Barnsley ranked 39th with an average league position of 42.7. Some interesting clubs below us. 'The top clubs in England over 50 years are...' http://www.skysports.com/share/13041555
I keep banging on about this and repeatedly get responses of dampening expectations, defeatism etc. This is the reality of our club. Yes, we've had many seasons in the second tier but the reality is that, on average, we're fighting to hold onto that status. There's nothing wrong in hoping for better. When the stars align we can do better but the reality is that, in general, surviving in the Championship is just about the norm and has become even harder since the 90s. There's nothing wrong in that. My Dad followed them for 60 years and never saw us win a thing (maybe the 3rd Division North once) but he still loved going. He did get to see the Glavin era though. Awaiting the sarcastic "be grateful we have a club to follow" comments.
Scary thing is that, we hit the fire sale button every time we go up and leave us with just trying to survive
Bradford place 57 but can't see Bradford City anywhere. Sounds pedantic I know but it's a matter Bradfordians, in both camps, take seriously!
50 years is the period of time I’ve been watching us. 39th place is none too shabby at all for a club of our size.
We aren't exactly minnows, but are nowhere near giants. We've given English football a massive crop of very talented players, a handful of world class ones too, which is more than can be said of a couple of our neighbours. We probably should've had more seasons in the top flight in our history, but that's how it is.
Not too bad for "Battling Barnsley " methinks. Are we still the longest serving team in the second tier?
Anyone else really disappointed with this? I am as it doesn't appear to represent an average league position for the time I've been watching Barnsley, which is almost 50 years. I can't relate to what @churtonred is claiming at all. And then I thought, 'Actually, I haven't quite been watching Barnsley 50 years'. The first few years out of the 50 I was too young. I didn't see any games in the 72-73, 73-74, 74-75, and 75-76 seasons. Those four seasons are our worst final league positions in my lifetime (I was born in 72) and 4 of the 6 worst in our entire history - 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th in the basement division. They're not representative of the football club and its history, they're outliers, yet they're included in this 50 year average. My first season watching was 76-77 - 6th in the basement division, followed by 7th the following year. The first season I remember clearly is the 78-79 promotion season. We haven't been back down to that division since. Take a 50 year average at the end of the current decade and none of those years in the basement division will be included, and our average final league position and place in this table will both inflate. Since that promotion from the basement division, this is only our 11th season in the third tier, we've spent one season in the top tier and the rest have been in the second tier. And I can assure you, we weren't averaging 2nd bottom in the second tier. Of our seasons in the third tier, 4 have resulted in promotion and another in the play-offs. We've only finished in the bottom half of the third tier twice since our promotion out of the basement division in 78-79 and one of those was only just: 13th in 2004-05. The other, 2002-03, was the year we applied for administration. This current 50 year average is heavily skewed by the worst period in our history that occurred at the very start of the half century. The majority of Barnsley fans won't remember that period and weren't even born. Look again in 2030 and you'll see statistics much more representative of the period most current fans have watched the club, and much more representative of the club's history as a whole.
