Skip to main content

The Inside Line: Barnsley v Bristol City (25/10/2014)

“If you wanna be the best, if you wanna beat the best, oh-oh dedication’s what you need”

The Bristol City class of 2014-15 wrote their own piece of history on Tuesday night when their draw against Bradford meant that a club record that had lasted exactly sixty years had been broken, and we had gone 14 matches unbeaten from the start of a season.  To put that in context, it’s nearly one-third of the way through the season – a quite remarkable achievement which glossed over some of the disappointment in ‘only’ gaining a point on a windy night in BS3.

The record-breakers take their status on the road again this weekend to Oakwell, home of Barnsley, who have the son of an ex-City striking legend and an ex-City manager looking to put one over on the Robins.

Stu Radnedge spoke to Andy White  of the ‘Love Barnsley, Hate Football’ blog to find out more:


“My beloved Barnsley FC. Relegated last season, currently hovering above another relegation zone and shipping goals for fun - I shouldn't really be enjoying all this. But I am. Obviously, the losing games bit and conceding goals part I don't take much pleasure from, but I genuinely am enjoying season 2014-15. 

You see, it's been an absolute chore for large parts of the last eight years in the Championship. Most seasons merging into each other, such was the similarity of events. Lose your star players on the cheap, good form goes out the (January) window with them, recruit short term loanees, limp to safety by a few points. Repeat over the next 12 months and so on. Not to forget the changing of managers or indeed, the odd FA Cup run. It wasn't all bad. Just 90% of it. Probably. 

After the almost Roy of the Rovers style 'Great Escape' of 2012-13, masterminded by cliché ridden young manager David Flitcroft, we went into last term with rare optimism. We assumed we'd stumbled upon a good manager at last. Ok, he talked a lot of nonsense, but his record since taking charge was phenomenal. Perhaps we'd finally push on in the second tier and reclaim our status as something better than perennial relegation battlers? 

Perhaps not. I think we won just one of our first 18 games and the team didn't resemble anything like the one 'Flicker' guided to safety just a few months before. He was sacked, and after a month of deliberation we got the second coming of club legend, one Danny Wilson. The original miracle worker. If anybody could transform our fortunes it was 'r Danny'.... 

He did improve us. But hardly. His January loan and free transfer recruits were on paper exciting, a touch risky but gambling had to be done. Unfortunately, we backed the wrong horses. In fact, a horse would have made a better impact than the likes of Brek Shea, Martin Woods and Emmanuel Frimpong.

But, I welcomed the eventual relegation. We could hopefully get shot of the deadwood letting us down, allow Danny to assemble his own squad and look forward to finally competing in a division which is less about how much money you've got and more about team spirit. And if any Barnsley manager has ever cobbled together a squad brimming with enthusiasm and pride in the red shirt, it's 'r Danny'.

Unfortunately, getting shot of the deadwood might have been easy, but we soon realised that a few of our best players would have to be flogged too. And it took so long to get both Luke Steele and Chris O'Grady off the wage bill that our own recruitment drive didn't really kick into gear until a week or so before the big kick off. Our pre-season 'tour' of Italy comprised of about 18 academy lads. We just didn't have the players. 

And so it's no surprise what has happened so far this season. We're up and down like a yo-yo. No consistency. Fair to middling.

We've definitely signed a few promising young players though. Conor Hourihane is some player. Scored seven goals, created another seven and involved in all the rest. Probably. Luke Berry, signed from Cambridge, a little midfield dynamo, he's impressed me. And despite the goals not quite arriving for him, Sam Winnall has been a great addition up front. 

The revelation though at present, is his strike partner, the son of Andy - Devante Cole. On loan from Manchester City and far too good for this division. He's very green, very raw, but has explosive pace and an eye for goal. His father is at every game, home and away, and so keep your eyes out (Robins fans travelling up on Saturday) for your former hero.


