Being a Reds Fan

NURSE! NURSE! This person needs help

 

First game back in Division Three following the 67/68 promotion season, when we didn’t lose at home the entire season (see also 2018/19). Something of a heartbreak when I’d never seen us lose. Plenty of practice at getting used to losing since then, mind.

 

My association is also through my late dad. I only became a ‘regular’ about 73/74 those dark days of lower division 4. As a kid I was also a Liverpool fan, most kids at School were Barnsley fans but all had a Division 1 team. I remember standing in the Ponty with by mate we both wore denim jackets that were covered in Liverpool badges. I never went to watch them, couldn’t afford it and my dad wasn’t keen on me going to Anfield with just my mates. By the time I was 17/18 my love of Liverpool was replaced with full loyalty to BFC and by the time Allan Clarke arrived I was already travelling to some away games. Incidentally we won promotion Div 3 the day before my 18th birthday and for my 21st we were promoted to the 2nd division, happy days indeed.

 

Born in sight of the famous ‘V’ floodlights.

As others have said, it was never going to be any other team for me.

My first game was a rearranged game in ‘77 against Swansea. We got beat 2-0 but that was the start of the longest love of my life.

There have been some amazing times, nothing will ever beat that rainy Saturday in April ‘97 and the love continues.

 

My dad worked in the press box.
My first game was mid 70's we lost 0-1 to Workington Town.
Went until dad passed away in 1980. Always followed results

Restarted attending BFC matches with my son 16yrs ago, both been ST holders since then.
Wouldn't imagine ever not wanting to be there, despite living 50 miles away now.

 

Dad took me to Elland Road on 1st March 1975 for my birthday. Leeds vs Man City 2-2 draw. Said he couldn't take me to Leeds every week. Barnsley have a team... Next week was Crewe Alex at home. 1-1 draw. Was hooked from there on... COYRs.

 

1970 V Rotherham. went wi Lundwood crew. not long after we adopted the scarfs round the wrists and thru the belt loops look..thowt we were mint

 

Barnsley fans from surrounding areas are even more special as they could have chosen Leeds or Wednesday but they chose the reds, top fans.

 

It was my destiny to follow Tarn - my grandad walked to Bramall Lane and back for the 1912 Cup Final, Arthur Fairclough is my cousin twice removed, and my dad was at a match the day I was born. We lost, of course!
But it was my late, beloved Auntie Dot (Doris) who took me under her wing and introduced me to the delights of Oakwell as my Dad worked most Saturdays. Dot was a resourceful lady, she was a Land Army girl in the war and for a while post-war, working on a farm near Colchester, and used to tell of the day she took off by train, alone, to Dat London and made her way to White Hart Lane to watch her beloved Tarn play Spurs.
She started taking me darn t'Well in 1960 or 61, we'd go most Saturdays first team one week reserves the next, standing in the Brewery Stand. We were at the FA Cup tie against Luton on 18th Feb 1961, in a crowd of nearly 33000. I had to have been several times before as she'd never have started me off with that one, but that's the day I regard my support as starting because it's the first game I can remember. So 62 years (and counting) ago.
Since then I have, obviously, seen the lot although it took 20 years from the start for me to see anything beyond 3rd and 4th tier football - a long and often tedious apprenticeship. Nowadays my son and I are Ponty End ST holders, over 25 years in the same seats. I love the club, it's like a drug and I can't imagine life without it. I'm in my 70s now and dreading the day when I'm no longer able to make that walk down Oakwell Lane (and back up!) Hopefully theres a fair few matchdays still to come before then.
You've been a wonderful audience, thanks for listening

 

Aye, we won our first 5 games as I recall, so I thought I'd better get myself up to Oakwell for the next game. - QPR, of course we lost...

Edit; memory playing tricks . I think I was at the Plymouth game but getting confused with THAT season when we won the first 5 games then lost at Oakwell to QPR. They beat us 3 times that season (FA Cup as well as league). Proper bogey team....

 

Are you sure? The only seasons I recall us winning the opening 5 matches were the promotion winning campaigns of 1978/79 & 1996/97. Also, QPR were in Division 1 that season.

 

See above, I have corrected the record...

 

That 1987/88 season was the last one wehere we played in the same home kit as the previous season.

 

Thankfully NOT the Shaw Carpets one...

 

You have an incredible recall of obscure facts about Barnsley but that must be the most obscure ever!
I sometimes think I use too much of my brain remembering things from Oakwell from the 70’s and 80’s so that makes me feel a little more normal!

 

I was born on the ponty end
The ponty.... ponty end

I'll leave that there lol

 

There was another little quirk (I think) with the shirts from 86/87 and 87/88. Although the design was the same, I think 86/87 had us with black numbers on the back of the shirts? I can't recall it ever occuring at any other time whilst I've supported Barnsley (from 1980).

 

Does anybody remember Donny Rovers playing in an all brown kit at Oakwell mid 70s?

 

To steal an intro, "my dad took me" to see the reds play Aston Villa where I think we drew 1-1. People were being dragged out on stretchers as we entered the ground. There was a back and forth wave of violence on the Ponty.

I remember their goal but not ours.

The best and worst of football was there in one afternoon.

My dad, born in Fev was a Rugby League man. But he took me quite a few times - especially evenings in a woodbine smelling West Stand with dazzling floodlights on an electric green pitch.

Nowt like it.

Can't deny that I went and watched Leeds in their pomp for a few years. But when Winston Campbell got down on his knees after scoring a goal against them, I knew where my heart had always lain.

 

Correct. And in my very humble opinion, it was one of the best kits we've ever had.