Not trying to steal Loko the Tyke's thunder but here are a few words from an old player

I met Will a few times as he had in laws/relatives in Hemsworth at the time and he was a great lad.
Was a good youth team player ( I assume due to his size) but couldn't convert the same level of form to the first team.
Good luck Will with whatever you are doing now!

 

Carol Van de Velden and Laurens Ten Heuval.

 

I was just thinking that, he almost certainly will, right? He'll go from the high of a fan randomly contacting him out of the blue and having a nice chat to coming on here and reading all the above comments. Poor guy.

 

Eric Brookes and Kenny Brown for the older generation, and then Carl Regan and Mido

 

He gets a wee mention in this interesting article with David Preece LINK

 

I doubt he will come on.....hopefully!

 

Thanks for that interesting read. I wish I’d asked Willie a few more questions now about his life after Barnsley but I didn’t want to go into full-on Loko mode. I should have though. He would have probably been happy to talk about it.

 

I can't remember if it was a reserve game or a "proper" game, but I did see Hedworth kick a winger over the boundary wall and into the Brewery Stand. Always liked him after that...

 

In all fairness, old mate, 1986 wasn't one of the club's better years. It launched the Centenary Society, without much of an initial uptake. The Barnsley Chronicle got involved and the membership soon reached the 1500 target. The club insisted the Society would help it keep hold of our better players. However, just before the 1986/87 campaign got underway, we sold the team's entire strike force of Ian Walsh, Gordon Owen & David Hirst. Not surprisingly, we started the season with 6 straight defeats. Naturally, we struggled to replace those quality strikers and the untried youngsters (Ferry, Chandler & Foreman) suffered, obviously, in comparison. The club also brought in players of questionable ability in Chris Hedworth, Paul Malcolm and Mick Clarke. It wasn't until we paired up the recently signed John MacDonald with the recalled Rodger Wylde that we started winning matches on a regular basis.
Some of our football was quite enjoyable to watch. After all, we did have players like Joe Joyce, Larry May, Paul Futcher, Stuart Gray, John Beresford, Gwyn Thomas & Steve Agnew. But until MacDonald & Wylde were a partnership, no one was finishing the chances being created.
The club continued to alienate the fan base during the season. It was hard enough for the fans selling David Hirst to Sheffield Wednesday. But they compounded it by selling Larry May to the Owls in February 1987, as well as letting the young and talented Ian Knight & Andy Kiwomya leave cheaply to them, too.

 

Yes I remember it well, despite my southern exile at the time. I despaired at the way the euphoria of the Clarke/Hunter years evaporated in a very short time. Obviously the mid-80s was a very tough time financially for the Reds, and many other clubs, and gates were incredibly low all around the country. Even the mighty Leeds could only just muster five figures! Clarkie's second coming just never worked out and his hands were obviously tied regarding signings, hence the introduction of those young players you mentioned, all at once.

Darren Foreman would have probably been a decent forward alongside, for example, Rodger Wylde, but pair him with Ian Chandler or Willie Ferry and we had no chance. At least we had quality at the back until Larry May decided he fancied life at Hillsborough instead. In truth he was always too good for us and it was a big surprise when we picked him up from Leicester. I remember him coming down the tunnel, smartly dressed, shortly after signing, waving to the crowd. I couldn't believe that such a top quality player had signed.

The only real highlight for me of that period was that fabulous night at The Dell. It was an easy skip down the A36 from my home near Salisbury and I wasn't going to miss it, even though we had NO chance of beating Southampton in that cup tie. The famous DJ John Peel even came into this story when (if I remember correctly) he booked himself a gig in Southampton for the date that his beloved Liverpool would have been playing the Saints in the next round. He was that confident that Barnsley would be knocked out. He had a point, but the Reds upset everything with a superb performance in front of a very strong First Division side away from home. Another of our youngsters, Simon Jeffells, excelled that night. I was behind the goal with a relatively small away following, not believing what I was watching.

The Reds beat Southampton deservedly, but then crashed out 0-4 at home to Liverpool in the next round. That was one of our rare appearances on television and the nation watched Rush and company blow us away, barely breaking sweat. This was not a good period in our history and, in truth, I think a lot of people were getting bored with "mid-table mediocrity" in the Second Division, with some crowds around 5,000. A bit of that mid-table stagnation would be good now I think

 

Kenny Brown wont that bad, can't remember Eric Brookes though, is he now an artist?

 

Mido? Sos already mentioned .

 

No Eric is dead. He was a pretty handy left back in a defence that included Eric Winstanley and Pat Howard. Bob Parker or Barry Murphy right back. Roy Ironside in goal. One of the many Barnsley lads who went through the system in those days.

I played football with Kenny Brown at Broadway, on the rare occasions we managed to have him for the school team instead of him being away on Barnsley Boys duties. He was a bit too slight for the rigours of the football league but he was a tidy midfield player who had a decent career.

 

Due to his slight build which made him look extremely frail, Kenny Brown came in for a great deal of stick from some of our fans. However, Kenny kept his head down and was rewarded when he deservedly won the Player Of The Season award for the 1975/76 campaign. He was allowed to leave on a free transfer at the end of the 1977/78 season and he signed for AFC Bournemouth, at the same time as Mick Butler.

 

Last I heard he was caretaker at Barnsley college.
Kenny Brown

 

Used his grammar school education well then?

 

I don't suppose you could clear up the 'dementia' comment could you. Not sure who he is referring to.

 

I think he’s suggesting that Murph has dementia. I have no idea if thats true or maybe he’s mixing him up with somebody else. What you see written there is exactly as he wrote it. I just copied and pasted the text, taking out his name and mine on each entry

 

It was 'The Fridge' of the Chicago Bears, another 'Willie' William Perry.

 

I was very young when Kenny played for us, and I always thought he was decent, but a bloke who stood near me didn’t agree and made us laugh with his reference to a TV advert for a famous loaf when he shouted “DON’T SAY BROWN, SAY HOPELESS!” Brilliant!