West Ham 2 Barnsley 5

I was there and can spot missen on the video..

incredulous celebrations after the goals. Suit Jacket, green wedding present George Best t shirt at the front behind the ref at our pen.

One of the best away nights ever.

 

Early example of Paul Ince acting like an absolute penis on that video.

 

Do you mean when we got the penalty? That was George Parris.

 

No, mouthing off on the second free kick.

 

3rd round used to be brilliant - we packed their away end that day.

 

And then some. We had down the side too. That's where I was sat. Well, stood.

Midway through the first half, Agnew, of all people, came to take a throw-in right in front of us. He did that thing where you raise your hands up to get the crowd going. The singing and chanting had already been pretty loud, but from that point on everyone just went mental. And stayed mental for the rest of the game. I remember the feeling in me when in he did it: Best drug I've ever had. Fcucking Come On! Everyone else felt the same too and it transferred to the players.

Fantastic day that. The FA Cup was a great competition. Some folk would only come to FA Cup games, unless we looked like getting promoted, and the attendances would increase considerably. It's difficult to understand why nobody cares about it any more. A good deal of league matches are totally meaningless, we can neither go up nor down. But every FA Cup match matters, yet folk don't bother turning up.

When I think back to Barnsley games that have really stood out, there are a few league games: Bradford, obviously, Huddersfield 7-1, home and away against Liverpool in the Premier League, but there are far more cup games that immediately spring to mind: The West Ham and Leicester games already mentioned in this thread; the other Leicester game with goals from Archdeacon and Joachim and the penalty from Robinson; the Peter Beagrie magic in the 3-3 draw at Stoke (Pink Panthers and nearly crushed to death) and Cooper's celebration for the winner in the replay; the Neville Southall Everton game (If you've shagged Neville's wife clap your hands); Middlesbrough 2-1 Barnsley when we battered a 1st division team and I saw proper feighting for the first time (Plus Enfield and Rotherham in the same cup run); Swansea, Peterborough, Brighton, Man City and Liverpool in 81; Liverpool and Chelsea in 08; the two defeats at Hillsborough in the early 80s the cheating, robbing, ******* b'stards (that's why we hate you, you silly stripy cnuts); Barnsley 3-2 Man Utd, Barnsley 3-1 Tottenham...

 

The FA making Man Utd opt out, the daft kick off times, (including the final) , money on the PL meaning 'normal' top flight sides take the p*ss with their team selections - Allardyce was a fcuker for that when Bolton were in the PL - they've killed it imho.

There's the odd highlight ad giant killing now - but football's 24/7 so the attitude now seems to be 'so what' ? Which is crying shame.

 

I always get interested in the FA Cup when the draw is being made live on tv and you are crossing your fingers saying "not that one......no, not that one....not that one", willing someone else to get the difficult away tie, until finally Barnsley comes out and it's a home draw. You hold your breath hoping for a good one and then it's not what you wanted, but at least we're at home.

I actually enjoyed the Burton game last season. Nothing nicer than seeing your team get a load of goals, whoever the opposition might be. Shame that so few turned up to watch it.

I go back to the 1960s for my roots and one of the most electric cup ties at Oakwell was Southport right at the beginning of the Thomas and Evans era. Southport were top of the Fourth Division and we were languishing near the bottom, almost dead and buried before the magic pair were signed. The revival was instantaneous and about 11,000 turned up for the FA Cup tie. We beat them 3-1 and we had a new hero in the number nine shirt. He and Johnny Evans made a terrrfic pairing at that level and were acquired from Scunny and Exeter for the grand total of £10,000. I wish there was some footage of that match - I'd love to see some of it again.

 

The video doesn't look like a packed away end.

It says Littlewoods Cup at the start too.

Or are you on about another game?

 

One of the worst things they did with the FA cup was last season, and it went pretty much unnoticed. The cup final was the week after the end of the Premiership season, but 3 weeks after the end of the Football League season. So if a league team had got to the final we would have had a farcical situation whereby they would have had to arrange friendlies, just to keep their players match fit!

 

Can't believe they **** about with it so much and nobody says anything. Well, anything of any consequence.

 

Yes, v Leicester that Jay was on about.

 

Ah, right. I'll keep my nose out in future and live with my confusion (it happens a lot).

 

So did I. Very unusual for us to be so much in control and so comfortable. A very welcome relief.

 

Arr think on sithi.

 

Not bad team considering it contained four players who would end their careers as left backs: Paul Cross, Stuart Gray, John Beresford and Julian Broddle.

 

Never have so few pixels brought back such happy memories. This is the 27-year-old me leaping after the fourth goal. Went to the match straight from work in Crawley with my mate Fiachre, arrived late and found we were two goals down. Brilliant turn around. Fantastic night. BFC produced a video tape which my dad bought for me and which is now in the loft cos I've nothing to play it on. PS: I would make more pixels now, especially around the middle.

 

Hang on, this is turning into the BBS equivalent of Sex Pistols at Manchester's Lesser Free Trade Hall. We can't all have been at West Ham!*

*Actually, I wasn't. I was at Hillsborough (working) for Sheffield Wednesday's 2-1 win over Shrewsbury Town. That was the game where Nigel Pearson had a stormer for Shrewsbury, so Wednesday bought him 6 days later.

 

I'm only messing. I'm still looking for my mate Spartacus in the crowd. I must have watched it ten times without spotting him, before it suddenly dawned on me he might have had some hair back then!