Painting the Tarn Red
Barnsley FC finally got
to play beneath the famous twin towers of Wembley Stadium.
The Reds took 35,000 fans down to London as the team took
on Ipswich Town for the "biggest prize in English
football" - a place in the Premiership.
Ayup was there. A bit tipsy but there.
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I've just spent two hours in the company
of an entire town. A sea of red. Gangs of grannies
head to foot in red Tykes Army t-shirts and ribbons in
their hair. Dads in red and white fright wigs with braveheart
face paint. Chants of Red Army echoed through the tube
trains and railway stations., The sun shone on a Wembley
Way split down the middle with the blue of Ipswich and
the red of Barnsley. A massive bellow of broad Yorkshire
beneath the famous Twin Towers. Children everywhere. Not
a hint of bad temper or ill-humour. A carnival. A huge
mass of happy people.
You see Barnsley at the playoffs was a happy
surprise. Early in the season, with fans still wondering
about the wisdom of taking on Harry "Longball"
Bassett as manager, the team got thrashed 6-1 by a team
called Ipswich Town. The idea of being at Wembley playing
off for promotion with them six months later was nonsense.
Yet football, as they say, is a funny old game. Here were
Barnsley playing on the same hallowed turf as Brazil had
trodden just two days earlier. And at times, as the famous
Barnsley song roared up from the North Stand, it was just
like watching Brazil too.
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I wish I could have bottled the moment
when Craig Hignett shot hit the bar and bounced over the
line. I turned to see a mass of delirious people. Just
six minutes in. Unbelievable. The girl behind, head to
foot in flags and scarves was screaming with delight!
The old feller next to me nearly fell off the balcony
onto the gang of whooping children right below. A mad
mass of waving flags and flailing arms. Barnsley were
ahead! You could taste the glory right there.
A rollercoaster of hope and despair. 90
minutes. A lifetime. Barnard's missed penalties. Ipswich
drawing level, then quickly pulling ahead. Higgy scores
to make it 3-2 with minutes remaining.
There was a moment in the last five minutes
when Barnsley were pressing hard and we really believed
in the teams ability to equalise. This huge cry of "YORKSHIRE
YORKSHIRE" grew out of the north curve and swept
the stadium. Nick Eaden crossed, Georgie Hristov met it
perfectly and the Ipswich keeper somehow got there to
stop it from bursting the net. Minutes later as the Barnsley
team swept forward to snatch an equaliser, an Ipswich
substitute we'd never heard of ran on to a loose ball
and made it four.
Ipswich deserved their win simply because
they've been in the playoffs four years in a row. Barnsley
were there to take it off them. And but for a few twists
of fate would have succeeded. It wasn't a bitter loss.
A few sporting souls in red shirts actually stayed in
the stadium to see the Reds off the Wembley turf and to
clap George Burley's victors. For the Red Army, whose
last song was "You'll Never Walk Alone", it
was a heavy hearted march back north. The game was up,
the dream was over. But it was a great party anyway. That
was the real victory.
David
O'Leary O'Leeds
