Listening to a report on the radio today talking about Brentford and the guy described them as … "A good solid Championship club" I just thought to myself that's how I want everyone who commentates on football to see our beloved Tarn.. once that's established we can push on and achieve the dream, maybe take this season and next but !!!!
I hope so - that’s the next realistic step. We have lost a little ground in recent years and it is time to make that ground up.
I think with the admin and dropping into league 1 first time round changed peoples' expectancy levels. Fans accepted where the club was at and they lowered drastically as realism kicked in. With this new regime and the club being self sufficient the expectancy levels are slowly rising again.
Agreed. It's been a very long road back from administration, which I don't think we can consider to be complete until we have a couple of mid-table finishes in a row at this level, and actually build a team which doesn't get dismantled to the point of having to start again. The sales of key players have been frustrating, but realistically it's the only way we could have done it. Otherwise, we'd be in the same financial boat as Reading, Bolton, or one of the other basket cases.
I think the club were guilty of playing on the "just be happy we've still got a club" mantra that set in too and this lasted too long. I think we dwelt too much rather than trying to move forward.
I think since administration that we have done about as well as we could do. We avoided slipping into the fourth tier, which looked a possibility in 2003. I remember going to Mansfield & us getting a one nil win, which eased relegation worries. Since then we've never been in that position really, other than after the losing run in the Hecky promotion season, under Lee Johnson. We have had a few high points as a Championship side, but have never established ourselves there, like we were for most of the 80's / 90's. Some of us that remember the 60's / 70's remember how far the club had fallen at that time, with coaches departing from Barnsley to Elland Road.
Maybe for me - its a function of starting to watch Barnsley at the beginning of that long monotonous run in the Championship in the 80's and 90's where we were rarely in relegation trouble and rarely flirted with the play offs. 14 seasons in the same division - 8 times finishing between 10th and 14th. This period solidly set my expectations as a Barnsley fan. If we finish better than 10th in the Championship - I'm happy. If we finish between 10th and 14th - meh! - this for me is our natural barometer position - a good solid championship level club. If we finish lower than 14th I'm unhappy. All this of course is nuanced with finishing better than last year - so this year I'll be delighted with 10th to 14th. Ecstatic with better. I was also of course happy with promotion from League 1. But 2007 to 2014 despite being in the Championship was a very unhappy time as a football fan for me.
And Hillsborough. Can remember getting on one of the specials to Hillsborough to watch Chelsea who were me and my mates second team , Barnsley we’re away but can’t remember where nowadays . We were getting some right stick on bus especially after Hoyland stop in fact I thought at one point we were gonna get a pasting as it was at the height of Football violence . But we never took our scarves or rosettes off and when we got to Wadsley Bridge we were ok as it was teaming with Chelsea fans . We ended up in Kop believe it or not , it was pay on the day and we followed a big bunch of Chelsea Fans who marched straight into Kop Turnstyles full of Chelsea regalia and they let us in .
