I'm a regular reader of this board but I never find time to post, so this hopefully makes up for it... Working in Aberdeen Mon-Fri and living in Glasgow at weekends is hardly the easiest place to be Barnsley fan, although it does throw the odd Old Firm fan when they ask which one of their teams I follow? They're not used to the response of, "I only support Barnsley". With thanks to a Barnsleyworld subscription, sky sports, downloads of football heaven, clippings of the Chron in the post, reading this board and the links, and frantic text messages and ht/ft match reports from my season ticket holding mates just about keep me in touch...it's not the same but it helps. My colleagues have shown slight interest but they don't understand, my girlfriend is getting there but still thinks I've a screw loose. My record this season, in-terms of attending games, if you count the final as a draw, has been Won 2, Drawn 4, Lost 2...not exactly inspiring form... Barnsley 2 Swindon 0 Barnsley 0 Doncaster 2 Barnsley 1 Hartlepool 1 Tranmere 0 Barnsley 1 Barnsley 0 Bournemouth 0 Hartlepool 1 Barnsley 1 Barnsley 0 Huddersfield 1 Barnsley 2 Swansea 2 (AET) Won 4-3 on Pens! ...of course there was also Forest 0 Barnsley 2 and Huddersfield 1 Barnsley 3 on SKY! Thanks to the Glasgow Reds for the company in the Sports Cafe for the Forest game! The play-off 2nd leg, was a brilliant night. Watched from Stadia Sports Bar in Union Street, Aberdeen. I was in the bar at 7pm and made certain that the barman was putting the game on so I settled on a large leather sofa in a depleted sports bar with a plasma screen infront of me. 10 mins into the game (!!!) 4 lads sat at a table to the right of me and I began to realise they were town fans, not exactly true fans if they're 10 mins late for a delayed kick-off match! I kept quiet urging on Reid and co through mumbled cries of encouragement. This turned into a silent cheer, clenched fists and gritted teeth when we won the penalty. The oblivious screams of "cheating barnsley scum" made winning the penalty even sweeter. I stood up as Hayes placed it on the spot, still the Hudds fans infront of me were glued to the screen, as it hit the back of the net I must have shouted the loudest "YEEESSSSSSSSSSSS" known to man, the town fans nearly fell off their chairs with fright! The rest of the night is history, even when their gift of a goal went in the derisory laughing of the terriers fell on deaf ears, I knew we could do it and we did, I was so proud. So onto the build-up and journey to Cardiff, receiving a photo of my ticket, looking at the stadium plan, texting Liverpool, Arsenal and Wolves supporting friends to compare my seat to where they sat, buying a play off final flag on e-bay, planning the route, checking the train times from Newport, looking at hotel prices in Bristol and Cardiff, reading this board but finally our gang of 5 decided on an early start with a designated driver to drive there and back in a day. I drove down to Glasgow from Aberdeen on Weds and luckily I had a meeting in Newcastle on Thursday, so I easily broke up the 389 mile journey, arriving at my parents house at 8pm in the evening! Friday I was a bag of nerves and tried to concentrate on my work e-mails but I couldn't. I took the afternoon off and headed down to the club shop, which only seemed to have duvet covers and baby grows left. I went into town and got myself a red cotton bucket hat from Burtons for the trip to Cardiff with "ENGLAND" cut out on one side and through a joint effort with my mother we cut out "BFC" on the other...a customised hat like no other! Then it was the music for the trip. Downloading Emerson Lake and Palmer's "Fanfare of a Common Man" and mixing it with Timerider's "cocoon" using an MP3 mixer. It got added to my iPod along with various rousing anthems I was ready! I woke at 5am and that was it I was awake my body just wouldn't let me eyes shut! Like a kid on Christmas morning the excitement got the better of me. So my lift arrived, all 5 of us decked out in Barnsley shirts, the flag on the parcel shelf and a red and white scarf out of the window, it was ten past 7 and we were on our way. "World in motion", "Three Lions", "Nessun Dorma", "Dambusters March", "Theme From The Great Escape", "Que Sera Sera" and of course my Barnsley themetune remix was the soundtrack to the way down. It just fills you with pride when you see the Barnsley scarves and flags flapping in the wind as people showed the world that the reds were going to Cardiff. The journey was pretty decent and we didn't stop till Michael Wood services on the M5, for a rip off full english for our journey into Wales. The drizzle started as we hit the M4 and the cries of "4 parnd 90 ter gerrin ter WALES?!!" was heard from numerous cars as we sped on toward Newport. Passing Newport County and parking up in a long-stay in Newport, following the pedestrian signs to the "gorsaf"??!! walking through a non-descript town centre, only the laughs at the bi-lingual signs made it different to any other town. We jumped on the delayed 11:10 along with a few more people decked out in red and white. Arriving at the station the sea of red and white grew and the cries of "YOOOOU REDS" could be heard echoing through the tunnels. Waving at the police cameras to shouts of "smile for the camera"...we marched into Cardiff up Westgate street passing the drizzle and a the odd Swansea fan. We had to find a "Barnsley pub" and fast, we were getting drenched. Then we heard it..."EEEEE-IIIII-EEEEE-IIII-EEEE-IIIIII-OHHHH UP THE FOOTBALL LEAGUE WE GO"...Yates's it is then! The usual faces were there, this was it we were staying in here for a couple at least. Heading upstairs onto the balcony was a good move as we could get some fresh air and soak up the passing atmosphere. I saw Darren Gough and shouted "where's your Tottenham shirt Darren", it made me feel better, I did read an interview with him once that said he was a Spurs fan, sorry, you're from Barnsley lad! The outside balcony had great acoustics for the odd "ei-ei-ei-oh" chant but it was spoilt by some idiot aquascutum wearing 16-18 year olds, they’d obviously