So, Coyle’s out the door and we can get on with the rest of the season now, right?  Well, probably not, to be honest.  Last night was the first game after his departure, but it hardly heralded the start of a new regime.  If Coyle was the opening act of this season, then Barrow is the DJ overseeing proceedings until the main event turns up. 

You’re hoping he puts on a good turn, but if not you can go and get a pint.  Either way you only really want him on for a few songs.Anyway, in the absence of anything more meaningful to say, here are the five auto-responses that I’ve wanted to use on every thread I’ve seen about last night’s game.

• Football matches aren’t just about eleven names on a team sheet.  Most of last night’s eleven may look depressingly familiar, but the reality is that they started with a different set-up and approached the game in a different way.
• I don’t care what anyone says, having 60% possession in a game is a positive sign.  It sounds like we kept the ball well.  Even if we didn’t create many real chances, that’s still better than not keeping the ball and not creating real chances.
• Their two goals came from set pieces.  We defended those poorly but that shouldn’t reflect on our general play on the night.  Clarke Carlisle reckons Coyle didn’t do set pieces in training so it’s probably more good luck than judgement if we’ve not been conceding from them so far. 
• So we weren’t that creative last night, I could use the “we were away from home, what do you expect?” approach, but I won’t.  We haven’t been that creative all season, Barrow was asking his players to take on a different mindset  and it’s probably just a step too far to expect the players to break free from their shackles just yet.  You know those nature programmes when animals are released into the wild but they just mill about around the camera crew for a while because their not quite sure what to do?  Well that obviously applies to footballers too.
• Even if the team were unhappy under Coyle, there are no miracle cures to the last five months.   If you’re asking your team to start thinking differently then they’re going to have to work on that one day’s training under someone else isn’t going to make that much difference. 

Overall, I reckon the message is that Graham Barrow isn’t Harry Potter, he can’t wave a wand make everything alright again.  There’s no point complaining about a man who’s just baby sitting the squad for a week or to, just hold on and hope for the best.

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