I don't post much these days but yesterday urged me to get typing so here goes: Yesterday, how I saw it Having recently woke up from a mammoth sleep and trying to decide whether or not yesterday actually happened or not I thought I’d have a type about yesterday. Was working Friday night, got home around 2am. Tried going straight to bed but couldn’t sleep, managed an hour and got up just after 4:30am. Arrived at Oakwell at around 6am as my Dad wanted to be there early! Got in the queue for the coaches quite near the front and by around 6:45am the queue was unbelievable. Snaked from behind the East Stand all the way through the main car park and almost out of the main gates. Credit to the fans for organising themselves and queuing patiently in line, sometimes single file!! No one at the club turned up to organise until the coaches arrived! Anyway, we were off at 7:15am. All 40+ coaches. Very tired by this point but the half way stop at the services sure woke me up! Their must have been a thousand fans there! Plenty of people selling scarves, flags, hats, badges, air horns etc the noise was fantastic and that really got the adrenaline going for the rest of the journey! After a couple of long queues we eventually arrived in Cardiff around 1:15pm so the journey was 6 hours. Off the bus and then just sort of followed everyone else as I didn’t realise the stadium was so literally just dropped in the centre of Cardiff like that! Walked through the city streets of Cardiff which were packed and buzzing with Barnsley fans drinking, eating, singing, hugging, chatting etc Their was a real buzz. We ended up walking round in a massive circle and then suddenly the stadium was there. Outside it didn’t look very spectacular. Looked fairly small as you could only see a very small section. Didn’t see any Swansea fans, just a sea of Red & White. Nipped in for a couple of beers across from the stadium at a bar called Pica Pica or something?! Soaked up the atmosphere outside and generally got soaked! Then into the stadium around 2:15pm. Got misen a program and made my way up to block M2. Walked up the steps and into the stadium. Awesome. Our seats were fantastic, three rows from the gangway and seats at the end of our row. The view from here was awesome. The place looked massive and the closed roof was stunning. Our fans all packed in together were a sight to see. A sea of Red with thousands of waving flags. The noise was surreal. I could hardly hear what the fans at the opposite side to us were singing. I could not hear the Swansea fans at all hardly. The closed roof created a surreal atmosphere and it seemed like their was a constant wall of sound, quite claustrophobic possibly for the players? Every sound drowned out another as their was nowhere for the sound to escape. The noise was unbelievable. The marines did a great job on the field with the flags and the build up was immense, the explosion when the players come out that combined the explosion from the fans, the noise, the colour, the fire. It was awesome. Thoughts on the game? We started very brightly and obviously when Hayes got the goal it was fantastic but I knew Swansea were such a threat that they would come back. I was one of the few that didn’t fancy Swansea in the final, would have preferred one of the other teams down to their decent ability on the ball and their impressive forwards. When Rory equalised (obviously) I couldn’t help but think how smug he is. Always was. Very smug of his own ability and maybe sometimes a little over confident of his own ability. But he has done well to get there and why we had two men going to try and beat him at headers leaving a hole where he was going to head into for their player to pick up was beyond me. The game went on and Swansea looked very dangerous, My heart went every time they attacked. Very unlucky Nock Colgan, I was angry at him but felt for him too as he didn’t deserve to lose a final like that. When Nardiello stood to take the free kick I said to my Dad, “he never scores these”, Two seconds later cue pandemonium! As the game went on extra time was obvious and I had it in the back of my mind that penalties were looming. Extra time passed so quickly with chances for either side, Swansea came so close and had my hands shaking! What a shame Reid didn’t bury his header, sure he would have carried on running straight into the supporters! When penalties arrived I was a nervous wreck, shaking, my hands have never shaken so badly, I was praying, shaking, praying, couldn’t stand still. I thought Shuker would miss, I thought Hecky would hit a lame shot, I thought Kay would sky it into the Swansea fans! They didn’t, awesome penalties. Heroes. The pressure on them in the Swansea end, the cameras, the spotlight, 50,000 fans hoping, the chance of letting down their gaffer and team mates, spoiling the whole season. Everything. Everything on one single kick. They were awesome. When Akinfenwa missed I started to believe. The suspense was unreal. Then Tate stood up to take his. ‘Yorkshire, Yorskhire, Yorkshire’ was the tribal chanting. Fingers crossed, shaking. Colgan saves!!!!!!!!!!! That’s it!!! We’re up!!! We’re promoted. Cue 5 minutes of jumping higher than I’ve ever jumped. Shouting, screaming, punching, hugging, kissing, crying. Joy. Relief. Pleasure. Outburst. Passion. Elation. Disbelief. Realisation. Constant. Unbelievable. Awesome. Unreal. WHAT a way to win and what a way to lose. I couldn’t spare the swans a second though, not in a cruel manner, I was just too caught in the moment. The celebrations were amazing. The presentation and the explosion of Red ribbon/streamers was stunning. We have