Celebrating my birthday today. Recieved lots of cards and gifts, but one particular present from my youngest lad came as a surprise. He gave me a book called " Barnsley FC - Match of my life." ( ISBN 9 781785 314261) . Written by David Kuzio, it features accounts from former players who recount their favourite game in the famous Red shirt. Contents page show that the articles have been written by De Zeeuw, Barnard, McCarthy, Nardiello, Eaden, Marc Richards, Nyatanga, Bogdanovic, Watkins, Ramage, Diego Leon, Wayne Goodson, Geoff Thomas, Adie Moses, Shuker, Lee Crooks and Tony Vaughan. The author was born in Wigan and came to Barnsley in 1977 to study journalism. He started to support the Reds in earnest in 1999, his first game being a 3-1 cup win against Swindon, with McClare, Bullock and Hignett getting the goals. He still travels to home games with his Reds obsessed son from his home which is close on a 160 mile round trip. The 18 contributors are described as " legends". To my mind, that is a term that cannot be ascribed to quite a number of them, but as with any other publication about the Club, I'm looking forward to making a start in reading all 192 pages.
Bogdanovic says in his piece he enjoyed every moment at Oakwell and when he joined Sheffield United he wasn't paid as much as he'd earned as a Red. He lived in Sheffield and his kids were all in local Sheffield schools.At the time, he said he didn't fully realise the intense rivalry / animosity between the two Clubs and is sad that some Reds fans saw him as a traitor. His final paragraph states that he would like to apologise to every single Barnsley fan for moving and wants to thank everyone for everything they did whilst he was with us. Incidentally the author says that a lot of his " heroes" didn't reply to the contacts he made so the list as to who would feature rather picked itself. Everyone who responded gave a contribution for free apart from one player who demanded a fee. David Kuzio doesn't name him or the other players who chose not to respond to his approaches which is fair enough.
Cheers JD. You can't beat having your nearest and dearest round you on your birthday. Lucky that we've got three great sons all of whom have never given us a moments trouble. My Grandson did a drawing on the card from himself of a matchstick man kicking a football into a goal. Asked him to tell me about it. Proudly said " its Toby Tyke Grandad" lol. When it's his birthday my son has told him he can pick a really special treat to celebrate. He replied by saying he wants to attend a Barnsley away game and stay in a hotel overnight with his Dad and me. That's my boy.!!
Happy birthday for yesterday, mate. I'm sure we'd all be interested to hear your thoughts on the book when you've finished it. Could be the start of a BBS Book Club!
Cheers to all for your kind wishes for yesterday. It was a great day capped off with a great dinner that my lady wife prepared for the family. Good idea about the book Club. I've got quite a number of football books and DVD's I wouldn't mind letting other Reds fans borrow. Wonder if it's something we could set up for a match day.?
