A message for everytime someone says 'we should beat Fleetwoood Accrington etc'

Barnsley are not a superior football club to these teams, because simply there is no such thing as a superior club.

It all just comes down to circumstantial luck. Every club has their own challenges, backgrounds etc.
Usually the bigger the place + population the more support a club gets. More support means bigger ground. Bigger support & ground means a more attractive club to potential players & investors. I know this is obvious, but for say Leeds and Newcastle to brag about being more successful than teams from small towns is like Russia getting all billy big b*llox that they have a larger Olympic squad than Malta. Not at all impressive and kinda embarrassing.

Anyway my point is we shouldn't look down our noses at another team just because we happen to face less challenging circumstances. Fleetwood has a population of 25,000 whereas Barnsley has three times that. We have always played as the same club in the same place whereas Fleetwood have been renamed & relocated on many occasions since they were formed in 1908. Like I said, we just have things easier than them.

Albeit they've done it with a fair bit of spending in Fleetwood's case, the best thing to do is salute these clubs for making it so high in the footballing pyramid and competing with clubs from larger places & longer existences. They bring 100 fans to Oakwell lets clap them not laugh at them. They finish higher than us say fair play Fleetwood.

 

The only time we have "beaten" Fleetwood is in that penalty shoot out. We must have lost to Accrington in the past during our 3rd division North days.

 

Just looked up the records. Accrington have beaten us 4 times. The last occasion was 9 January 1960, when they beat us 2-1 in Division 3 at their ground. We beat them 5-0 at home. They must have been relegated to Division 4 that season as we have not played them since.

 

Seriously though, you'll never get every football fan singing from the same hymn sheet and thinking that were all equal.

Football is all about rivalry. If there isn't a historical or local one then one will be found. It might be the state of a stand, or how few fans are in it. Moronic in some cases but all part of football.

I'm all for fostering friendships with fans of other clubs. That's what we did when we played for the supporters club back in the day, and I'm all for it now - I'll be meeting up with an Accrington fan I met last time I visited.