Barnsley’s ‘Brazilian’ adventure closes in heartbreak

IT may only have been one season but Barnsley’s spell in the Premier League will never be forgotten at Oakwell.

Not since winning the FA Cup in 1912 had the Tykes enjoyed such national acclaim.

For nine months, they went out to mix it with the game’s elite, some weeks coping better than others.

Liverpool were beaten at Anfield and both Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur dumped out of the FA Cup . On the downside, however, they also took some seriously heavy beatings.

The locals sang ‘It’s Just Like Watching Brazil’ – which was possibly a little over the top – but they definitely had a team that ‘tried’ to play the right way.

Although the adventure ended in relegation, the club and the town won many friends along the way.

Manager Danny Wilson shaped the team’s fortunes on the field and chairman John Dennis played an equally important role behind the scenes.

A fruit and vegetable wholesaler, Dennis had been on the board since 1984, serving as chairman since 1989. Now 61, he has sold his business and stepped down from the board 10 years ago.

He still attends games as a supporter and recently released an autobiography entitled The Oakwell Years.

Dennis looks back on the Premier League season with immense pride but also feels a sense of frustration at what happened in the years after relegation.

The collapse of the Football League’s sponsorship deal with ITV Digital left Barnsley with financial obligations they were unable to meet. Not only were they relegated to Division Two but they also plunged into administration.

“Winning promotion to the Premier League was the proudest moment in my time as chairman. The ‘Just Like watching Brazil’ chant still brings a smile to my face and sends a shiver down my spine whenever I hear it,” he reflects.

“I have been asked many times to explain how ‘little old Barnsley’ made it to the Premier League. Well, it’s simple. We had a very good manager and a very good first-team coach who had assembled a squad of very good players with a great blend of youth and experience.

“But it remains a huge regret of mine that we failed to stay up that season. Looking back, without emotion, we quite simply weren’t good enough.”

Manager Wilson invested the majority of the club’s transfer money in foreign players with no experience of the English league. Players like Macedonian striker Georgi Hristov, South African midfielder Eric Tinkler and Slovenian defender Ales Krisan. It took the mid-term acquisition of strikers Ashley Ward and Jan-Aage Fjortoft from rival English clubs to keep the season alive.

“In hindsight, we made a mistake by not recruiting players with Premier League pedigree,” admits Dennis.

“Southampton had signed David Hirst, Carlton Palmer and Kevin Richardson. ‘Thirty-somethings’ who were battle-hardened, experienced players. The contrast between those three and the type of player we had signed was very stark.

“At the time, the foreign route was regarded as the best value for money but one or two people, including some ex-players, now say we shouldn’t have signed anyone at all.

“Perhaps the team spirit, the togetherness and the work ethic we had might have been enough. But I think we would have been accused of dereliction of duty if we had not had a go.”

Barnsley’s wage bill rose from £2.5m to £4m during their season in the top flight and striker Ward, who joined the club from Derby County in a £1.3m deal, became the highest paid player in the club’s history on £5,000-a-week.

Money coming into the club also increased dramatically.

Season ticket sales rose from 2,500 to 16,000 and sales in the club shop smashed the £1m barrier compared to around £100,000 in the First Division.

The club banked £5.4m from Sky Television and commercial revenue and turnover grew to £12m, which compared to only £1.6m in 1989.

“We were warned that it might engulf us in terms of media interest, fan interest and agent interest,” says Dennis.

“We knew we were going to be under pressure but we didn’t grasp the scale of it until it happened. And that was 15 years ago. Heaven only knows what it is like these days.

“The spotlight and the pressure probably took more out of us than we knew. When it came to the run-in at the end of the season, we were all exhausted throughout the club. The spirit was willing but, at that stage, the flesh was weak.”

Dennis still believes that Barnsley’s battle for survival hit the skids during a controversial home fixture with Liverpool.

There may have been eight more games to play and still more than enough points available to stay up but events at Oakwell that afternoon would leave a major hangover.

“It was the seminal moment in our season,” he says. “History records that the score was ‘Barnsley 2 Liverpool 3’ but those statistics in no way reflect the events of an emotionally charged afternoon.

“The central figure was, sadly, the referee, Mr Gary Willard. He lost control of a football match in a manner that I have never come across before or since.

“He sent off three Barnsley players – Darren Barnard, Chris Morgan, and Darren Sheridan – as well as apparently abandoning play, leaving the pitch without consulting the managers, the players or the police.

“It is my belief that we were relegated from the Premiership – not mathematically, of course – but because of the fallout from that day.

