Barnsley is often an away trip to look forward to. Not too far to travel, an old school football ground, tunnel near the generously sized away end and we’ve got good memories from games past.
With just 26 minutes on the clock, Russell Martin’s side were 1-0 up and playing a 10-man Barnsley; surely this would be another one for the positive memory bank? Wrong.
If Stockport away left us confused, this latest road trip brought previous concerns about scoring and seeing a game out right back to the surface as we blew a 1-0 lead against 10 men. In the alternative universe where Leicester City aren’t like this, we’d have come away with a comfortable 4-0 win.
Those who remember or made the trip to Barnsley in April 2013, might have been left thinking about that day when it all turned a little sour in the away end at the full whistle and the players and manager came under some heat at full-time. 13 years ago, a 2-0 defeat lifted the home side out of the Championship relegation side but made it 3 consecutive losses and just 1 win in 10 for a Leicester team sitting in 7th with big expectations of promotion.
It’s not an entirely comparable situation of course. Arguably, those were halcyon days in comparison to where we find ourselves in 2026. In 2013, who was going to start might have dominated the car and service station talk, whereas this weekend many fans would have been discussing the worry of whether we’ll find ourselves in administration soon. Or whether a takeover might be on the horizon to help stop the rot, assuming we don’t end up like Blackburn.
The other big difference 13 years on is the fan relationship with the manager. This Leicester side might have 2 wins in 7, but it was Nigel Pearson in charge then, a man for whom the affections have always run deep for the majority.
Unlike Martin, the boos and chants that day weren’t squarely aimed at Pearson, but he managed not to react on the field and just made one throwaway comment post-match about expectations while saying he understood fan frustration.
Looking across the away end, there were still some clapping the players off, but the vocal chants and boos of the rest were definitely heard by the players and manager. Oakwell gives you nowhere to hide from that.
This weekend’s performance might not live on in Leicester fans’ memories, but Martin sarcastically clapping along and giving a thumbs up to the fans chanting ‘Russell Martin, your football is shit’ might as the moment that relationship went beyond repair.
For Martin, it will feel very personal. Those who hired him might want to consider shouldering their part of the blame for giving unhappy fans no other outlet for years. You may feel the Martin witch hunt is unfair at this stage of the season, but his reaction will do nothing to stop those who’ve already decided he’s not the man.
Can we get a wout wout? No?
Speaking of difficult relationships, one name we thought we’d banished forever was back.
From sunswept Monaco to sideways rain in Barnsley. If you thought you heard a collective groan around 11.30am when the team news was announced, it would have been facing up to life watching Faes again. With no summer move and nobody else looking that good, Martin’s resolve to not use the Belgian has crumbled. Where was our Finnish summer signing you ask? Er, not even in the squad.
Presumably he was somewhere wondering what he’s done wrong and commiserating with Christian Macfarlane who also missed out for a second week running. Then there’s Admir Bristric who is also out in the cold currently.
The creeping in of more experienced players in the starting eleven began at Stockport, Martin’s attempts to right his perceived wrongs of the inexperience in our youthful squad. Who had their money on Wout Faes and Woyo Coulibaly returning to, not only the squad, but both playing minutes in a game in September?
It’s not ideal to be ignoring three players brought in over the summer, two of whom we paid for, but Macfarlane’s absence at least makes a little more sense from why Woyo Coulibaly was back into the squad.
For his part, Faes actually wasn’t the main issue in this game. There were still moments where you questioned what he was doing and the nonchalant approach to passing across his own box, but it was a largely professional performance from him. After some of the recent showings from Harry Souttar, this felt a little calmer too.
On paper, John Lundstram is the type of leader we’ve been lacking for some time, so his start and captaincy makes sense. Alongside Emil Riis, Liam Cullen, Warren O’Hora, Alex McCarthy and bringing in Faes, there was plenty of experience to support the more exciting but raw Alves, Page and Braybrooke.
O’Hora will take the blame for the moment leading to Clearly equalising for Barnsley having given the ball away cheaply but he didn’t look terrible on his first outing alongside Faes. Previous to that mistake, the general consensus would have been that the performance wasn’t terrible, but that we just hadn’t finished the job.
