Like Father, Like Son

 

 

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Monday 29 May 2023 at Wembley
Result	Barnsley 0 Sheffield Wednesday 1 aet
Competition	League One Promotion Playoff (Second Tier)
Hopstats	Third visit to Wembley in consecutive days, and the fourth season that I’ve been able to secure tickets for all three EFL playoffs. This year I needed help, and thanks today go to Agent W who knew Agent C, and with some timely financial admin involving Agent R, I’m here as an honorary Owl. Given that they are managed by WBA legend Darren Moore, I’m very happy with that.
Context
The third and fourth placed teams have made it to Wembley. Barnsley were the latter, and they saw off Bolton Wanderers in the playoff semi-final. Sheffield Wednesday needed one of the most remarkable comebacks in the history of English football. 0-4 down against Peterborough United after the first leg, they needed a 98th minute goal in the second leg to get back on level terms. They conceded first in extra time, but scored again themselves before going on to win the penalty shootout. Sheffield Wednesday finished two points behind Ipswich Town in the last automatic promotion place, and ten ahead of Barnsley. They had led the division for much of the early and mid-season. Their final total of 96 points is a record for a third-placed side.
In One Sentence
A tense and largely forgettable game eventually erupted, defined by a controversial red card for Barnsley and the latest of extra-time winners from Josh Windass, whose father Dean has form of his own in such matters.
So What?
As is the way with playoffs, Sheffield Wednesday are going up to the Championship. Barnsley remain in League One.
Pre-match Entertainment
A reverse of yesterday evening’s walk, along the South Bank of the Thames from Blackfriars to Westminster in the sunshine before taking the Jubilee Line to Wembley Park.
Pre-Match Pix
In the absence of anything more original, this year’s running joke on the blog has been bits of the Bobby Moore statue. As I was circling it looking for a new angle today, a steward politely enquired whether I was OK. I explained, and she laughed, and she suggested that it would have to be Bobby Moore’s Booty today. She was very clear that she preferred the term Booty to Bum, and I’m not going to argue. So here is Bobby Moore’s Booty, the one that he used to ease Jairzinho of Brazil off the ball in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. A World-Cup winning Booty of the highest footballing pedigree.
Match Report
This was a tense, attritional game in the first half. Two early half-chances for Wednesday, and a shot over the bar for Barnsley. A momentary mix-up in the Wednesday penalty area that needed a decisive booting out by their captain Barry Bannon, just before half-time. He was not happy with his defence. He had been at the centre of his team’s better moments. Barnsley had looked a bit sharper and more decisive in their passing but were also pretty toothless. I was up on the back row near the halfway line and Owls’ fans near me were fretting about ponderous play, but it was also so, so tense. We were a long way from the action up there but we were all surprised by the appearance of a red card. The second half had started with a VAR check for a possible Barnsley penalty, not given by the ref, and then a couple of minutes later he produced the card for Adam Phillips after a tackle on Lee Gregory. VAR supported the decision. Perhaps surprisingly, this didn’t change the game as much as you would think – at least at this point. Barnsley coped well. Wednesday’s main method seemed to be to engineer crossing opportunities from the flanks, and many of the passing decisions seemed sub-optimal. Only Bannan seemed to have his footballing brain in gear. Barnsley so nearly took the lead when Liam Kitching’s header hit the bar. The game came alive as Wednesday hit back and Bannon shot just wide. Harry Isted in the Barnsley goal had been solid all afternoon and he made an excellent stop on the hour. His opposite number Cameron Dawson also did well to tip James Norwood’s shot over the bar with ten minutes to go. It did not seem that eleven were playing ten. The last few minutes and stoppage time drifted by, and so to extra time. In the first extra fifteen, Bannon shot over the bar again and Isted saved at point-blank range during a frantic minute of Wednesday pressure. The fans near me were warming up, feeling that the Barnsley defensive dam was about to burst. Isted saved from Bannan again, and then … this game’s “What if?” moment came with Barnsley on the break. Kitching ran from midfield, played it right to Luke Thomas, whose pass put a goal on a plate to Luca Connell. Unbelievably, he missed the target. There had been more goalmouth action in the last ten minutes than in the first ninety. But still nil-nil. Will Vaulks, a Wednesday sub, hit the back of the net with a rasping, rising shot in the first minute of the second period. Cue euphoria, music, celebrations, somersault and backflip – until the assistant’s offside flag was spotted. Bannan shot yet again, this time a volley directly at Isted, and that was his last contribution as the cramp that had been threatening for a few minutes finally had its way. With everyone now thinking about penalties, especially me after my pre-match prediction, the dam did finally burst. Lee Gregory’s cross found sub Josh Windass, whose diving header won the game. An astonishing end. There was a nominal restart before an immediate final whistle. Josh’s father, Dean Windass, scorer of a playoff-winning goal for Hull City, was in the stands. For the third day in a row, the stadium divided. It has seen two penalty shootouts and a 120th-plus minute winner. This felt even more harsh and cruel than the other two. The event managers clicked into gear and started assembling the various bits and pieces of celebration paraphernalia. None of them were necessary. Some Wednesday fans were too relieved to be ecstatic, and Barnsley fans were already on their way home. These events are brutal. Absolutely brutal. I’ve been a fly-on-the-wall for them all this year, and I’ll probably try to do it again. Thanks for reading.
Match Pix
Sheffield Wednesday in blue and white stripes.
Darren Moore and Other People Doing Their Jobs
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats Update
Usually accompanied by a pre-match prediction on Twitter just before kickoff. Working towards being able to compute a respectable test of statistical significance, it looks like an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test will be appropriate. The full keeper top performance table from my last 282 matches is here, on this separate page, and I’ll organise the test when we reach 300 pieces of evidence. Today, as yesterday, was Green v Green, and the prediction of a draw with penalties was very, very close to being correct. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Draw & Penalty Shootout Was the prediction correct? No, Not Quite! % of correct predictions so far 47% (65 from 137)
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter! That is almost certainly the end of the 2022-23 season for me, but I may well take a tangent or two into other sports before 2023-24 starts.