We get the team we deserve.

Born in the Valleys of South Wales to a Scottish father (Shetlands) and a Welsh mother (Merthyr Tydfil) I moved to Barnsley some years ago.

One observsation of Yorkshire folk is that they at their best in adversity. They can cope when things go wrong.

The opposite of this is that they find it difficult to cope with and acept success.

When the team is playing badly the good folk of Barnsley are vocal - sack the manager/board etc.
When the team play well there is an uneasy silence, they don't trust success.

Do the supporters feel able to cope better with the present dogfight for Championship survival than they would if we were pushing for promotion?

What I wonder is could this 'mindset' affect their attitude to the players etc. and do the players/club respond accordingly?

Cheers

 

I massively disagree...

I think that you couldn't be further away from the mark there.

When we won promotion it took a while for the people in town to get their heads around it and believe that it was happening. Gates were still low at Christmas if I remember right. But when we got promoted there was jubilation in the streets and we all knew exactly what to do. It was magic and everyone was delighted with it.

When it looked like we might go back up with Basset in charge - the fans got behind the team, the gates were good and again, it was as you would expect it to be - a roller coaster ride (at the other end of the table) with good vocal support, and probably a minority of people who disagreed with things surrounding Basset and the way he liked to play football (I remember a bit of controversy surrounding Robbie Van der Laan playing CF).

For me Barnsley fans are much like other fans - up when the team is up, down when the team is down. I just wish that there was more of us (about ten thousand on the gate!).

I think if the players were to look to the fans for 'affecting their attitude' - they'd need giving their P45s.

 

I think in general Yorkshire folk are hard to please

but Barnsley fans have always appreciated good football. In the 30 years I've been watching we are at our most vocal when the ball is on the floor and the players are prepared to give everything for the club earn their crust

 

we got a full house against Bradford....

but the previous week we got 13k for a 4-0 win over Charlton... that was for a team who'd not been out of the top 4 all season playing wonderful football.... the town was full of 'they don't want to go up' voices the same people who'd supported them 'man and boy' when it came to prem tickets

 

Disagree.

When we have success, we're vocal about it. When we're down, we're vocal about it. The problem is definitions and perspectives change. We were cheering like mad getting hammered by Chelsea in '97. Now many people boo when we can't take sides apart who we deem aren't as 'big' as us.

It's not just Davey. This has happened for years. Mind, as Liverpool Red states, we've always been football snobs. We like the ball on the floor. Even though Bassett nearly took us back into the Premier, people never really liked him for the perceived long ball style (and there was plenty of it.) Get a manager who gets us to pass and move - win games well, lose games looking good - we tend to cut them a lot of slack.

 

RE: Disagree.

bang on ............it also helps if we can score a few goals along the way

 

What do you think to the Cornish, the French and Pakistanis?

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Heh heh.</p>