Please dont underestimate just what Andy Ritchie did for Barnsley !

Got a ramshackle team of misfits together and won promotion, then got sacked in November of the following year!
Been maligned ever since, had some proper dogs abuse on here, yet people are fecking crying about what someone says about Flitcroft ! FFS ! [video=youtube;jOAhlzLO5NM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOAhlzLO5NM[/video]

 

His sacking was the start of everything that is wrong at Barnsley. Well it isn't, that started with a 'lottery win'

 

Always remember coming out of pride park that season can't remember score now and a derby fan saying that we were the best footballing side he'd seen down there for a long time. Weeks after we sacked him and have had quite a few numpties since!

 

I think we lost 2-1, but were winning for ages, until Giles somebody did for us.

Some bloke sitting near me got on the wrong side of the stewards, and I remember them throwing him onto the floor before they chucked him out.

 

Giles Barnes.

 

Did we sign/have him on trial at some point?

 

Was at Donny a couple of years ago.

 

Top bloke and did a great job for us. I remember us turning down an approach from wendy for him, then sacking him a few weeks later, twas bizarre.

 

Hassell scored for us in a 2-1 defeat iirc.

 

Ah but he didn't want to spend money.....apparently

Obviously etc.

 

I never realised on the day how many chances swansea had, probably all the beer, fantastic day though

 

One of the reasons Cryne sacked Ritchie, was for giving his opinion that we'd always be a yo-yo team between second and third tiers. If Hill or Flitcroft had said that, this board would have melted.

Don't get me wrong though, I thought his sacking was harsh in the extreme.

 

Andy Ritchie and Rick Holden provided us with a good period of football at BFC.

In fact, FA cup semi-final apart, probably my favourite period since Danny Wilson promotion era.

Ritchie, to me, looked like he was a proper man-manager and knew how to get the best out of the cards he was dealt.

Looking back, we have had some seriously sh!te management since then..........

 

Wasnt it gordon shepherds brainwave?

 

It helped that we had the best central midfield in the division when we got promoted which made up for other deficiencies. I really liked Ritchie as a man and a manager never really understood his sacking other than he was a bit too loyal to those who got us promoted.

Going a whole season only losing 1 game is a good achievement. These days we are lucky to lose less than that in a fortnight.

 

As the pressure was being ramped up on Ritchie as a result of our desperate league position, I remember someone posting on here about first team training sessions. He insisted that on some days they consisted almost entirely of games of head tennis. The intention was always to undermine further Ritchie's position in order to get him out. Did we ever establish the name behind the non de plume of said poster?

 

Think Johnny Coachman (as was) used to take much delight in slating Ritchie & Holden's training regimes.

 

One of many Barnsley managers who shouldn't have been sacked.

Even Simon Davey, probably one of the most hated managers we've ever had, was sacked under ridiculous circumstances. I thought, by the end of the 2008-09 season, his tenure at Barnsley had run its course. He'd kept us up, but it had become obvious that was as much as he was ever going to do. (Most people thought he should have been given the boot long before). He should have been thanked for his services and offered a compensation package. The club decided to keep him, which is fair enough it's their choice, allowed him to oversee pre-season, assemble the squad and prepare for the season ahead. He was then sacked 5 league games in to the new season, just as the August transfer window closed. Bonkers. You either have faith in a manager or you don't. 5 games should never change it. If you have, back him and stick with it, if you haven't release him before he spends the season's budget.

 

please don't overstate it either

We were a bit lucky in the end to gain that precious promotion and not only against Swansea.

We had long periods in that promotion season without wins. We only won 2 in the last 13 league games.

IMHO We were definately heading down when he was sacked.