The best Barnsley manager of the 21st century won promotion today

Keith Brown though.

Should have tried harder to get Carl Tiler.

 

Bassett. For almost getting us back in the prem, but that was in another era when we spent a bit of brass.

Post administration I would say Andy Ritchie because he managed to get us promoted and I'm sure we didn't lose at home in the league all season.

Hecky because he did well either side of Johnsons tenure and guided one of the best squads to promotion.

Flicker for the unbelievable run that helped keep us up on the last day.

Robins for doing the rare thing which is getting us safe early, but worth noting that once we did reach the magic number we were pretty poor for the remaining games.

Davey for the cup run.

Hill had a decent go when he had some good players at his disposal, then moaned a lot, a bit like hecky.

Last and least. Little Lee. Had a great set of players but couldn't see the wood for the trees. Won 1 from final 10 in his first season, and broke losing records in the next. High spot was reaching JPT final.

I disliked Johnson and Davey equally. The only thing that separates them is one seems to have disappeared without trace and the other one is still winning 10, losing 10 and the media seem to love him.

 

If I remember rightly Brown did really well when on loan and Blackburn (??) didn't seem to want to let him go. When we actually bought him he didn't play half as well. Bit like Chris lumsdon.

 

Haven't seen anyone mention Wilson did manage us for almost a full year in the 21st century or have we all tried to erase it from memory.

 

Under Ritchie we only lost at home against Donny and then Huddersfield in the playoffs

 

I know I'm being pedantic bit I will say again, Dave Bassett did not manage us in the 21st century.

 

Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story....

You are right of course.

That said the Bassett team was probably the second most exciting team I've seen in my time. Not up there with the Clarke/Hunter one, but a little ahead of the Wilson team. Following on from those I'd probably say the Hill team up to January (largely built by Robins) and the Hecky team up to January in the championship. Similar story with the demise of both of those teams.

Robins is no doubt a decent manager. I'm not sure he made the right decision leaving, but he's back in the same division as us next season.
Will make the season a bit more interesting playing them, Hill's Rochdale & some interesting trips to the likes of Accrington, Fleetwood, etc.

 

oh yeah forget about that. Good idea though lets not get people being defensive over sentiments again.

 

Hill and Davey was better than Flitcroft and Hecky should be either second or third on that list.

 

Tis Hemsworth tyke a tell yer.

 

Robins did a very good job working under a tight budget by comparison to the rest of the league. I was disappointed when he left as it once again signalled we could not compete.
The decsion to remove Bassett was down right stupid at the time.
The play off season under Bassett was thrilling, it's a shame we had to sell off our best players after that and a even greater shame we still ended up in administration anyway.

 

Of course Davey had the cup run but so did Flitcroft and neither of those two could get the team playing like Flicker imo.

 

I though Bassett asked to leave. (Mutual consent ) were we 13th in the table at the time and his heart wasn't in it any more.

 

Well it is how it was presented, my take at the time and obviously a lot of time has passed so I might be remembering wrong, was that we expected another tilt at promotion and Bassett thought that was unrealistic.

 

Too much internet for you mate. Turn it off.

 

I have to say I loved watching that Ritchie team, we were kind of **** and unorganised but just always looked like we had a goal in us, very gung ho at times, we drew fewer games than anyone else that season, that play off final against Swansea was one of our greatest days!

 

He inherited some good players and one of our best in Hignett who along with Barnard carried the team that season. We conceded a hell of a lot of goals and they got us out of jail many times, scoring goals when we weren't playing well. Look what he left us with when Hignett left and the style of football he introduced - one that was doomed for relegation and he was rightfully dismissed. He left the incoming manager in Spackman too much to do in transforming the playing style and he ended up recruiting so many midfield players it was unreal....because Bassett started playing defenders like Appleby in midfield. 1970s manager and why England never progressed as a nation. Like Hill he talked the club down in an attempt to promote his own achievements. We would have been embarrassed had that side got into the premier league.

 

absolutely speechless.....and he wasn't sacked btw

 

Aye, I knew it was something like that. Was Donny in JPT?

 

The half of the season he took over from Hill I agree but his summer and his own start to the season was disastrous. Nobody should be getting hammered first game of the season like we did that day.