Experience key on Wilson’s return if he is to recreate ‘great escape’

He had just been asked if he was a better manager than the rookie who took unfashionable Barnsley to the Premier League 16 years previously.

“I think as a young manager you do change; you get experience, and hopefully your decisions get better, more consistent.

“You get more understanding of the management of football clubs than just going out and picking a team.

“All the experience you get puts me in a good stead for this position now.”

Wilson, now a veteran after a nomadic career which after Sheffield Wednesday – he controversially ‘defected’ to Barnsley’s South Yorkshire neighbours in 1998 – took in Bristol City, MK Dons, Hartlepool United and Swindon Town, will need all that experience at Oakwell.

Bottom of the Championship, David Flitcroft axed, and the feel-good factor from last season’s ‘great escape’ a distant memory.

So too are the jubilant scenes from 1997, and their Premier League adventure which saw Barnsley grace English football’s top flight. Who can forget Barnsley fans’ rendition of “It’s just like watching Brazil”? Magical stuff.

Not that Wilson will be looking to trade on that era in his second stint at a much-changed Oakwell.

He said: “The situation now is completely different. For all the memories we have from all those years ago, it really counts for nothing now. It’s a feel-good factor from my point of view, but it won’t get us a result on Saturday. To be invited back is a real dream, it’s fantastic. It’s a terrific challenge. It’s going to be a tough one, there are some very tough games coming up.

“But from what I have seen from the players and the games I have watched, and the input some of the staff have had, they have the quality to stay up. We have to fire that into the players, and there is no better place than the derby game on Saturday.

“Barnsley have been very unlucky in lots of games this season; they have been close.

“Mistakes have cost them games, the odd chance they have not put away. Overall, there is not a great deal wrong; they have been quite unfortunate at times. But it’s just not been getting results.”

Since leaving Sheffield United in April – “I have been to loads of games, if for nothing else to get out of the missus’s feet” – Wilson has been itching to get back into management.

And he has seen enough of the Championship to believe Barnsley’s condition is not terminal, and that a few wins over the busy festive period would revive their league position. The Reds have just 15 points from their first 20 games, but are only three points adrift of safety and Charlton, who are in 21st place.

“You can throw a blanket over the bottom half of the table really, and any team that has a lack of form over the next few months, they can swap places quite easily,” he observed.

“Is it a bonus being at the bottom, nobody expecting anything, and getting out of it with a bit of a miracle? Yes, maybe that might be the best place to start from. If you get a few results, people start looking over their shoulders very quickly.

“We have got to believe we can do that, target a few teams who are above us and see how close we can get to them.”

That all starts with a fierce Yorkshire derby at Elland Road against Leeds United, sitting pretty in sixth place, and Wilson is eager to get started.

“We have a massive game on Saturday and our first priority is Leeds,” said the former Northern Ireland midfielder.

“We would love to be challenging (at the top), in a different position, this time next year. A derby game, you can’t get any bigger. If you could choose a game to come back into, it would be that one. It’s fantastic, Leeds away, 30,000-plus, our travelling fans will be heard, no doubt about that.Who knows what will happen, irrespective of the positions of the clubs? It’s a derby game and we will approach it in that manner. Crikey, it’s the stuff dreams are made of.”

His appearance at Oakwell yesterday completed a whirlwind 24 hours after meeting with chief executive Ben Mansford on Monday.

Micky Mellon, who was in caretaker charge following Flitcroft’s sacking, remains as Wilson’s assistant and the manager believes that is key as he looks to appraise the set-up.

“(Monday) was the first real face-to-face contact with them (the Barnsley board),” he said. “I had a phone call to meet up with them and I think I was at the venue before them, I was that excited.

“The manager has left, and David (Flitcroft) was unfortunate in that respect. He had a lot of respect from the fans, the players within the club. But that happens in a football club, as I know very well. But I think retaining Micky as an assistant will be paramount from my point of view. He will be a great help; his experience and knowledge of the club is paramount in us going forward and I am delighted he has decided to stay.”

No one at Barnsley was willing to divulge the length of contract Wilson has signed.

“We have had various comments about contractual situations in the past and people have drawn correct and incorrect inferences,” said Mansford.

“Danny is our manager, he is here, I hope he is here for longer than he was last time because that means he is successful. We are not going to give away those confidential details anymore.”

But Mansford said the Reds would back Wilson in the transfer market, if required, although he believes the manager’s challenge is to improve an under-performing squad of players.

“I think first and foremost for Danny, there is some quality in this squad,” he said. “When we look, we have probably been small margins away from getting points and things out of games.

“Danny has got games coming thick and fast where he will have the chance to make up his own opinion. I think we have real quality in the group and have the right man to get that out and get us winning football matches.

“At the right time, we will support Danny, as best we can and within our budget.”

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