A Thank-You to BFC for a Great Day Yesterday

Disclaimer - this will be a long rambling post and will bore many of you silly but if you have time to read it there may be some parts of interest among the mundane bits....

A couple of weeks back my step-son James received a call from someone at the club telling him he had won the prize for a competition he had entered and subsequently forgotten all about. The prize was for two people to have a tour around Oakwell before the match and then seats in one of the executive boxes. He naturally invited me along as the second person and we both looked forward to what promised to be an entertaining game. We are both season ticket holders but neither of us had watched a match from an executive box so it was going to be a novel experience.

It was the Thursday before the game when it occurred to me that my 7 year old son Jake who is a season ticket holder but only an occasional visitor to Oakwell would have liked to have gone along as well. A quick call to the club and they were very accommodating and generously increased the two tickets to three so that Jake could come along too.

The day before the match I asked Jake if he was looking forward to going (he said he was very excited) and which player he would like to meet given the chance. It's been a while since he last went to a match but he confidently replied 'I'd like to meet Wiseman'. I then had to explain to him that Scott Wiseman no longer played for us because he played for another team now (for some reason it failed to occur to me that he plays for Preston the team we were due to play). 'OK in that case I'd like to meet Perkins instead!'. Perhaps I've failed in my fatherly role of keeping him up to date with the ins and outs at the club?

We arrived at the ground at 12.30 and were immediately taken on the Oakwell tour by Barry Murphy who patiently answered all of Jake's questions as we visited the Directors boardroom (which houses Barnsley's trophy cabinet) and the Directors box in the West Stand. We had time for a quick pit-stop at the infamous West Stand bogs before moving on to the changing rooms where Jake at least had the opportunity of a picture stood beneath Scott Wiseman's shirt. A reasonable second-best we all agreed. A visit to the home changing room gave him a photo opportunity with the match ball while holding Sam Winnall's shirt (Sam Winnall then became Jake's default favourite player). An unexpected visit from a sheepish looking Milan Lalkovic provided opportunity for the first of several great photo opportunities and Milan kindly let Jake have his photo taken with him.

After the conclusion of the tour we were escorted to the box from which we would be watching the match. It was about 1.30 now and we had 45 minutes to kill before we would get the chance to meet the manager! My only slight gripe of the day was that it would have been nice had a complimentary Pukka Pie and drink each been thrown in as part of what was quite a long day... but that's only me nitpicking. I treated me and Jake to a pie and then paid £7.50 for a bottle of cider and a J20 for Jake. I don't think I'm flush enough for the executive boxes at those prices but I suppose it wasn't much to fork out for what would prove to be a great day out.

At 1.20 we were picked up by a guy called Rob who was our designated escort for the day. He lead us in front of the swelling ranks in the away end and down the tunnel under the North Stand (or should I say Palmer Construction Stand?). This is where the day started to become even better. Rob informed us that as part of the prize we would get to meet Lee Johnon before the game. Unfortunately our plans were held up by Clem from The Football League Show who inconsiderately ducked in for a meeting with the manager before us. We floated around in the corridors hoping we might bump in to some players for five minutes without success but Lawrie(?) kindly took Jake's autograph book and said he would try to get all the players to sign it after the match. Very nice of him I thought. At this point Rob returned and announced that Lee Johnson was now free and we could go to his office to meet him. It was now only twenty minutes to kick off.

We entered the manager's office and Lee Johnson was waiting ready to fulfill his obligation to meet us. We all shook hands and introduced ourselves before Lee started explaining that he'd just been putting the subbuteo pieces away. He prefers to use these rather than the round magnetic circles on the whiteboard because it is easier to explain to the players what he wants from them. We discussed the missing Pearson and Scowen and how he expected it to be a very difficult match not helped by their absence. "So we are going 442 with 2 strikers?". "No I learned my lesson on that at Leyton Orient" he replied. "I'm playing Winnall out wide left" he continued "I don't really want to play him out there but I thought f**k it. I want him in the side and I want us to have a good go at them today". At this point he remembered Jake was in the room and apologised for the language. I didn't hold it against him. "Fortune favours the brave"I said. "Yeah I suppose it does" he replied. He must have agreed with the adage because he later dropped it into his post match press conference. We had a good chat a bit like mates in the pub for almost ten minutes before time caught up with us and the manager realised his time might be better spent making final preparations with his team. There was still time for him to have a photo with Jake and sign our programmes. We left his office and both James and I agreed that he seemed a thoroughly nice bloke and that he went well beyond the formal pleasantries that were expected of him.

We walked down the corridor and then unbelievably fate decided to enhance the day even more! We were just walking past an open door when who should walk out of it... None other than Scott Wiseman himself! I temporarily put aside any personal grievances I may have had and explained to Scott that Jake was his biggest Barnsley fan. "I didn't exoect I would have any of those here any more" he said, but to Jake's delight he kindly posed for great photo opportunity number three.

