Can we get back to the Passion, Pride, Guts Football

Just read the book 'Life at the top' again, those were the days. Passion, Guts, Pride,
Ok they lacked a bit of skill at times but you would follow them to the end. The following
is an extract about the Liverpool visit to Oakwell when Silly Willy sent 3 off.

Gary Willard,the referee in charge of Barnsley's match against Liverpool, seemed to be a man
tired of the banality of life, a man with an outlandish death wish.

In a game with nothing above the normal level of violence he sent off three Barnsley
players. If the reason for the dissmissals was vague, there was nothing ambiguous about the
actual procedure of sending them off the field. The cards were held up defiantly, victorious
almost,as if he was holding aloft a flag representing a nation as one. The body language
was all wrong. There was no'Sorry son,had to do it'. appologetic smile, or shrug of the
shoulders. It was the showy, bloody-minded sterness, more of 'Get off my pitch you
insolent fool'.

Willard chose precisely the wrong place to stage his three card trick. Barnsley does not
suffer fools and it has a historical mistrust of authority. They are ex-miner and the sons
of ex-miners, once the aristocracy of the working class. They were patronised, told that
too much time underground had made them overfond of baseless conspiracy theories. In the
1980s the pits duly closed and their frustration was played out against lines of policemen.

The football had become a focus for regional pride and naked passion, a two-fingered wave
back to a country that they believed had consigned them to afternoon television and
the twice weekly visit to the job club.

(Y) (Y) (Y)

 

My brother in law was the steward who took willard off that day

Should have done him in the tunnel! Strangest game I've been to .That book is a fantastic read - great insight into our year at the top

 

RE: My brother in law was the steward who took willard off that day

It is. But don't you think that Hodkinson (or whatever his name is that wrote it), is a bit of a ****?

 

Why? nt