Happy Birthday Norman Hunter

Arguably had Derrick Parker not got injured that team stood a great chance of going up and in those days the financial gap between teams in the then League 1 (now the Premier Division) and League 2 wasn't as great as it is now so we might even have prospered in the top flight. We never really plugged the gap that was left when Parker got crocked and we fell away at the end which was a shame because, as others have said, some our football that season was sublime.

 

My dad says that team was the best he’s ever seen.....one story he loves telling me was a lads holiday to Ibiza one year, he said the whole boozer was signing ‘Norman Hunters red and white army’ for a good half hour.....does make you wonder if we would’ve cracked the big league if we would’ve established ourselves??

 

I agree with you about Parkers injury , which as I remember it , was at Hillsboro & we were 2 nil up when they did him & we ended up drawing 2 v 2. He was running them ragged when they decided to crock him. Unfortunately , we did not replace him until late in the season with Alan Birch, who was a good player but we just missed out

 

Didn’t Leicester go up. I remember a game towards the end of the season at Oakwell we lost 2-0 to them. Ian Banks had a penalty saved at 1-0 and that seemed to scupper the promotion push.

 

No. The teams who won promotion were Luton, Watford & Norwich. We lost 1-0 at home to Norwich in the February. Had we won the game, we'd have won promotion instead of them.
Leicester won promotion the following season.

 

That’s where I’m getting mixed up. I put it down to age!

 

I love the line in the article

"Barnsley first season in the second division in 22 years"

And some folk on here think we've got it bad nowadays!!

 

Dunno if you have seen this article from the season before team that's only a few months old.....

https://www.theleaguepaper.com/feat...-barnsleys-division-three-runners-up-1980-81/

Interesting to see what guys from before my time have been up to since they retired from professional football. How times have changed, as with all the money about these days most will be able to retire and never have to work again.

 

Didn't we lose a Good Friday game away at Grimsby during the run-in? Having been 2-0 up at half time?

We missed out by four points, our goal difference better than Norwich who claimed third place, and as @JLWBigLil says earlier, our 1-0 home defeat against them effectively the difference between 3rd and 6th place. That Norwich defeat was in a strange part of the season for us, we went five without scoring, really unusual for us at the time, losing 3 of them. Finished strongly, winning 8 and drawing 4 of our last 14, that Leicester defeat the final nail in the coffin.

Magical time as a kid though.

 

Stay tuned!

 

I think we would with that team

 

Definitely the best season with the exception of the Prem year, fantastic times and Big Norm was a brilliant manager, always had time for the fans, I remember he used to pop into the old social club behind the Ponty after games to say thanks to the fans.......great bloke

 

Parker and aylott what a strike pairing that was,best I,ve ever seen watching Barnsley.

 

That was 1981/82 season. First season in the 2nd division for 22 years and we finished 6th, also beat 3 1st division teams in the League Cup. One hell of a season.

 

I agree with other posters that the Hunter side was the best Barnsley side I've seen. Pure class.

Happy belated birthday Norman.