It was now five minutes to kick off and we were invited to wait with the parents of the mascots at the end of the tunnel while we waited for the players to emerge from the dressing room. The Preston team were out first and a few of them seemed rather familiar with the match referee. A bad sign I thought, and some of his decisions in the match seemed to confirm my fears. A couple of minutes later and the Barnsley team emerged lead by Martin Cranie. It was decided that Jake would be allowed to walk out with a player like the other mascots and he was pleased to learn that he would be walking out with the goalkeeper because Jake fancies himself as being a bit handy between the sticks. Jake then spent the next few minutes chewing Adam Davies ear off about something and nothing in his typical way. In fairness to Davies, he made a clear effort to bend over and listen intently to everything Jake was telling him. (Jumping forward 15 minutes from this Davies made a stunning save and Jake is convinced that holding his hand and having a chat with him inspired Davies to pull it off).

Then the music started and it was time to follow behind the players and take the walk down the tunnel and out to the reception of both sets of fans. That was a nice feeling as we emerged out of the tunnel into a relatively busy ground (by this season's standards at least). The sun had even come out to enhance the occasion for us. We weren't sure what to do now but were told we could walk down the touch line to the dugouts. I was keen to get a video of Jake shaking hands with the opposition and wondered down in front of the West Stand fluke a Japanese tourist filming the players handshakes on my phone's video camera. James was a bit more calculating. He waited for Lee Johnson and followed right behind him ensuring that he was in full view of the BBC TV cameras. As a souvenir of the day he has ended up with a cracking Facebook profile picture looking like Lee Johnson's assistant for the day as he pulled a still from the Football League Show footage. He has loved having all his mates saying "I saw you on TV last night". I got to hang around in front of the Barnsley dugout for five mins watching Jake run around the Oakwell pitch like a headless chicken and trying in vain to tackle the ball from the other mascots. I think he'll always be a better footballer in his head than in reality but you can't knock his enthusiasm! We then had photo opportunities 4,5 and 6 with Toby Tyke, Christian Dibble and Sam Winnall respectively before we all tagged along for the sponsors photo in the centre circle. After the photo Jake inadvertently followed the mascots back to the West Stand instead of heading over to the East Stand which meant that we all had the pleasure of running the gauntlet in front of the Preston fans in the North Stand on the way to our seats for the day in the East stand executive box.

Continued...

 

We enjoyed watching the game and it was an interesting different perspective sat behind the glass especially as the box next to us was full of Preston fans. I'll not go into detail about the game other than to echo the views on the forum that it was a generally entertaining match resulting in a valuable and deserved point against a Preston side who looked very dangerous (on paper at least). It was nice to escape the cold of the East Stand Lower for a change but I missed the atmosphere of being out in the stands. I'll probably take the opportunity of upgrading to the hospitality suite in future if there is an offer on and it looks like it is going to be a particularly cold day but I can't see me ever giving up my place in the cheap seats for a full-time hospitality ticket.

After the game we attended the post match analysis in the Legends Suite with Barry Murphy who shared my opinion of the game. I know it will be a regular thing for some posters on here but it was a first for me and I enjoyed the experience. We then got to watch the interview with deserving man of the match (IMO), John O Sullivan. He came across really well and seemed genuinely disappointed to be leaving the play-off push with his new friends among the Barnsley team in favour of a likely spot on the Blackburn bench at best. I must admit to being sad to see him go because he seemed to be getting better by the game and could not be accused of not putting in a proper shift like some bad loan signings we have had in the past (We all know who they were). On his exit from the Legends Suite he was happy to pose for a photo with Jake. If on the off-chance you read this, thanks for that John!

That signalled the end of an enjoyable and memorable day and we left the ground in high spirits. Jake is excited that he has a brilliant collection of photos to show his friends at school tomorrow and if nothing else comes of it, the interest in Barnsley FC of a young, future fan has been reignited. I suspect he will be keen to go to the remaining home games this season but I suppose time will tell.

All in all it was a top day out. I'd personally like to thank Rob, Lawrie, Barry Murphy, Lee Johnson, the players who took the time to pose for photos (even Scott Wiseman) and the various friendly staff who we interacted with during the day for making it such a memorable occasion. We all like to knock the club on occasion but yesterday everyone concerned (and mentioned above) contributed positively to what was a very enjoyable experience. I don't expect to ever get the opportunity again but if I do, three points and a complimentary Pukka Pie would really put the icing on the cake.




Well done BFC!

 

Sounds like your all had a great day . Great prize to win

 

Good read. Pleased you had a nice day.

 

Great read, sounds like you had a cracking day.

 

Glad you had a good day. Interesting insight.

 

Just a few of the above-mentioned photos we managed to get on the day.

 

Is Lee Johnson taller than a Subbuteo player or not?

 

Thanks for this, cracking read, particularly enjoyed Johnson forgetting his audience for a minute!

 

I didn't see the subbuteo players so unfortunately I can't confirm that either way. I can confidently say he is marginally taller than my 7 year old son though.

 

Loved reading that. Glad you had such a good day

 

Enjoyed that read thank you - would have loved to have done that as a nipper

 

Fantastic thanks for that I'm counting down the days till my lad is five years old to get him down to be a mascot. Funnily enough I bought tickets for the Premier lounge for the game against Sheff Utd but decided to go with the option of getting East stand seats instead of watching from behind the glass.