Davies vs. Davey in Barnsley barney, and wotte is going on at St Mary’s?

By: Tim | April 7th, 2009

Davies hits back... It has been a strange old week for the Reds so far, and we’ve not even been involved in some of it. Firstly, Saturday’s match against Barnsley was given an almost derby-esque feel to it due to the furore over ticket pricing by the hosts (that saw the away fans being charged nineteen quid as opposed to a fiver) as well as a bizarre war of words between Davies and Davey.

The Evening Post claim that a creative, inaccurate spin on Billy’s pre-match comments led Davey to state that “what he said bordered on bringing the game into disrepute”. Davies responded with this: “I was asked a question about the type of people coming to this football club and I said it’s the likes of Chris Lucketti and Chris Morgan – their type of mentality and experience – that you need at this level. For anybody to make a suggestion I was referring to anything else is the most small-minded thing I’ve ever seen in my life and I can’t believe it. I can’t believe for one second that somebody would suggest I was trying to stoke the flames”.

It was naïve to mention Chris Morgan’s name when playing Barnsley, given what happened earlier in the season, but still, Davey and the Barnsley players were clearly rattled by a seemingly innocent comment. Davey went on to claim that “he’s asked his players to emulate a player that has come here and put one of my players in hospital. He’s done it to try and intimidate the fans, the whole atmosphere, but for me it’s very unprofessional for a manager to do something like that”.

The spat may or may not have its roots in that fact that Davey lost his job as youth-team coach at Preston, while Davies was in charge there, but what is for sure is that we owe our point in Saturday’s 1-1 draw to a tame penalty from Jamal Campbell-Ryce, and the endeavour of Earnshaw, who notched his tenth league goal of the season in the 68th minute. We definitely deserved the point, although Davies thinks we should have got all three: “Only one team should have won the game. I was very proud of the players and our magnificent fans”. Watch the highlights here.

The other big story this week is Southampton going in to administration, or should I say Southampton Leisure Holdings going in to administration, their parent company. There is a possibility that the club could avoid a 10 point deduction via a loophole in the rules, due to their parent company going in to administration and not the club itself, although the Football League ordered an independent inquiry in to the club’s accounts today.

If they are to avoid the penalty it sets a very dangerous precedent, considering what happened to Luton and Leeds, although Southampton are, perhaps obviously, claiming they should avoid it. My guess is that they will be docked points, when is the key question for me though – last week the Guardian reported that it won’t apply until next season, meaning it won’t affect the relegation battle one jot, although some fans are talking about them ‘taking the hit’ this season. It’s a big week for the Saints on the pitch, too, they’ve got Watford tonight and play Wolves away on Good Friday – this is a Wolves side who will surely be looking to clock up some more points after last night’s result against Birmingham.

Lastly, Tyson and McGugan both took knocks on Saturday, although neither are thought to be serious and they should be back for this Saturday’s match against Bristol City. We’ll be without McSheffrey, who has gone back to Birmingham now, although with so many loan players in the first team it was difficult to see how he’d fit in anyway.

Oh, and QPR boss Paulo Sousa claims he wasn’t informed that Dexter Blackstock had been allowed to leave the club to join us on loan. It does seem an odd decision, given that he is QPR’s leading scorer, and they’re now struggling for fit strikers, but I’m not arguing, Blackstock played well on Saturday and should make a difference to the relegation battle. He came in at number 33 in a recent Four Four Two poll of the Top 50 Football League Players too, Chris Cohen deservedly made it in there at 18 as well. Cohen gets my vote for player of season to be honest, it’s either him or Wes Morgan, and I didn’t think I’d be saying that at the start of the season.