Lad & Dad

On the 1st of January 1985 my Dad took me to my first game, Barnsley V Blackburn Rovers (1-1 Owen scored for us) and thus began my continued love affair with the Reds.
For the next seven years I stood beside him on the Brewery five steps up bang on the halfway line (well the first couple of years I was stood on a stool he made me)
Then at the age of 14 I decided I wanted to stand with my mates and went to stand at back of Ponty but that’s a story for another day.
In 1992 two things happened that would ultimately lead to my Dad not going to Oakwell regularly. The first was Tin Oil shut thus my Dad after 17 years as a fitter was made redundant. For a few months football became way down on the list as a priority. The second thing was the Brewery stand was pulled down he tried Ponty and West lower but unfortunately that was him done he’s been twice since but that’s all.
The reason I’m telling you this is that I’m taking him to the game on Tuesday and to be honest I’m a bit emotional about it. He's 67 next month and not in the greatest of health but the fact he’ll be sat at side of me after 40 plus years has got me a bit misty eyed.
Cheers everyone.

 

My Dad took me to my first game in 94/95 when the Ponty was closed and the club were putting away fans in the West Stand upper tier. It was like a training game watching us lose 0-2 to Reading and just ball boys behind the goals.

 

My first season that too, although I didn’t rock up at Oakwell until April.

I hope you have a good ‘un and I hope he brings us luck!

 

Wonderful stuff.
The first game my Dad (and Grandad) took me to was away at Blackburn in 1981, we lost 2-1 to a last minute Simon Garner winner. First home game was a couple of weeks later, a 1-0 win against Orient, with Aylott scoring a couple of minutes from the end. And therein started the regular support.
My own Dad and Grandad stopped going during the Machin era, they were tired of the sterile football but, if I'm honest, they'd fallen out of love with football generally.
I lost my Dad in April 2018 and much as I tried, especially during our Premiership promotion season, I couldn't get him back to a match. His love for Barnsley never left him, he always followed the matches on Radio, but he never made the turnstile click again.
Savour every moment of what your Dad's return to Oakwell brings, it's something I'd love to have been able to do with mine just once more.

 

Fantastic. Hope the lads do him proud.

 

My uncle took me, Easter 79, and I was hooked.
I would give anything to take him to a game now, with a few pints, some food and a decent seat, but sadly dementia is taking hold, which was quite sudden, and I doubt it will now be possible.
Which is a pity ....... my long Saturdays at 57 are all down to those wonderful Saturdays aged 13.

 

By that takes me back. I was one of those drafted in to the Tin Oil to help the workforce with their search for new jobs. Sad time when a local company like that goes under.

 

And that was another disgraceful decision against us by the Efl, refusing to let us keep some standing areas that season.
For me, it was a big reason as to why we possibly didn't win promotion. The lack of fans and atmosphere in the first part of the season cost us some important points.

 

Enjoy the game mate, my first game was also Blackburn at home 0-0 which I think was maybe 84.

 

Brilliant stuff. Barnsley Vs Blackburn was my first game with my dad also - about 1982 ish, sat in the west stand, I changed my team from Liverpool to Barnsley and never looked back! All my family are from Blackburn so had some good banter over the years!!

 

I went to my first game in 1955 as a 6 year old, with my 11 year old brother. We stood down by the wall in the Terrace, near the tunnel. We beat Leeds 2-1 in the opening game of the 55-6 season, just after we had won the Third Division North. I now take my eldest grandchild, an 8 year old. We sit together in East Upper.

 

Blackburn seems to be a popular first game lol.
My dad was never into football, I got hooked after being taken to my first game at 9 years old with a lad on my street and his dad.

 

My first game was at the start of '81, against Torquay in the Fa cup 3rd round.
Remember in the 2nd round, we were the only team to win away at Rotherham that season!.

