Keane in dire need of a benign twist of fate

SOCCER ANGLES:Without a victory under their new manager this season, Ipswich Town visit Oakwell today to take on Mark Robins' fast-improving Barnsley, writes MICHAEL WALKER

ONE OF the great football photographs of the past two decades was taken at Oakwell by the widely-travelled, acute observer of sporting life, Stuart Clarke. It is called “Blood Red Road, Barnsley” and features a brick terrace wall with shards of glass on top. One art critic compared it to a Mark Rothko painting.

It is worth a long look, not just for the depth of colour and the simplicity of the composition but because it is Barnsley, South Yorkshire and says so bluntly.

That is what they always stress about Barnsley folk: the bluntness. Not to put too blunt a point on it, Roy Keane could do without it today. What Keane needs when he takes his deflated Ipswich Town to Oakwell this afternoon is a striker as sharp as a shard of glass, someone who can score a goal that not only wins one football match but which could alter the course of a season. Someone, say, like Mark Robins.

Considering what Robins did not win when in Manchester United colours when compared to the likes of Ryan Giggs, for example, Robins’ status within Old Trafford folklore is uncontested.

As Alex Ferguson recalled in his autobiography Managing My Life: “Obituaries of my regime at Old Trafford were plentiful in the sports pages as we approached the third-round FA Cup-tie with Forest at the City Ground on January 7th, 1990.

“Our struggles in the league had persuaded many of the pundits that my doom was imminent . . . on BBC television Jimmy Hill suggested before the kick-off in Nottingham that even our warm-up was not impressive.”

One fat paragraph later Ferguson was able to add: “Our 1-0 victory is remembered, quite understandably, for young Mark Robins’ decisive goal.”

It is all part of the circle of football that the young man who had just had his 21st birthday then should, three weeks ago, show up at Barnsley aged 39 as manager. Just in time to meet Roy.

Not that Barnsley saw it that way. In Robins they saw someone who had done an exceptional job in trying circumstances at Rotherham United over the previous two seasons.

Without a ground, Rotherham were forced to play in Sheffield, without “proper” finance, they were deducted points by the Football League. That they survived must have had something to do with their young manager.

When Barnsley ran out of patience with Simon Davey – his own FA Cup run all too quickly forgotten – they turned to a man close by. Robins lost his first game in charge at Watford but they then won at Derby, whose young and famous manager Nigel Clough is struggling, and on Tuesday night hammered West Bromwich Albion 3-1.

Along the way Barnsley also knocked Burnley out of the League Cup, which naturally took them into the hat with Manchester United. Out they came paired together.

All of this may appeal to Keane, who likes the idea of fate.

But of late he might be going off it. Last Saturday was the sort of fateful day no one at Ipswich enjoyed. An afternoon that was meant to be a celebration of Bobby Robson, with Newcastle the visitors, turned swiftly into a 4-0 home defeat.

Keane said he would “boo myself if I was a fan”.

There was a rally of sorts at Sheffield United on Tuesday, with a 3-3 draw against a side people still refer to as strong. But Ipswich were 3-1 ahead with 13 minutes left.

And now to Barnsley, who will be injected with confidence post-West Brom. Keane heard yesterday that his captain, Alex Bruce, will again be missing. Ipswich are bottom of the Championship and have yet to win this season under Keane. Dwight Yorke has released a book that carries some scathing passages about Keane when he was at Sunderland.

Ipswich chief executive Simon Clegg went on the radio to give his new manager a vote of confidence. All of this means pressure.

“It’s possible to be too desperate,” was one of the things Keane said yesterday about today.

“But we’ve just got to play the game, focus on the basics and show the same type of spirit that we showed on Tuesday.

“It’s an important fixture but we mustn’t get bogged down by our position in the table, if that’s possible. It can change very quickly and that’s why it’s so important to get that first win.”

The history of Robins and Manchester United proves that statement is correct but Ipswich need to prove it again this afternoon.

A draw would offer some consolation but a defeat, a sixth in 11 Championship games, would ask questions of Keane’s and Ipswich’s sense of direction. There is a fortnight-long international break looming and that gives club executives and owners, as well as a brooding individual like Keane, a long time to ponder.

Mark Robins may yet have another significant role to play.

McCourt making presence felt

THE FIRST Old Firm game of the season is upon us and from left-field, sometimes literally, comes Pat McCourt.

It is has been a slow-burn at Celtic for the former Derry City man but in the past fortnight suddenly a fuse has been lit. As one headline in a Scottish paper put it last Monday morning, the country is both "bothered and bewildered" by McCourt. Scotland does not know quite what to make of McCourt and neither, it seems, does Tony Mowbray.

The following are a few snippets from the Herald's verdict on last Saturday's victory for Celtic at St Mirren, in which McCourt scored a belter having previously been thought to be utterly drained of energy.

"There is no doubt that McCourt cannot defend, has no discipline in his positioning and can drift out of the match with the facility of Wee Jinky on a rowing boat." "The Northern Irishman looked as spent as an alcoholic sailor's savings after 48 hours of shore leave."

"He seems to have shambled off the set of a football equivalent of Life on Mars where parks are populated by Frank Worthington, Stan Bowles and Tony Currie." And finally: "But Celtic would not have won this match without him."

From this it would appear that McCourt is on his way to endearing himself to more than just Celtic fans.

The SPL needs all the colours it can get and if McCourt is able to splash some around Ibrox tomorrow lunchtime then he should be cherished more often for what he can do, than scolded for what he doesn't do.