Can't wait for each match to come around at the moment. Nearly a year ago, I was as close as I've ever been to giving games a miss, although I didn't miss any for that reason as it turned out. There's an excitement about the team that reminds me of the first 3 seasons of watching Barnsley, 1980-83, and the similarities are striking. We have a no nonsense head coach/manager and coach, players who other teams want, players who want to come and put on a red shirt for more than financial reasons. We've come from the depths of despair in a ridiculously short time, even the 1978-82 teams took 4 seasons to peak, albeit they climbed two divisions, and they were teams that evolved with some degree of ruthlessness from the managers at the time. I'll put my hand up and admit I was critical of the decision to dismiss Wilson, but it's clear that the direction of the club was different to what Wilson believed in, and Cryne has been proved right in sticking to his vision for the long term. We are in good hands. I posted on here back in 2014, just before our relegation, about never having felt so distant form BFC, so undervalued as a supporter. Even this has gone full circle. It wouldn't be BFC if things were perfect, but to have reconnected with the fan base is a big credit to the club. Really looking forward to the next 2 months, some great tests home and away, results irrelevant to me really. Barry Davies, during his commentary on the 1981 cup game v Man City reflected on the atmosphere around the town prior to the game and in the ground was "evidence that football is booming in Barnsley". We're doing something akin to that now in a very different type of era. I'm 42 now, and the last 8 months have simply rekindled an all too rare feeling of pride in BFC. And it's wonderful.
I love that we are in such a positive curve it's stopped me from being too wound up about the way the rest of football is collapsing into a horrible heap around our ears
I'm a bit younger, but I'd say it feels like 1996. We have the prolific forward like Hendrie, the workhorse forward like Wilkinson, the skillful genius midfielder like Marcelle, the commanding centreback like De Zeeuw, the fantastic shot stopper like Watson, the talismanic goalscoring skipper like Redfearn, and we have decent players to play around that lot in the mould of Eaden, Bullock, Bosancic. We look a like a dangerous attacking force. Very exciting times.
