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I thought he did well. Good to have some height and presence. Also he's been out injured for months, presumably he's not had much recent match practice so he probably did well to last the 90 minutes.

His touch at times this evening did make me think, 'it's not an egg, just go for it!', but there was something great about having some menace in the long throw department. I wonder if Chesterfield would have played as awfully if there hadn't been the threat of a 'corner' every time there was a throw within 45 yards of the dead ball line??

Tommy Fraser - the worst ever player to get a long long term conract at Barnet?

PBBee wrote:Tommy Fraser - the worst ever player to get a long long term conract at Barnet?

Whenever I watch Tommy Fraser I at least think "It could be worse - Michael Leary"

Why exactly was Fairclough (iterim manager) allowed to give this guy a multi year contract?

Whenever I watch Tom Fraser, it reminds me that Fraser Toms was NOT the worst ever player to put on a Barnet shirt.

I thought Stirling was extremely valuable last night. The long throws really make a difference. Having spent all season feeling nervous every time we have a throw inside our own half due to our propensity to lose the ball, Stirling's throws shift the play 30 yards down the pitch at a stroke. It's not pretty, but had a lot to do with the fact the we enjoyed plenty of territory against the best side in the division. Plus, while he's not great on the ball, the fact is Allen clearly isn't looking for us to play 'possession football.' Yes, obviously it's better to keep the ball than give it away, but what a difference it made having a presence in midfield who got the ball going back towards the opposition's goal from the majority of those interminbable aerial challenges which we have been losing in the middle of the pitch all season. It looks like Allen wants us to play territorial, not possession football. Get it forward early, get men forward in and around it and play at a high tempo. As Gavin Strachan wrote in the weekly blog he did for the BBC Sport website while playing for Notts County in League 2, the most important ball at this level is the 'hook-on,' where you get there first and hook the ball forward. A week after we saw Morecambe's giants hooking the ball on and outmuscling our 'superior' ball-players, and having endured watching Stevenage do this to us twice this season, I for one was happy to see one player at least in our midfield winning the physical battle.

Also, by the end we were playing with three defenders, Stirling in front of them in midfield, and 6 attacking players out there to get us a goal. It was only because Stirling was able to serve as a formidable one-man shield in front of that back three, not to mention the fact that his throws were allowing us to get the ball into the final third and give those six players a chance, that we were able to keep applying the pressure in the last 10 minutes and were not overrun ourselves due to the hole we left in the middle of the pitch.