For all the possession, we weren’t enough of an effective threat on goal. As most Leicester fans know, ten men or not, we’re not a team you trust at 1-0 up. It was frustrating to see defensive mistakes persist even with personnel changes, yet not a surprise when that saw us give up another goal.
One dubious red card, multiple missed opportunities
The 26th minute red card felt like it had the potential to put a line under the result early in. That wasn’t to be for Leicester, who just couldn’t turn a potent opening into more than one game. We’re certainly not the worst team at capitalising on the extra man advantage but we’ve made hard work of it in the past so that always plays in the mind.
The letters of the law aren’t favourable to this sort of tackle, but if the situation had been reversed and Luke Thomas the one committing the foul, we’d all be fuming at the decision. It certainly didn’t look malicious or particularly dangerous on Luca Connell’s part.
Whereas this red card could have been a gift, our chance to press on and make another statement, we didn’t. Instead we seemed to feel a little guilty over it and proceeded to invite Barnsley on, leaving the scoreline hanging at a precarious 1-0 and missing multiple chances to have killed the game off.
Liam Cullen’s goal was well taken, the Leicester players broke with pace and the ball across from Luke Thomas allowed Cullen to slot home. It’s been a good couple of weeks for Cullen, who finally looks like he’s settling into the side, benefiting from a different role.
Where the first half offered a good amount of possession and chances on goal, it was still only 1-0 at half time. It’s natural that an opponent down to ten men will sit deeper and be harder to break down. But the reality is that we had enough chances to have won this comfortably, we just couldn’t finish them.
It’s just as criminal to allow that team back into the game and to give up the kind of chances we allowed Barnsley to have. Particularly at the death of the game.Their chances felt the more likely to go in, and it feels like a repeat of us being fortunate that the opposition couldn’t do more.
This is where the Martin narrative becomes tricky. You can dislike him, you can dislike his slow-build, possession football and you can be frustrated by his personnel selections but you cannot blame him for an entire team’s inability to put away their chances.
There were moments and decisions that players at a different team would have got right, passing instead of taking a speculative shot, catching a run and placing the ball anywhere that’s not directly at the goalkeeper. In the alternative universe where we got the job done early, the whole vibe going into the international break is entirely different.
But this is also still a team with younger players at the core, it’s predictable that they won’t always be making the right call. It’s been easier to forgive them in previous weeks and Page was good again in attack.
One concern today was Braybrooke, he was careless on the ball in moments and while trying hard, he hasn’t looked quite as sharp in the last two games now. Whether it’s a tactical or positional issue isn’t entirely clear but he struggled to be effective at Barnsley. He was disappointed with a tame header straight at the keeper.
Where we needed a substitute who could make an impact and put away a chance, the changes struggled to improve the situation. Tommy Watson had another difficult cameo, failing to show the promise and excitement you hope we’d get from his loan. He has plenty of energy but the ratio for when he shoots versus setting up others isn’t quite there yet.
In other games, Harry Howell has made more of an instant impact and Wes Burns and Bobby De Cordova-Reid didn’t offer anything new to the mix either.
A three week reset
Your viewpoint on whether a break for a few weeks is welcome, or frustrating might depend on whether you travelled to Barnsley and your general level of optimism for this Leicester City side. Martin is probably relieved to not have to deal with the fans for the next few weeks if nothing else.
Yes, there’s an EFL Trophy game against Fulham Under-21s on Tuesday night but in terms of important games, the international break is now upon us. Our next league game isn’t until October 10th, giving Martin plenty of time with those staying behind to finesse and tweak and maybe try new things.
As things stand, we’re essentially in the middle of the pack from a footballing perspective. 2 points off the play-offs and a 3 point buffer from the relegation zone. Based on the performances to date, we don’t look like we’re about to start storming the automation promotion spots, but there are still teams with a lot less going on.
With no games to analyse, the focus will turn back to the potential takeover and trying to work out if things are really as bad as they look financially and if we’re facing up to a second spell in administration for those of us old enough to have remembered the grim days of October 2002.
Our next League One game is Peterborough at home on the 10th October. They’ve just sacked their manager to add an extra challenge into the mix. Martin has to decide whether to tinker a little further, Conor Chaplin should be available again by then and could allow us to give Braybrooke a rest.