had been drinking too much panda shandy on the bus on the way down and caught the attention of the "Heddlu" outside. We moved on as these idiots tried to throw plastic pint pots on the passing Swansea fans. I'm glad we did move on as we got to experience the City Arms where a soaked Harry Gration was trying his best to avoid the drizzle by interviewing fans through the packed pub's window. "Calendar-la-la-la, Calendar-la-la-la" and "you can stick your rugby league up your arse" were of course welcome greetings from us to the West Yorkshire biased Look North crew! A 'cosy' little pub was made even cosier as beer bellies squashed past beer bellies to get to a pint of Brains smooth, quite nice really. A better back catalogue of songs was heard in this pub; "We're by far the greatest team the world has ever seen" "We are the Barnsley boys, and if you are a Wednesday fan..." "We will follow the Barnsley, over land and sea" "We're going up, we're going up, we're going, Barnsley's going up" I even tried to launch a new one... 1-0 up, 3-2 down Peter Jackson is a clown With a nic-nack-paddy whack Give a dog a bone Andy Booth can F**k off home 1-0 down, 3-2 win Andy Ritchie is the king With a nic-nack-paddy whack Give a dog a bone Peter Jackson can F**k off home ...it almost caught on but by the 4th pint my throat was packing up! Another crack at "You all live in a principality, a principality" was also a favourite from the day! Taking our seats at half two...we were in the Gods, U38 or summat, level 6, jeez, I thought the san siro was bad! Decent view all the same! The atmosphere was fantastic, the Brazil, England, Barnsley, Yorkshire and Toby tyke flags were waving in the air. I knew this was going to be tight. The game is almost a blur. Kay barging into Rory, Rory standing on Kay's foot. Howard's shot, how did he save that? Then Hayes, the goal, yesssss! I had a feeling then we were going to do it. I have composed a letter to the Football League telling them to test Fallon for performance enhancing drugs, surely it wasn't his overhead kick that went in. To be fair I think he was playing for us at a difficult time, with Kevin-Jigsaw-Betsy as a partner...but still unbelievable. Then it was Colgan's impression of cat flap hands...signalling a toilet break. I never usually miss any of the game but my bladder and I had to re-group. I still thought we had the belief to come back. The second half...well I can't tell you much aside from a steward confiscating a air-horn and Nardiello's free kick...what can you say. When Trundle came on we gave him too much room. Let’s beat this media darling! I thought Tonge was going to get an early bath, and I could tell Hassell was struggling. And then, oh, Reid's header, how did he miss, just how did he miss? Penners it was then. I was confident, their goalie looked dodgy and I knew Ritchie had them practising penalties, plus we'd beaten Preston with a shoot out. "YORKSHIRE, YORKSHIRE, YORKSHIRE"...we scared them, we must have! Then when Colgan saved, I couldn't believe it, for a split, milli-second, my brain was thinking, "just check"...but after that I was on the floor, jumping around like I've never jumped before. I can't compare it to Marcelle's goal against Bradford because that was like a precise moment when you knew we were up, but this, jesus, this was pandemonium! It's just like watching brazil, well not quite but that's our song and we sung it loud and proud! We were up that's all that matters. The play-offs, wow! We've had the downs at Wembley and the ups here so...I can now say they're a good thing. I don’t know if my blood pressure could say the same, but what a day. One I'll remember for the rest of my life. To see us lift a trophy was brilliant too, I know that's not the best trophy in the land but it means a lot to see us lift silverware! So conversations on the way back, "name all the clubs in the Championship"..."will we sign Chopra?..."will we release Tommy Wright?"..."What's Taggart doing these days!". We've a young squad, in my opinion we need an experienced centre half, a strong striker and a holding midfielder. What ever happens it will be tough next season but by eck we deserve it! We’re back where we belong. Thanks to Andy, Gordon, Patrick and the squad! Up the reds.
Good post mate. Enjoyed reading it.</p> Our lot was in the City Arms the same time as you(we thought BBS crew was meeting there),I got loads of groans at the bar when I ordered 15pints of fosters , a pint of tetleys and half of coke, </p> It was a good atmosphere in there with plenty of singing.</p>
Captures the day nicely I'd say for a first post that will take some beating - hopefully now you've broken your duck you may increase the frequency a little
Thanks people, I'll try and post more. One thing I'd like us to do is to raise the atmosphere at Oakwell and increase the variety of songs. Site admin, don't know if it's possible to create a sub-forum for songs sung by reds fans and suggestions for songs? The songs and chants definitely add to the memories and add to the team's performance. I know it's hard to compare us to teams like Manchester United and obviously people become a lot more creative touring europe rather than going to Gillingham away but I know they have a fella called Pete Boyle who composes songs, circulates them on the net and then makes them catch on at the Old Trafford Wetherspoons near Lou Macari's chippy by standing on chairs to launch the songs... http://www.peteboyle.co.uk http://www.red11.org/mufc/songs.htm http://www.footballchants.org United have got one of the best back catalogues, but so have we. That atmosphere in Cardiff was superb and we can make it better by singing and encouraging more people to sing. We need to channel the energy and rage of the morons away from "town full of pakis" etc to chants into something that gets behind the club, shows the wit of Barnsley fans off and ensure that we are welcomed everywhere we go. Up the reds and the red army!
Reight enjoyed reading that. It's funny how bits keep coming back to me. Your post reminded me of the rivalry between Kay and Fallon which I'd forgotten about.