Barnsley bring the magic back
The west London club’s season, already dented by their defeat in the Carling Cup final to Tottenham last month, is now teetering on the brink of catastrophe.
Inevitably, attention will be fixed on Chelsea’s raft of problems in the coming days, but that is grossly unfair on Barnsley, who made a mockery of the gulf in class and wealth to produce one of the biggest victories in their history. The south Yorkshire club, just four points above the Championship relegation zone, last reached an FA Cup semi-final in 1912 but the wait has been worth it.
The hero of the hour, or the 66th minute, to be precise, was Kayode Odejayi. The striker cost e300,000 — or, to put it another way, two weeks’ wages for Andriy Shevchenko — from Cheltenham Town almost 12 months ago, scored his first goal since September to spark the kind of scenes for which the cup was once famous.
Odejayi, the Nigerian son of a Christian minister, had been booed by his own fans this season but could now probably apply for the freedom of Barnsley after outjumping Carlo Cudicini to head Martin Devaney’s cross into an open goal.
“I grew up in a very religious family and my mum and dad always keep me in their prayers. I say my prayers every morning and every night and I say a prayer before going out onto the pitch. It has worked wonders,” he said.
“There is nothing worse than being booed by your own fans, but hopefully this will go a long way to winning them round.”
Whether Avram Grant is able to convince the growing band of sceptics at Chelsea is another matter.
The visitors were booed off by their 3,000-strong travelling contingent at Oakwell and patience with the Israeli appears to be at snapping point. The doubts which surfaced after the Wembley defeat to Spurs may have been initially assuaged by wins over West Ham and Olympiakos but Grant’s decision to leave out Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba here had hideous consequences. Chelsea simply lacked the heart and stomach for the battle — a charge which could never have been levelled at a team managed by Jose Mourinho.
Grant at least seems to have the backing of his players, with Nicolas Anelka insisting the players should shoulder the blame for their beleaguered manager.
The French striker said: “We have the players and we should be better than this. I think the criticism has to be aimed at the players. We didn’t do what we had to do. We did not play well. So in the first place, we have to accept the fact that we did not play well as players.
“We know the media will be after the manager but as a player, you know when you have played well and we did not play well today.
“He is the manager and the man who is able to do it. Even though we lost the game, it was not about the manager. It was about the players. The tactics were right, we just did not play well.
“We have spoken about the Champions League before and we will try our best to win it because when you look around the dressing room, we have big players who have the qualities to do it.
“I think Barnsley will be forgotten if we win the Champions League. I think we have to do it.”
Steele 7, Van Homoet 7, Foster 8, Souza 8, Kozluk 8, Devaney 7 (Togwell 73, 7), Hassell 8, Howard 8, Campbell-Ryce 8, Ferenczi 7, Odejayi 9 (Coulson 80, 6).
Subs Not Used: Leon, Butterfield, Nardiello.
Cudicini 6, Belletti 6 (Pizarro 74, 6), Terry 6, Carvalho 6, Bridge 7, Cole 7, Wright-Phillips 7, Essien 6, Ballack 6, Malouda 6 (Kalou 62, 6), Anelka 6.
Subs Not Used: Hilario, Mikel, Haim.
Steve Bennett (Kent) 7: Had few controversial decisions to make and tried to let the game flow in difficult conditions. Kept his calm at the death when a few moronic supporters invaded the pitch.
**** A thunderous cup-tie to restore the pride and reputation of a much-maligned competition. The fairytale continues for Barnsley, who produced a famous result that will be remembered for years to come.
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