Paul Madeley on the back row, now he WAS a Rolls Royce of a player! Still not as good as big Eric, though!
Don't know why I put those names in!! It was Graham Carr and Paul Madeley I meant to type. The fact they're named on the photo should have helped me! It definitely looks like 'that' Graham Carr as you say.
No many on there made it to the top.. only recognise Madeley and Wilkinson Just goes to show how many peak too early and can never sustain it.. I feel that is one of the major flaw's with our/moneyball system Just coz they're decent it there teens don't mean to say they'll be any good in there twenties.. you have to kiss a lot of frogs kinda thing.. And also the fans asked to pay good and sometimes top dollar to sit through a lot of youth whanabe/maybes And support it like the life of the club depends on it. I saw on YouTube Billy Beane interview where he's saying don't get emotionally attached to current players coz they will be moved on before they are paid higher wages..So more of the same is on the New menu
He's fine mate, thanks for asking. Unfortunately he had a diabetic episode on his way round to catch up with the rest. Nothing more serious than that but he very nearly passed out. He was really upset at missing out, he loves the club and from the love he received on facebook and twitter prior to the game he really wanted to be there. YT and his team were brilliant during the day, and I'm really sad for Andy for all the effort he put in trying to get all the players there and then him not quite making it. It was a top day apart from the result and YT should be proud of putting it together, which is no mean feat. Thanks for the invite mate and the caviar and cucumber was sublime. Don't feed a diabetic cheesecake next time though, well a diabetic with zero will power anyway
Neither but brilliantly wrong. I was with George last week, he still as scottish as he was 40 years ago so I doubt he was in that team even when hes not named or in the picture. It is indeed Paul Madely who went on to play for England and Leeds (the lovely person). Best one is of course George Carr, scout, coach of Northampton, but ended up being part of the birth of Alan. George and my old man have been friends ever since. I once shared a single bed with Alan in Swansea when we were kids. Before his overtly gay stage. Howard Wilkinson, is a lovely bloke, its not his fault he managed Leeds and Wednesday. To add some more history to that picture, my old man had made his debut for the reds a week or so before (might have been Birmingham but my memory is hazy 15 years before I was born). BFC were due to play at Watford and on the morning he was called up to play, Barnsley argued and won so he had to shoot back for the game aged 17. Duncan Sharp never played again after that game but continued to be a mentor. Just 18 months later, Eric was the captain aged 19. I have news paper clipping from the nationals of the time, that he was the pretty much the biggest young star of english football. Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal and the double winning team Spurs were after him. On his last game for Barnsley, with Bill Nicholson in the stands ready to sign him after the game he did his knee and the rest is history. He came back and played 400+ games, after what is those days a career ending injury. Sheff Utd offered a British transfer record record for a defender of £65k for him in the mid 60s which he turned down. I know a lot of you will only remember him from being a coach, but if he hadnt have got injured he'd have played at the top level, like John Stones. Which is a good thing as I'd be talking in apples and pairs and dog and bones….. Its took me a long time to write this, I'm never one to openly say who my old man is, or use it to get me somewhere, but now I have children who understand as season ticket holders what Barnsley means to them that they know how much of a part their grandad played. Sorry for the long reply, but as all out parents get older and lose that strength they once had, it makes you think of things differently. You Reds. Young Winnie.
Thanks for writing that. Had me welling up ( possibly cos I'm slightly hungover I admit). The saddest thing about the last fifteen or so years is the big gap at Oakwell where your dad should be.
Good to hear , would have been nice to see him walk out on to oakwell again , he is a legend to Barnsley fans
Winstanley scored in my first visit to Oakwell in April 1968, a 3-0 win over Brentford. I used to collect autographs outside the ground before matches and remember standing there about 3 feet tall as he towered over me. He probably had to bend over to get my autograph book off me.
A quite wonderful post about an absolute legend and written by a truly lovely bloke. Nice one, old mate.
Fantastic post! Glad your kids know how much of a legend their Grandad is to their club and its fans too. They must be a couple of the proudest kids on the planet!
Saw Eric's first two games, Brentford and QPR when I was a young engineer working for my HND at what is now Westminster University. i think they were his only two games for us that season, but from the start of the next, he became a regular with Duncan Sharp's retirement.
Fantastic and fascinating post, thanks for sharing. Who knows, maybe in another universe it was Moore and Winstanley at the back at Wembley in '66? But what Spurs and Eric lost out on Barnsley definitely gained. It's a precious thing to be as much of a hero at a place that he is and spending so many years with us hs meant he will forever be adored and remembered by Barnsley people.
