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Town has a long history of games against the Tykes beginning when the Terriers entered the League in 1910. Barnsley is a much older club than Town having started in 1887. The first ever game took place at Oakwell on 17th November 1910 when Town won 2-1 thanks to goals from Richardson and McCubbin but the game drew the poorest ever gate for a Town v Barnsley match, only 2,000 (estimate). The return fixture on18th February 1911 saw Town complete the double with a 2-0 win. Jee and Macaulay scored watched by an estimated crowd of 8,000. For the remainder of Town’s second division career, which lasted a total of 6 seasons, the Terriers won every home game but managed only 2 draws and 3 defeats in the next 5 seasons.

The next league meeting came in Town’s one season back in Division 2 in 1952-53. This time Town won the double again with a 6-0 thrashing of the Tykes at Leeds Road (Glazzard 2, Metcalfe 2(1p), Davie and Quested) watched by the best ever league gate of 33,157 which was the third best home gate of the season. Town won the return match at Oakwell 4-2 thanks to goals by Cavanagh 3, and Glazzard. This match drew the best ever away league gate, 28,728. The teams met again in 1956-57 when Town were relegated back to Division 2 and once again Town won the double with a 2-0 home win and a 5-0 triumph at Oakwell. The Tykes finally won at Leeds Road the following season handing Town their biggest home defeat by the same 5-0 score by which Town had won the previous year away. This match drew the best home gate of the season, 21,662. The return fixture saw Town win 3-2. Next season saw the Tykes drop into Division 3 and it was to be over 20 years before they made it back. Each team won at home Town 2-1 Barnsley 1-0. The day before I went into the army for National Service I was at Oakwell to see what was to be the last Division 2 game for many years. On the day the Tykes lost 3-1 to Leyton Orient.

The teams did not meet again until Town completed The Great Slide into Division 4. Four seasons saw Town win 3 at home against 1 loss with a 1-1-2 record away. Barnsley made back to Division 3 a year before Town and we met again in 1980-81 both teams winning 1-0 at home.

We next met for 5 seasons in Division 2 during which the Tykes did well at Leeds Road where Town could muster only 4 draws following on from a defeat in 1983-84. At the same time Town had their most successful period at Oakwell gaining a 2-1-2 return.

The next 5 meetings came in Division 1 with a one season break when the Tykes made it to the Premier League. Town had only modest success at home 2-2-1 and a disastrous 0-0-5 away record during which Town were outscored 5-20. We shall not likely forget the almighty thumping we received at Oakwell in 1998-99 when the Tykes won 7-1 and later earned their first double with a 1-0 victory at the Mac.

The next games came in the relegation season of 2002/03; surprisingly Town won both games 1-0.

2004/05 saw the Tykes get a fairly easy double over the blue and whites, winning 2-0 at the Galpharm and 4-2 at Oakwell, but the next season Town scraped a point at Oakwell with a last gasp GTF equalizer in a 2-2 draw and then won the home fixture in front of the biggest crowd of the season (19,052) to that point 1-0 again thanks to GTF.



They met again in the play-off semi final and the first game of the play-offs was a great match. Barnsley played its part but was second best on the day and GTF did his usual thing and scored the only goal of the game and thus notched his second winner against the Tykes. In the home fixture Town was outplayed and outthought and lost 1-3 with Worthington scoring for Town in the losing cause.

In 2012/13 we met again. In November Town went to Oakwell having lost the last two away games while the Tykes were struggling near the drop zone. New loan boy Church combined with Beckford for the latter to score the only goal in a 1-0 win which was somewhat scrappy and nervy towards the end. The return match was on the final day of the season. What drama, twice the Tykes took the lead but twice Town pulled back through Beckford and Vaughan. Throughout the game first Town and then Barnsley occupied a relegation place but with about two minutes of stoppage time left other games went well for both teams and both survived and both sides just played for the draw. The game drew a season high home gate of 21,614 including about 4,000 Tykes fans.

In the FA Cup Barnsley have been in complete control with wins 4-3 at Leeds Road in the 3rd Round in1946-47 (39,944) and 1-0 at Oakwell (29,149) after a 1-1 draw at Leeds Road (44,761) in the 4th Round in 1960-61. This gate, apart from being the highest ever to watch a game between the two teams was only about 400 less than the crowd for the 3rd Round replay against cup holders Wolves. Town won that game 2-1, the first ever under floodlights at Leeds Road. The last cup meeting took place in the 1st Round in 1977-78 at Oakwell when the Tykes won 1-0 (9,579).

In the League Cup Town won in the 1st Round in 1975-76 2-1 (4,200) at Leeds Road and 1-1 away (6,043). The Tykes got revenge in 1995-96 in the 2nd Round. Town won the home leg 2-0 (8,264) but got well beaten 0-4 in the return leg (8,192).

Gates have been fairly good and only once has the home total been under 7,500. Only 6,864 watched the 1984-85 encounter which ended up 1-1. Three times the home gate has been the season’s best, twice second best and once third best. Strangely the gate of 11,659 in 1976-77 was beaten only by the game against Cambridge United which drew 11,829.


In 2013/14 Town went to Oakwell on 31st August to play a Barnsley side which had conceded 6 goals home and 6 goals away for only 1 point and bottom place. Town was undefeated in 5 games in all competitions. The obvious happened. Town did not turn up and were 0-2 down at half time. A bit better in the second half but a Vaughan goal was the only reply and so the Tykes won 2-1. So now we meet again at the MacGalphSmiths against the Tykes who currently sit 23rd and looking likely to go down. Away from home they have been poor recently. In reverse order the results have gone Wigan 0-2, Doncaster 2-2, Wednesday 0-1, Birmingham 1-1, Leeds 0-0, Burnley 0-1, BHA 2-1, Millwall 0-1 1-3-4 5-9. Town at home have a record of 4-1-3 10-9. The bookies favour Town. So it is a home banker, but we are talking about HTAFC and we know that games rarely go according to plan. The Tykes have a fair record at our ground this century 2-2-2 8-6. Remember Town has failed to score in the last two home games and conceded 5. Vaughan is out, again, Holmes has gone on loan, Wells has not scored for a while and chances have been missed with monotonous regularity. I have very little confidence in the blue and whites just now and feel that it will be tough just to earn a draw. 1-1 the final result.

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