So I missed the game yesterday due to work but a nice little tale here... I'm a courier and I was working in grimethorpe yesterday afternoon where I deliver to a polish family up on white city. They're lovely people, they've lived here now for around 2 years after moving from Gdansk and have 2 young lads no older than 10. It's fair to say they've had a rough time since moving here, they've had there windows smashed, car vandalised and their kids have had to rough time at school. Anyway to cut a long story short the father is always asking me about Barnsley (what league they're in, what crowds they get etc etc) I've been telling him to go down to oakwell for a while now as his kids are football mad but he was abit unsure of how they would be treated mainly due to the hard time they've had since living here, I've always stressed that he would be fine and people would probably approach them out of interest if anything. Anyway it was about 6pm that evening and they're my last drop of the day and the guy answers the door with a red and white scarf over his shoulders! They'd been and bought tickets for the Luton game, sat in the east stand upper tier and they've had a phenomenal day by the sounds, really really enjoyed it. He was shocked at the standard of football that we played and asked if we always play like that, I told him yes of course! But I think the nicest thing he told me was that once the game had finished their was an oldish couple sat behind them who both wrapped their Barnsley scarfs around the children and gave them their programme. The fella was absolutley gobsmacked at how well they were treated by the fans and said it's made their children's weekend. He says they intend to make it a regular visit and their kids have asked for a Barnsley shirt for Christmas! How good is that? Just wanted to share that story with you as I think it finishes off what a been a brilliant weekend of football. Black, white, Asian, eastern European, American or whatever! Anyone should be made welcome down at oakwell. The more the merrier. Up them reds.
Really nice story. We all remember our first game. For all our faults Barnsley folk on the whole are a friendly bunch.
That's a brilliant post. Selling the fanzine today keeps reminding me our town is predominately populated by fantastic people. Ps Pm fella
Terrible mate. Such a nice family too, they've made a real effort with the language and both mum and dad are in full time employment, One works days and the other is on nights which cant be easy. They rent their home too, lovely house in the newish estate on white city. I just hope they attend more games and make some friends along the way. Lovely, lovely people.
The challenge for the club is to encourage families like this to keep coming back on a regular basis rather than just once or twice a season. Cost being the main motivator. I presume kids' admission fees are quite low. Maybe there could be some sort of deal where parents get a one season deal of a free season ticket or a nominally priced one. The way to grow this club is more bums on seats even at the cost of short term loss leaders on tickets. Perhaps efforts could be made to reach out to similar families who have moved into the area. The signal sent to them by the brexit vote in Barnsley can hardly have encouraged them to make the plunge into following the football club.
Think you've nailed it there mate. Grimethorpe has quite a big polish community and they're mad about football, but I don't think they feel part of the town at all. The club could approach the polish library, language schools etc they could do alot worse.
I hope they know about Bruce Dyer’s work at the Grimey sports ground. They’d be sure to get a warm welcome there !
Great story. Glad they loved going to the game Bit bad they are having problems settling in to normal life though. My daughters best mate is polish, she’s been here about 8 years now. Lots of polish have moved to Featherstone and seem to have integrated without a problem.
Fantastic story What football is all about Went to Gdańsk in April on a stag do Fantastic place and people
Maybe some players could attend the local school in Grimey where the kids attend? Might help stop some of the rough times they’re having at school
Darfield red Very interesting read that was .anyway I would like to share this story with you.Where I work there a lot of polish people working anyway I get talking to this guy called Jack a polish guy , it was just before we played Oxford at Wembley he asked me could he get a ticket for himself and his wife and his lad . But he had never been to a at Wembley before and would love to visit the ground me being a big soft bugger gave him my Barnsley shirt to wear never got it back Lol by the way he lives in Upton and he still comes down to oakwell every no and then. Last year he saved up to take his family to the World Cup to watch Poland he’s football mad -only a few days before he was going to Russia’ he decided not to take the risks for the safety of his family because the press and the news were saying there were going to be trouble he was gutted
Fantastic news! Wonder if the club could also negotiate reduced price bus fares... if enough of the polish community were interested in coming to oakwell from grimey...their passion for football is well documented and could be a real asset to our atmosphere and overall feel good factor at our club. Oh and well done for talking them into going.