West Bromwich Albion’s FA Cup campaign came to an end as they were beaten by their Premier League rivals.
West Brom fans have taken to Twitter to comment on Gareth Barry’s display in the Baggies’ FA Cup defeat to Southampton on Saturday – and to say that many are unhappy with the veteran’s performance would probably be an understatement.
The cup tie provided Alan Pardew’s men with some respite after a terrible time in the league. West Brom are seven points off safety in the top flight and have lost their last three.
While the clash with Mauricio Pellegrino’s side would not have improved their league situation, it would have given West Brom some momentum heading into the final few weeks of the season, especially after the controversy surrounding their mid-season tour came to light.
With Barry one of the players Pardew admitted to being furious with following the tour, in comments that were reported by BBC Sport, the midfielder undoubtedly needed to step up for the game against the Saints.
However, he was hugely disappointing as Southampton set up a quarter-final tie with either Manchester City or Wigan Athletic with a 2-1 win at The Hawthorns.
His passing was extremely poor in the defeat and his overall performance did West Brom few favours as they looked to get back to winning ways.
Many fans have slammed Barry’s performance and felt that Pardew made a mistake by not selecting Sam Field for the game against their relegation rivals. A cup game can be an ideal opportunity for teams to make changes when they have much bigger priorities, so giving Field a rare chance seemed to make a lot of sense to several of the fans.
And after his display against the Saints, many West Brom fans are now hoping that Barry is now dropped when they return to league action for someone like Field.
Here is what some of the Baggies fans made of Barry’s display in the defeat…
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