 

My grandad took me to my first game (Easter 1977, 4-0 v Workington, 2 goals for Brian Joicey, who became my first Reds hero) and to my first half dozen games, before my dad joined us when we played Watford, the year they went up from the 4th division. He said he’d heard all about Ross Jenkins and Luther Blissett and wanted to see them play. He hadn’t been to Oakwell since he was a kid, and told me all about Arthur Kaye, Johnny Kelly and Duncan Sharp. After the Watford game he came to every match with us. Someone shared a video of the 1979 game v Grimsby on Twitter recently. I was 9 and that night was clearly the most exciting night I’d ever had, to that point. The next few years, of course, were amazing.

Then, 30-something years later my daughter started coming with me. The first halves of the matches were brill, me passing on the baton to the next generation of my family. The second halves not as good, as she went down to the front row with her mate. It got us in a bit of trouble when I asked her, in front of the wife, what she had shouted to the opposition keeper, when she leaned over towards him after he went down like a sack of spuds the previous game. She replied that she shouted “get up yer big puff”! After the wife sprayed her mouthful of tea across the table she said “well daddy and Molly say it”. Whoops! I failed, just as David Batty did before me, to explain that in Yorkshire it has nothing to do with sexuality, but she was having none of it and we found something else to shout!

As my daughter reached her teens and started to find other interests, my son got his first season ticket. His first match was when he was a few months old, when the London branch hired one of the posh boxes for old Gerry’s 80th, but he doesn’t remember much about that one. Even though he took the fight for women’s rights a step forward on the tour of the ground. We were in the boardroom and Adrian explained that it wasn’t until the late 90s that women were allowed to set foot in the boardroom. As he said it I turned to see the hungry boy had required his mum to feed him. So from no women allowed to the wife getting a boob out in there in only 15 years!

That first year when I had both the kids with me, so my son’s first season, was the one with the fairytale ending, 2015/16. Actually, to nick a punchline from Dr. Cooper-Clarke, the first half of that season was fairytale stuff too - Grimm. But the boy’s first year as a Reds fan culminated in two trips to Wembley, two trophies, promotion and an open top bus and civic reception. I told him to make the most of it! I have a photo of the kids at Wembley on my mantelpiece, wearing silly hats and grinning like the Cheshire Cat. That is a day that they could use as a yardstick for complete happiness for me. Winning at Wembley with my kids sat next to me. It’s a shame the boy wasn’t a little older, as he would have appreciated it more and would have retained better memories. He’s a mad Reds fan now, and I have to admit that his enthusiasm has kept me interested on more than one occasion, when my interest was slipping. He doesn’t really have much interest in football outside his love of the Reds though, so he’s similar to me now. Totally different to me when I was his age though, when football was everything. I’m hoping he has one of those big grins on his face on Tuesday night, as he desperately wants us to beat Wednesday. His best mate is a Wednesday fan, so the bragging rights of doing the double over them would be heaven for him.

 

Loved reading this.

 

What was it like in those days, being a reds fan in the dark and depressing early-mid 70s ?. I always laugh when fans insist on saying/writing the word Out, after Jim Iley's name lol.
It was before my time as a fan but I always like reading and hearing stories of those days. And then of course, Allan Clarke was signed in '78 and that apparently got the fans and the town buzzing did it.
And the rest is history, I joined in with it all in season 80-81, as a nine and a half year old kid. And those early 80s years under Norman Hunter were absolutely amazing.

 

My dad took me to Oakwell, after I'd been hassling him for ages to go, when Alan Clarke took over and my first match was v York City in 1978 and we won 3-0, and that was that, I was hooked!

 

My first game was in 1961with my dad to see BFC vs Leicester in the cup at Oakwell. I was 7 at the time. My dad all 5'5" was on the Ponty End and probably didn't see much of the game(it was all standing then). I spent most of the match at the end of the steps playing with a keyring my dad bought me.

 

Mine was with my Dad in 1970 - as a 6 year old. A 2-2 draw v Bury. Full of wonder at this enormous ground with the brightest lights I've ever seen. Took my Son to his 1st game V Wolves - a 2-0 win. And have just bought my 7 year old Grandson his first season ticket. His other Grandad is on the Board at Bayern Munich! so there's a bit of competition for his allegiance.

Barnsley or Bayern? No contest.