Bobby Collins passed away

RIP old lad.

 

Sad loss. He always reminds me of what a sad time it was watching Barnsley (as an outsider). I was 18 / 19 and very confused about the politics of the strike and the effect on the town and how Oakwell had gone from hosting 14k regularly for Div 3 matches to hosting half that cos of the strike. There was also the fact that my personal BFC GOD (Norman Hunter) had been dispensed with and as a stubborn teen I was never going to easily accept his successor. My memory is pretty good, though not as sharp as JLWBLs, and I seem to recall start of 1985 season we lost the first 4 or 5 on the bounce ? The fact that he pulled things round and enabled us to finish in a position that these days would be considered a pipe-dream - shows what a fighter he was and I went on to accept him. Hope Barnsley FC recognise his contribution in a difficult time.

Footnote, just looked at his stats and he scored a shedload of goals for a short midfielder (granted mostly in the SPL). RIP Bobby.

 

Cheers for that eyes McNab.

http://bbs.barnsleyfc.org.uk/showthread.php?203227-R-I-P-Bobby-Collins

A manager from the days when we sacked them not because they were crap, but because we didn't win the league! We may have lost our ambition and settle for any old crap these days, but we were a bit up ourselves back then. To be honest, I wish we'd got a similar attitude now. Not that I believe Bobby deserved sacking, but I wish we still thought 11th in the league isn't good enough. Far too many defeatist attitudes about these days - everyone from the board to the coaching staff to the players and down to the fans. We've been programmed to be eternally grateful for staying in this league by the skin of our teeth. An attitude that went in to overdrive when we brought in the Rochdale pair. It shouldn't be like that, we should strive to be better and dream of success. I dreamt about it all the time when David Geddis was banging them in and Paul Futcher was playing the ball out from the back.

Thanks for bringing in some truly great players Bobby and, for six months, allowing me to believe we could win the league.

 

We lost the first 3 mate, but then our next league defeat came on 23rd December. We only lost 2 games in all competitions between 4th September and 23rd of February when Sheff Utd stuck 3 past us.

 

Word is that he (Collins) knew he was for the chop and so let Ian Knight go to Sheff Wed, dunno if it's true like.

We'd been spoilt under Norman Hunter's team and thought we could conquer the footballing world - not a bad attitude to have, pity football's ****** into a cocked hat.

 

Cheers for that ........ I remember it being a dodgy start. God I feel old.

 

Sad thing is, with a bit of luck and a couple of results going our way, I'm pretty sure we WOULD have conquered the footballing world, or at least had a damned good go. There was no better time. Halcyon days.

 

Think you're on about one of the season's under Clarkey's 2nd spell - we lost the first 6, then got our 1st point by drawing against Leeds I think, might have been 86/87 season.