a trophy! The celebrations of the fans and players and the look on everyones faces was unbelievable. The songs sounded better than ever. No one wanted to leave, none of the players. Paul Reid, awesome. A true captains performance, so passionate. All the players worked themselves so hard. They deserve it. It was our day. Swansea were awesome, such a good attacking unit. A frightening team. It wasn’t their day. It was ours. I am absolutely positive they will gain promotion next season. The celebrations continued on the way out, into the streets of Cardiff and all the 200+ miles coming home to what seemed like an empty Barnsley! WHAT a day. The pride was immense. Is immense. We are back in the league I think we deserve to be in, out of that horrible league. I turned on teletext and looked at the Championship and League 1 tables and smiled to myself looking at the difference in the teams. The lads deserve this. Maybe sometimes they lack in organisation, they’re young and sometimes they are Kamikaze, they need to learn BUT they have so much passion for each other and their manager. They are so close knit. They are mates, They’re a team. They sweat blood for each other, they love their manager and will work themselves into the ground for him. Think back to the past 4 years, we constantly yearned for players who cared about the club, who could build a team spirit, who enjoyed each others company, who would work for each other, who would work for the manager and respect him, who would not try and get him the sack when things went wrong. We have yearned for this for years and we have it. We have a good team that are young and learning. Young and hungry. This will have matured them immensely, especially the penalty takers. Andy Ritchie said he would be loyal to them and let them have a go in the Championship without changing the whole team. I applaud that but I believe also that he knows which areas need strengthening. We need a goal scorer and I firmly believe that we should go for Chopra. I urge the club to go for him. Maybe he would have earned us automatic promotion this season (but who would have wanted that?!!!!!). Andy Ritchie has earned the right to make his own decisions in the summer and I will back him. I will applaud them at the civic reception tomorrow and be down for my season ticket on Tuesday as I would have whether we had won or lost yesterday. I hope other people that went yesterday will back the lads and return to Oakwell and back the team they went to support yesterday. It is going to be a very exciting summer and season ahead. The relief is awesome. The celebrations will go on. Well done lads, you deserve all the plaudits, all the congratulations and a nice relaxing summer on a sunny beach somewhere. But please, make sure you all return focussed again and ready for the roller coaster. Paolo
Agree Although about Ritchie's comments about loyalty, I still think we need three or four players at least to give us a chance of staying up...
Brilliant, mirrors my thoughts and experiences exactly (and i guess that of many on here), cant read enough of everyones own personal memories and reactions to a great day for us all, and re the Swans fans, i felt the same, wanted to feel sorry for them in a way but, we had just got promotion, that was what really mattered, that is what we had put ourselves through hell over the last 2 weeks ( and longer) for, we had done it
RE: Brilliant, mirrors my thoughts and experiences exactly (and i guess A great read. Enjoyed the post
u were in the same block as me and sounds pretty much what i saw Wicked day. Shame i was a bit battered from a Friday night round cardiff but the adrenaline soon sorted me out 10 mins from kick off! I have to add i feel Dale Tonge was VERY VERY lucky to still be on the field and although i was slating the ref for his inconsistency im glad he was a bit poor as Dale could and maybe should have walked! That would have really made things bad int he last 15mins of extra time as Hassel had already been moved out of the RB position because of his injury. I watched the highlights last night and he could hardly run about. Overall i think we deserved to win! OK - so we didnt have the most possession, we didnt have the most fans and we had a few players who had bad games! But football aint just about that - not including luck there is pure grit, determination, team spirit, work ethic, guts and nerve! Those penatlies at the end were nothing short of superb and we played for them in the end. You could see. Im just so happy weve done it! Next season will be brilliant. Close season interesting. We have to make sure we keep Reid, Colgan and McPhail and also probably Hassel. We need to get Chopra here and a ball winner to break up play for midfield for certain - like Jacob but lets go one better! I feel there are a few players not good enough for the championship but hear what richie is saying with they should be given a chance. It is the qualities i listed above that got us promoted and are very difficult to replace or even 'buy in'. They are things that are developed from a team! I give richie my full support in who ever he fetches in and what he does with the team. But what i will say is that if its obvious they are not good enough dont leave it too long like Hart did to make changes. But im sure he wont. U reds! Thankyou for a brilliant weekend! (england) (england) (england)
Always thought you were one of the best posters on here Great read for an exile - brings a lump to your throat. Thanks
<p align="left">Fantastic Post.</p><p align="left">Agree with absolutely everything youve just said.</p><p align="left">U REDSSSSSS</p>
