But I read this Board daily, and like the majority of posters on here, I am hurting big time. Never in all my years of watching the Reds and supporting 'Barnsley Football Club' have I ever felt so 'unconnected' to the Club I love. I started following the reds in the Sixties when my Mam would give me and my brother half a crown to go to the match. Once we had paid the entrance fee and the bus fares we had some change left and we could spend it how we liked. We would fall out abart it, sharing a scarf that me mam had knitted for us, she always meant to knit two but only got round to knitting one and it caused arguments every match. We would swap ends at half time, collect autographs in old exercise books and we went every single week rain or shine. First team one week , Reserves in the Central League, the next. Those were the days, I watched us get promoted under Johnny Steele and was on the pitch cheering his name on promotion. I fell in love with the Club and have been in love ever since. As a Club, we always found the passion to rise above the patronising sneers like in the Premiership when we got relegated, one of the headlines said: "They Return From Whence They Came!", Like Gradgrind, as if we all lived in a dark, coalfilled, cobbled wilderness! I still have that headline in one of the Premier scrapbooks I kept. But we battled, we fought, we scrapped and got results and when we did , the feeling meant more than anything in the world, because we were Barnsley FC and teams thought that they had the right to just turn up and collect all three points. Now, I do not feel a part of the Club I love anymore. I still have a season ticket and attend matches home and away, I'm off to Peterborough on New Year's day, but I don't feel valued as a supporter any more. I don't think the club cares. That's the feeling I get. No one listens to us the fans, if they ever do, things remain the same. Awful catering, TVs not switched on because someone can't be bothered, emails aren't answered and the club has sold out to everything that matters. I have never felt such antipathy towards a Barnsley Manager as I do for the current incumbent. Spackman was my most hated, but this manager with his cockiness and swagger and boastful soundbites makes me actually feel quite violent. The writing was on the wall for me when he first arrived and started to denigrate the club I love. He has deliberately set out to reduce expectation to an all time low so that we are losing fans by the droves week in and week out. It all feels so negative and so hopeless and so very much "What's the point?" The game is simple, play players in their proper position, play with width, attack, attack , attack, stop showing teams so much respect, get in a proper defender and stop playing little favourites who add nothing to the team. The football is boring me rigid, I can't listen to the Manager anymore and whilst not doing so, I see my beloved BFC slipping into League One, with, as it seems, only us, the fans that care. The final straw for me was reading Fired's and Stahlrost's comments this morning and I concur with Redstar, nothing, but NOTHING is ever going to change with the present Owner/Board set up. It's heartbreaking it really is.:frown::frown::frown::frown::frown: COYR!
Nice to hear from you, Tina Haven't seen or heard from you in ages. Will we see you at Peterborough on Tuesday?
this post saddens me when a gal like Tina is this low about the Reds then I realise that there is something vastly wrong at Oakwell. It will change Tina, it HAS to change.When I do not know, but it simply must. On a lighter note I hope you and yours had a tremendous Christmas away from the football side of things and I hope you have a great and happy New Year XXXXX Baz
Re: Nice to hear from you, Tina Nice one. I'll be there with Turvey and Lampy. We'll keep an eye out for you. 2012 has been largely **** and I'm mentally lumping Barnsley's travails in with the general malaise which will be my resounding memory of the year. Things will pick up in 2013, I'm sure of it. Starting with 3 points from London Road.
Welcome back Tina. You have summed it all up. Long term supporters feel alienated by the club, I certainly do, it is a tragedy the direction this club is heading.
