That FB group that post 'on this day' results.

Easter Monday 1986 he scored a hatrick on his debut against us.

 

Yeah the Play offs were around then in season '86.
And after we gained a rare win at Sunderland on the last day, they fell into the relegation Play offs and dropped to Division Three (Lg One!).

 

What we’d have given for regular home gates of over 10k back then eh? Who’d have thought we’d have since been to the Prem, FA Cup semi, and so ‘Wembleyed out’ we’d be wanting to sack a manager who’s looking like taking us to our umpteenth playoff campaign?

 

He did a cracking job at wednesday too. Never should of sacked him. I can't believe he's not been in management since

 

Think you may be thinking of Simon Garner who I remember always scoring against us, I’m sure Barker was a midfielder

 

I certainly was meaning Garner…thanks for putting me right

 

Did he play for Blackburn, Shearer got at hatrick at oakwell I think and I went lerds road and he got 1 in front of us it wa that quiet wen he jumped after scoring I heard him land.

 

That's him nice one

 

The miners strike obviously did for us, and several other clubs not too far from here, but it wasn’t the only industry, mainly based in the north, that had huge redundancies. Unemployment was high in the 80s, and this had an effect on football attendances. But it’s another reason that probably had the biggest effect overall, and that’s the hooliganism. Back in the early and mid-80s you could pretty much guarantee trouble at most matches, often on the terraces. On several occasions I’ve seen fans in the opposite direction end kicking off, sometimes only 2 or 3 of them against an entire home end.

As teenagers in the 80s, and as lovers, not fighters (and we weren’t even too successful with the loving!), our eyes were on stalks at matches, so the first sign of trouble we were at the opposite side of the stand. I can remember us moving from our regular spot in the Ponty (in front of the great big hole that the wind and rain rattled through - why did we stand there?!?) to the top corner, ready to belt out of the ground and away to safety, as the final few minutes of the game saw the Leeds fans ripping the fence down to get on the pitch.

It’s said that Gazza’s tears changed football, but there were a lot of factors. Football writing became a bit more intelligent and aimed at a different kind of fan, with All Played Out and Fever Pitch leading the way, the 90s saw deprived areas like ours start to come out of the Thatcher-ravaged years, Gazza’s tears and the World Cup attracted new fans and then the FA capitalised on this with the Premier League and Sky TV. And then the new all seater stadiums again attracted new fans and helped reduce the hooligan aspect, which had started to settle down anyway after such horrific events like Heysel, the Millwall riot at Luton, the Birmingham v Leeds trouble, etc in the mid-80s.

Barnsley’s crowds started creeping up slowly, but it wasn’t until well into the promotion season that we started regularly topping 10k again. And despite all the ups and downs we’ve done well in keeping the hardcore that we have. But rattling around empty decrepit stadiums, watching unappealing football, whilst dodging missiles*, for some, looking out for opposition fans and readying your escape at the end of the game wasn’t much fun.

*when I volunteered as a St John Ambulance cadet in the early 80s, when we had the big crowds, for some reason we started having members stand in the corner between the Brewery stand and the Kop. I recall standing there for 1 whole match and about 10 minutes of another. The whole match was the famous Fulham game, where we went 3 down in the first 6-7 minutes, but then won 4-3. As I recall, 6 of the 7 goals were up the other end, in front of the Ponty. I was much happier when we started sitting in the little dugout in the corner where the disabled stand now is.

But the 10 minutes was a game v Chelsea. There were 3 of us there, basically sat against the wall in the corner. The police had the Chelsea fans 10 yards or so away from the end of the Kop, but there were lots of them there. There was a lot of unfriendly banter (“You’re gonna get your ******* heads kicked in”, etc) and the atmosphere was a bit nasty, when you’re sat in the middle of it, but then came the first missile. A 7” single cut down to give it several points, and it went skimming over our heads into the Reds fans. A few seconds later, it went in the opposite direction. Then it came back again with a few more, and some filed down 10p pieces, and some darts, and anything else the fans could get their hands on. Fortunately for us, the hooligans had good throwing arms, so not much was falling short of its intended target and getting us. But after a few minutes of this we decided to call it a day and walk over to the opposite corner, where the disabled fans were. Nobody ever got put in that corner again.