How did some of you older fans feel around the time building up to the promotion to the premier League season and Half way through the season etc... I was only 5. More to the point. When did you start believing? I'm asking this because I still want to see this again in my life time but I feel the expectations are completely different now to them days...
Sheffield United away for me. John hendrie last minute winner. Think we briefly went top. I started to believe something was going to happen
Its funny you say that, I was watching the Ytv special about our promotion, just a few days ago. Wilson and Redfearn said that we had a good pre season. And thoughts of possible promotion, happened after the very first game away at West Brom.
I was young but when I first starting going in 00 01, I watched dvds on it and thought of us as a massive team and expected us to do well most times. Disappointment from then lol
I started to believe when the ref blew up for full time at the Bradford match. Although I do remember saying to my wife that it could just be the year as I constantly refreshed ceefax to see that John Oster had scored for Grimsby I think it was at Wolves meaning that a win over Bradford would be enough.
After the win at WBA. We were so much better than them it was unreal. I remember being mocked by friends and at work for believing we'd go up after that day, but I didn't care.
I couldn't believe how well we started, we were top after 5 or 6 straight wins. But Bolton with Gerry Taggart, showed themselves as one of the favourites, and from Christmas onwards, they were deserved champions. But that runners up place was available, and we were battling for it with Sheff Ure and C.Palace and Wolverhampton.
I came to my first Barnsley games as a young teen in the 1996/97 season. A friend’s dad had heard good things about the team and wanted us to come along and see a local team with plenty of potential and a good atmosphere. Oakwell was so loud and bouncing back then - it was a great place to come and feel part of something. Until then a Man Utd fan (sorry uncle), but who never got tickets; seeing Barnsley play was a lot easier, and to be honest a lot more compelling straight away. Perhaps the naivety of youth, but we genuinely came to each match expecting to win every game. We went to every game home and away in 1997/98, and I was a season ticket holder every year until I went away to university.
4 league games in. Man City 1 Reds 2. I thought then we might be in with a shout. Confirmed something special might be on the cards when we demolished Stoke 3-0 at home the next game. Fantastic team performance that night.
Think it hit me at the Charlton game we could do it and the next home game v Oldham we had 17k - think people were desperate to get a ticket for the Bradford game - ticket stubs and all that. Can't remember being as nervous at a game as I was at Bradford game- that went when Clint scored his goal. Hugging random strangers around me and grown men in tears- some day
Those were the days, drove the wife barmy that night switching to ceefax every two minutes in the end see just said you might as well just leave ceefax on so I did.
I thought we might blow it at the end of Feb, when Wolves did us 1-3. And the 1-1 with Swindon in the fog also added to the doubts. But they were demolished when we did Sheff Ure just three nights later, live on Sky. Easter was huge as well because we won both games. And on the day when we thrashed Charlton 4-0, Wolves blew it away at Reading lol. Mark McGhee had been mouthing off about Reading, his former club. He should have kept his gob shut!.