barnsley 0 Leicester City 2 Marshall 55, Fenton 63 Attenda nce: 18,66
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Your support makes all the difference.The Air in the Barnsley dressing-room must have been rent by the depressing sound of paper being ripped to shreds. Not worthless losing lottery tickets, but unsuccessful game plans.
"It's back to the drawing board but we're doubly determined to get it right," Danny Wilson, their manager, said after watching his team comprehensively beaten by Leicester. "We were put under pressure from the start and you always know what you're going to get against Leicester.
"The service into our attack was poor. In the second half it was very poor. I felt sorry for our forwards and to be honest our midfield failed to create anything. We have got to have the confidence to come back fighting. We have got to go to Arsenal now and get a good result."
That is a lot to ask after yesterday's performance but Wilson has the sympathy of his opposite number, Martin O'Neill, whose team seem to let nothing bother them, not even the prospect of facing Atletico Madrid again in the Uefa Cup on Tuesday.
"Barnsley are like us 14 to 15 months ago," he said. "We have gone through that and I understand what Danny Wilson is going through."
Wilson would be ill-advised, though, to settle for the option of accepting relegation on the basis of coming back up stronger; he simply has hope that his players come to terms with the requirements of the Premiership.
One fundamental is not to make unforced errors - they are punished. Yesterday Leicester dominated but even so the match was decided in a nine-minute spell courtesy of two moments of laxness in the Barnsley rear. Ian Marshall, operating as an emergency defender, was allowed the room to head a 55th- minute opener, and then Graham Fenton put away a penalty at the second attempt after the man of the match Muzzy Izzet was fouled.
Barnsley had the excuse of being without a number of key players, but they had precious little to offer beyond a few passages of pretty passing in midfield in a match lacking finesse.
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