<h3 class="headline">BRING EM ON: BARNSLEY </h3><div class="articleBody" id="articleBody"><p align="center"></p><p align="justify">Barnsley ended a four-year absence from the Championship with a memorable play-off final penalty shoot-out victory against Swansea, here in Cardiff back in May. Despite a promising start which saw them record two consecutive away wins at Hull (3-2) and Colchester (2-1) after we had ruined their opening day by beating them 2-1 at Oakwell, they have struggled to cope with the step up.</p><p align="center"></p><p align="justify"></p><p align="justify">From mid-September their boat began to rock as they went on a barren spell of eight loses inten games. With all of 05/06's good work in danger of being undone, Andy Ritchie was relieved of his duties, to be replaced by his young assistant, Simon Davey after a successful spell in interim charge where he managed to beat Ipswich (1-0) and Southend (2-0), in late November.</p><p align="center"></p><p align="justify">Davey was officially given the reigns on New Year's Eve and an away win at Kenilworth Road and a 2-0 home victory over QPR on Tuesday night have seen them claw their way out of the relegation zone and enter Ninian Park on a decent run of form. Add to that the fact that this week Davey pulled off a coup by securing the services of Hungarian International strikers, Istvan Ferenczi on full terms and and Peter Rajczi on loan until the end of the season, you can see why Tykes fans are beginning to smile.</p><p align="center"></p><p align="justify"></p><p align="justify">Should Barnsley manage to win the battle against relegation it would end a turbulent period in the clubs history, where they have had seven managers in the last six years. Their troubles began when they were relegated from the Premiership at the worst possible time as ITV digital collapsed and the repercussions were the club going into administration on October 3, 2002. A brief attempt to get back into the big time under Dave Bassett stumbled at Wembley's last domestic match, as Ipswich knocked them out of the play-off final in 1999-2000 and they suffered relegation to League One two seasons later as a result of their financial troubles.</p><p align="center"></p><p align="justify"></p><p align="justify">In the close season Ritchie attempted to add steel to the South Yorkshire outfit by way of signing tricky winger Michael McIndoe, Sam Togwell, Michael Coulson and the ex-Celtic midfielder, Colin Healy. The arrival of Stephen McPhail at Ninain Park was a big loss to Barnsley though, that they have since failed to replace. This season's leading marksman is Brian Howard, who scored another vital goal on Tuesday night to see off QPR.</p></div>