Andy Cole (here wearing the now-famous #PurpleandLime) struck up a 
fantastic, exciting partnership with cult hero 'Jacki' Dziekanowski (below) in 
the early 90's before moving to Kevin Keegan's Newcastle United



As I say, we're inconsistent. So I couldn't begin to tell you what to look out for or our strengths and weaknesses. But in a nutshell, we're a threat going forward and wide open defensively. 

I have Bristol City down to win the title, and so far it's looking likely. It seems Mr Lansdown has spent a few pennies again. But it's nailed on that Leroy Lita will finally get off his lazy backside and come back to haunt his former side. Isn't it? Probably. 

Danny Wilson got City to the play-off final in Cardiff in 2004, but famously 
left Leroy Lita out and we lost 1-0 to a Leon Knight goal, for Brighton

Unless you beat us comfortably. Like everybody else at Oakwell. Probably.”


My thanks to Andy and to Stu for setting up the response.

Slightly ironic that we face a team managed by Danny Wilson who might have Leroy Lita to call on, given events in Cardiff http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_2/3750777.stm a decade ago!


Here’s to 15. COYR!


The Exiled Robin

Follow me on Twitter ---'Like' us on Facebook

http://exiledrobin.blogspot.com

www.facebook.com/theciderdiaries --- www.twitter.com/theciderdiaries

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why Cotterill was sacked

In the end, it was very sudden.  In a season where pressure has increasingly grown on Steve Cotterill for all sorts of reasons, an unknown combination of a lacklustre, exhausted-looking performance at home to Preston, an unsavoury altercation with an abusive ‘supporter’ at the end of that game, or perhaps a behind-the-scenes disagreement over transfer policy look to have ultimately curtailed his time at Ashton Gate. No manager these days can win just four out of 28 games in a season, be in the bottom three, and expect to be impervious to the threat of being sacked. But given such an incredulous level of success last season, Cotterill was surely closer than most to having a level of credit in the bank to be given until the end of the season? I share views with many as a general principle where I wish all clubs would give mangers more time to build, but the days of giving a manager the luxury of years of under-achievement, of the type Alex Ferguson enjoyed, resulting in a ...

The Inside Line: MK Dons (substituted) 24/08/2013

This new series on The Exiled Robin threatened to come a cropper in its early days with a fixture against Franchise FC, as I wasn't prepared to seek an opinion on a club created in such a fashion.  Not that I doubt that those supporters who follow them do so in the same irrational and desperate manner we all do with our clubs, but the way they came about, with the corresponding direct negative impact on another community-based club, manes they are - ironically enough - disenfranchised from the football community as a whole.  Anyway, as a result I decided to instead focus on their predecessors, a club reborn and one that has found it's way back into the football league for a second time. Chris Lines, (NOT the ex-Gas player, as far as I know!) writes his own blog and occasionally offers his view for the fabulous Two Unfortunates, as well as spending his weekends following the fortunes of AFC Wimbledon. You can follow Chris on Twitter @NarrowtheAngle : ...

Scott Golbourne: He's Coming Home - a Wolves view

The signing of Scott Golbourne (not Goldborne, Goldbourne or Golborne!) must have been as much a relief for those in the club’s hierarchy as it was for us supporters. Constantly barracked and ridiculed over the past few months for the seemingly disastrous lack of transfer activity, Golbourne is only the second permanent signing for the senior squad in 18 months since we embarked on our hugely successful League One title-winning campaign. Plenty of loans have been tried in the meantime, but only Jonathan Kodjia’s bolt-from-the-blue signing from Angers in the summer has caused the editors on Wikipedia to move a player's full time club to Bristol City in that time. Any fan over the age of 17/18 or so will fleetingly remember Golbourne, of course, as he spent his formative years with us but his opportunities were limited at that stage so I knew little about him, other than he’s looked like a pretty solid looking traditional full-back in the games I’ve seen him in since. ...