Team of 81/82 vs team of 96/97

For those old enough to have seen both which was the better team?

Also i know they were different eras but when both were at their peak who would have come out victorious?

From memory the best 1 to 11 from 81/82 imo was

Horn
Joyce
Chambers
McCarthy
Evans
Glavin
Banks
Parker
McHale
Aylott
Barrowclough


and from 96/97


Watson
Eadon
Appleby
Davis
De Zeeuw
Sheridan
Redfearn
Thompson
Wilkinson
Hendrie
Marcelle


enjoy

 

Throw in Bassetts team that went to Wembley and you have got the best three Barnsley teams in my 44 years. Hard to pick the top team, but if pushed I would say the 81, 82 team. Great great memories. We all remember Glavin, Banks and McCarthy but the rest were class too, Aylott, Evans etc. Brilliant.

 

Keith Brown from Bassetts play off final team? You sure?

 

I'd say the 81/82 team were better, but not by much. The team played with such confidence and you knew that goals were going to come. They missed out on winning promotion by one game in the end. Had we beaten Norwich at home mid-season we'd have gone up. I reckon that if we'd gone up we'd have only needed to recruit 2 or 3 players (maybe a better keeper, a new left back and another striker) and we'd have easily been able to match most of the teams in the First Division, as we'd proved that season with our League Cup run. There wasn't as much of a gulf in those days. Great team to watch and as a young lad, having started going in 1977 and only seeing us improve over the first 5 seasons, it led me into a false sense of security that didn't prepare me for the next 30 years of mediocrity, give or take the odd season!

 

I'd have to say the 81 / 82 side but it would be a cracking game.

 

He He. You wont believe me when I say this but Keith is actually my brother-in-law. Strange how things turn out. I moved to Scotland married his sister, he phoned me one day and told me he was signing for barnsley. Unbelievable really. He's a good lad. 100% committed and loves his football. I have to be honest I have mixed feelings about that time. I loved it, the inside knowledge, meeting players, I remember drinking in the players lounge after we beat Birmingham 4v0 in the play-off semi etc, but I also got to hear a lot of stuff that shattered my illusions about football. The greed, the selfishness, the back-stabbing etc. Up to that point I thought all footballers were like us fans. But back to my point, aside from Glavin, Hignett was the best reds player I have seen. Then there was Shipps, Bruce etc. It was a good side.

 

I'd have to include Adie Moses in the 97 team. Steve Davis' season and his career, sadly ended early with that dreadful and totally unnecesary tackle by John Spencer away at QPR. Not even booked for that, I would like to think he apologised, but I hold a serious grudge against that player.

It's a nice poser between those two great teams. I saw them both luckily, was very young in the Clarke/Norman era - thought promotion happened every other season and we would eventually run out of leagues to play in!

Smashing teams both and well proud of them all.

 

I have to say that I agree with (almost!) every word you wrote there - I personally would put Clive Baker ahead of Watson just because he was far more consistent for me. You must be about the same age as me because your last couple of lines have a very strong resonance with me although my first game was in 1978 - every season seemed to be a celebration! And, as you say had we gone up in 1982 we would not have been "automatics" for relegation - we could have made made mid-table in the top division with any luck.

The big difference for me between the 81/82 team and 96/97 teams was the fluidity of the team in the former - the teamwork - the confidence playing the ball from the back to the midfield to the forwards. You always knew we would score at some point. It was also the best central defensive pairing I've ever seen at Barnsley in SuperMac and Evans and there was such skill - Glavin, Banks, Barra. The link-up play between Aylott and Parker was fantastic too.

Maybe I'm being overly nostalgic, because the 96/97 team was fantastic too, but I have to go for the team of my youth.

 

It would be the '81-'82 team in terms of the quality of football they played. Had Parker not got injured I think we'd have pushed on for a promotion spot that year and in those days it would have been easier to bridge the gap in class between Leagues 1 & 2.

Can't help but think though that the team was essentially Clarke's team that Hunter applied some final tweaks to. Once he started to build a team of his own it all started to go pear shaped.

 

For me the 81/82 side just edges it.

I wonder if we would have been able to maintain life in Division 1 until the Premier League if we had got promotion that year?

I think for me it was the atmosphere around the ground that made that era better. 15/16,000 at most games.

The promotion season struggled to get 11/12,000 for the most part, although I do remember some great games.