has mansford made a statement about last night's embarrassing fiasco

Re: the embarrasment should not be BFC's

When I went to get tickets a couple of weeks ago, I asked for some in the Ponty. I was informed they had not been given permission to open the Ponty, and to try next week, as by then it might have been given. And, like others, I was informed it was reserved seating.

This does give the impression that BFC were not in overall control of the game, and that it was the FA pulling the strings.

If this also included the catering etc, I don't know, and neither does anyone else on here. Whoever was in charge of catering really does need hauling over the coals because it sounds a right ****-up.

Did anyone see a program seller? I expected to see the stands as per match days outside the Ponty and on Grove St, but didn't see any. If the club were running the show, I would have expected them to be on display.

 

Do said family not have access to beverages outside of Oakwell? What do they do the rest of the time? Took my little girl we came armed with fruit shoots. She Was disappointed when she couldn't have chips but perked up when I gave her a banana.

All the posts on here suggest it was an embarrassment to football and that we should never attempt to stage another game. Therefore the views of the wider football public would seem to be important to give us a little perspective.

 

Re: the embarrasment should not be BFC's

The usual programming sellers were in the usual places from what I saw. At the bottom of the carpark, same places inside the ground too

 

They are the wider foot all public. Theyre not Barnsley fans but attended the game. By the way you're not actually allowed to take fruit shoots into the ground are you?

I don't think the family did anything wrong in expecting to be able to go to an event that advertised it sells food and drink and be able to buy something to eat and drink but you seem to be claiming that somehow it was their fault

 

I'm not saying owt of the sort I'm suggesting that the average human may be able to live for more than an hour and a half without food or drinks and perhaps it's not the end of the world if they have to wait 90 whole minutes to get some. Unless your Donny family arrived from the Sahara they are unlikely to have started hallucinating from thirst. So I was attempting to find out if they had no access to drinks outside of Oakwell making their desperate plight of having to drink water even more harrowing.

 

Wether you can survive or not without food for a couple of hours is not the point is it...

The point is and will remain so it was an utter shambles. There is no reason except stupidity that the east srand had sold out of cold beverages and food by half seven.

Those in the east had a fair ly warm efening sun on them so a nice chilled drink would go down well..

I left after 50 minute's. I wasnt the first. A good seventy left before I did. As I went up grove street there were folk leaving in good numbers from both north and ponty.

These weren't just beer monsters but a mix. Talking to folk who had come from Burnley and derby and were leaving cos of tue lack of catering options.

Folk will say fa rented the ground and had a massive influence on ticketing but ultimatley the club are responsible for the actions of their agents. In this case the catering.

 

Pampered generation.

Expecting anything beyond water in Barnsley...... these people....travelling from all parts of the country for a showcase match...wanting food and drink.

Don't they know we have a stereotypical image to live up to? One of a club that cares little for the paying public, that's stuck in a backwards area of grinding poverty. The poorest in Monty Python's Four Yorkshiremen sketch.

Everyone who came will be desperate to repeat their experience.

As ambassador for the area - well done BFC!

 

90 minutes? You are aware of the fact that most people will have set off to oakwell between half 6 and 7 and not got home till 11pm aren't you?

 

Me too. Seems like a cracking bloke does Jimmy, but don't get his point on this at all. Having said that, I've come out with some right **** on here, so I should probably shurrup.

 

Re: the embarrasment should not be BFC's

It's a good point, which suggests to me that tyrone1 is probably right and Ben Mansford should explain what happened. Maybe the club are receiving criticism when it was nothing to do with them.

Personally, if I were in Ben's position and I'd read the criticism since the game, I'd be making it abundantly clear exactly what Barnsley FC were responsible for, if they were not responsible for the things that went wrong. I'd be canny enough not to point the finger at the FA, but I'd make sure I was deflecting criticism away from the club. The fact that he hasn't done this does make me wonder.

 

I'm not saying you shouldn't expect to be fed and watered. It's fair enough. And I was fairly clear that our organisation was poor and that we couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery stand. Just it's about perspective it's not the end of the world. I was at a gig last night central London venue. After the support I queued for 35 minutes for a drink before giving up. After the main event I queued again for about 20 minutes got to the front to be told that they had no dark rum and that the Staropramen was off. Now I was mildly irritated but it didn't ruin my enjoyment of the gig (the band had already done that).

But then again I've never really understood why people make fuss about refreshments I saw an adult having a full on tantrum at the cinema the other day because they had run out of hotdogs. Ironically they were doing this at the side of a picture of a child crying on a Save the Children campaign poster. Like I said it's just perspective. We put on a sporting event which was delayed beyond our control but otherwise went well. There is a malaise at Oakwell. It's been there since the franchising out of various bits of the services that we offer. The club have to an extent identified this and wish to regain control to improve services (and maximise profits) the other night put sharply into focus the work that still needs to be done. We have a long way to go. At the same time we just need to acknowledge that accept it and move forward in a positive manner not indulge in another round of hand wringing.

 

Re: the embarrasment should not be BFC's

Well.i bought from.The same.guy who wad stood in the same position as always

 

Re: why should he make a statement ???

If that's true we are hardly in an hurry to deflect blame off ourselves, which makes you think FA put us in charge of making sure everything run smoothly. If we aren't to blame for the shambles in our own ground i'd have been rushing out an official website statement by midday yesterday to say so instead of letting it drag. We've just hosted hopefully lots of our future international stars in their last warm up game before the second biggest tournament they play in. This BBS should be plastered with loads of posts about the match and yet it's other things we are talking of.