“We lost three key players to suspension and the emotion and drama of the game meant that a club that was coming close to running on empty needed to find reserves of energy and passion that had already been used up.”

Barnsley could secure only four more points after that Liverpool encounter and relegation was confirmed away at Leicester City on the penultimate weekend of the season.

“I was devastated because the southern media had us relegated almost before the final game of the previous season,” Dennis reflects.

“We were slightly patronised by one chairman who expressed the hope that we would enjoy our ‘season’ in the top flight.

“And when I attended the chairmen’s conference at the start of the season, Ken Bates, from Chelsea, had yelled ‘It’s a disgrace – Barnsley Football Club in the Premier League’ across the room. Everyone in the club and the town had wanted to prove those people wrong.

“For a while, we became known as everyone’s ‘second favourite team’ but that was little consolation. The harsh realities of life in the Premiership supported my theory that there are very few fairytales in football.”

I’m so proud to have played a part in the Reds’ greatest season

The Former Player

Neil Redfearn

Dewsbury born midfield man scored 72 goals in 292 appearances for Barnsley from 1991-98

It was definitely one of the highlights of my career. It felt like the rest of the country wanted us to stay up because we were the underdogs and they liked the type of football we played. It is still regarded as the greatest season in Barnsley’s history.

For a team like us to get so far was unheard of. A great achievement. But we earned the right by playing some great football. I played in some great teams down the years but that was definitely the best footballing side.

We had a great mix of youth and experience and it was a master-stroke by Danny Wilson to sign Paul Wilkinson and John Hendrie from Middlesbrough as well as Neil Thompson from Ipswich. We also had some good young kids who burst into the team like Nicky Eaden, Dave Watson and Chris Morgan. We had a great balance and played excellent ‘push and move’ football. Maybe it was a one-off but a lot of things came together at the same time.

The fans came up with the phrase ‘It’s Just Like Watching Brazil’ and, to be fair, some of our football did not belong in the division we had come from.

But there was a big difference between the First Division and the Premier League and, initially, we struggled to come to terms with that. We took one or two beatings but, as the season wore on, we got better.

The highlight was probably our victory against Liverpool at Anfield. One of the worst moments was losing at home to Liverpool.

We had three or four players sent off in that game and they won 3-2 thanks to a last-minute winner. The referee was at the centre of controversy and it was a turning point in the season. It was heart-breaking to be relegated.

Unfortunately, we went down with a points tally that would have kept us up the following season. We were just unlucky that it was such a tall order that season but it was a fantastic experience.

In hindsight, the type of people who came into the squad was always going to be the crux of the matter. In Premier League terms, the club did not have a great deal of money to play with. We signed some foreign players who were probably not good enough to supplement what we had. It’s easy to say this in hindsight but we probably needed a couple more experienced players.

Barnsley supporters still want to talk about that team whenever they see me. And I think the success we achieved has made it a little more difficult for other Barnsley managers because they now have the comparisons with the past and the Premier League.

Brilliant football as we lived the dream

The Fan

Alan Bloore

Former chairman of the Barnsley Supporters’ Trust

Watching Barnsley in the Premier League was a whole new experience for someone who had been watching the team from the 1960s.

With the exception of derby games against the likes of Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday, I had always been able to set off to games at 12 o’clock and pay on the gate. Now every Tom, Dick, and Harry and even his dog wanted to go along.

Within the space of a few years, our gates had risen from 6,000 to 20,000. In the case of home games, I was having to leave an hour earlier just to get parked.

There was a massive difference between attending games at Chelsea or Manchester United and, let’s say, Spotland in Rochdale.

Some of these clubs we were visiting had supporters with bad reputations so you needed to be wary. It was unusual to be approached by people wanting to take your tickets off you and our fans were told not to show off their tickets if possible.

I had only seen Premier League football on TV prior to 1997 and it was a real eye-opener to see players such as David Beckham in the flesh. Watching them ‘live’ made me appreciate just how much work they put into a game.

As Barnsley supporters, we lived the dream that season and some of the football the team played was brilliant.

Yes, we had a few hidings but when Manchester United beat us 7-0 at Old Trafford they only had 10 shots and seven went in. We lost heavily at Arsenal but for the first 25 minutes we had been having a really good go. There was only one game – a 6-0 defeat by West Ham – where I felt we didn’t get our money’s worth from the team.

The ‘Just Like Watching Brazil’ chant was first heard during a game at Bolton in the promotion season. We battered them for nearly 80 minutes and a couple of people in the crowd had commented how it was like watching Brazil. I guess it just took off from there.

Our captain, Neil Redfearn, is still the best player I have ever seen in a Barnsley shirt.