When Jack was down injured in the first-half and it looked certain he'd have to come off, the group I was watching with were all in agreement that Stewart should come on for him, with Arfield dropping back into the midfield, but wondered if he'd maybe bring on Ojo instead. Not one of us could believe it when the footage cut to the bench to show Barker getting ready to come on. I honestly can't imagine one single bear anywhere in the world not uttering 'Barker!?!?' at that moment.
It was clear from that moment that Barker would eventually get the nod when we did go to make a sub, but it was no less baffling when it happened. Stewart is a good finisher, can cross a ball and has the ability to open a packed defence with a clever pass, as well being comfortable getting stuck in a bit. You'd also think he'd be playing with a bit of confidence, having scored a couple of goals from the bench recently - Barker seems to have the ability to run quite fast, but with nothing else in his locker and looks to be playing with zero confidence.
I could maybe see an argument for Barker if we were under constant pressure and thought his pace might be useful on the counter (although Ojo would have been preferable in that circumstance), but when playing against 10-men that were defending a 1 goal lead for the last 30 minutes of a cup final, it is just mind-boggling that Stewart wasn't seen as the obvious choice. I can't think of a more baffling substitution off the top of my head.