With Jaap Stam on the touchline and Roy Keane watching in the stands, Barnsley felt like a place to be, even if their fine start to the season stuttered with a 2-1 defeat by Reading.
“Big names, big clubs, big players on the pitch, big crowds. It’s what you want,” the Barnsley head coach and local boy, Paul Heckingbottom, said after a match that included a penalty, two excellent goals and an amusing red card. “We’re enjoying it greatly.”
The south Yorkshire club have been on quite a run. Bottom of League One in December last year, with just 18 points from their opening 20 games, they could have gone top of the Championship on Saturday with a win and other favourable results.
Instead they sit fourth, level on points with Newcastle United and Birmingham City, and comfortably the division’s top scorers with 19 goals from eight games. No wonder optimism abounds at Oakwell, reflected by supporter and blogger Neil Richardson’s pre-match poem:
“Our only expectation was survival to establish and build.
Realistic hope we hope is fulfilled.
But now as we hope that we can achieve so much more.
Is it unrealistic to think that we can finish in the top four?”
Barnsley have not played in the Premier League since 1998, when Redfearn, Watson, Fjortoft et al were unable to prevent an immediate slide back to the second division. Yet the club can now dream again, following an unlikely rise in the last year including victory over Millwall in the League One play-off final and success in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.
The club have assembled a group of young, talented ball players and are encouraged to attack. Keane was present to watch the captain and Irishman Conor Hourihane, while the former Liverpool apprentice Adam Hammill – in his second spell at Barnsley – is an old head at 28.
They played 23 games and won 15 from New Year’s Day until the end of last season, an ascent that was started by Lee Johnson and continued by Heckingbottom when the former manager had left for Bristol City.
They have been one of the most in-form sides in Europe and, asked how such success has arisen, Heckingbottom, right, said: “The players. We try and make it really clear what their jobs are, try and set high standards for them and they try to achieve them. That’s been it and nothing will change on the back of a defeat, like nothing changes when we win games.
“The process is the same, we keep improving, keep aiming to perform in the next game.
“Today I think we suffered by not getting the first goal, we’ve been getting that in the other games. We pressed and pressed but they defended well.”
It was a fixture that had everything, and one that Reading deserved to win. They were the more physical team, in a tempestuous game that provided seven yellow cards and one red.
Garath McCleary put Reading in front, finishing into the roof of the net after his penalty was initially saved by Adam Davies, before a moment of madness from the winger in the 34th minute. Hourihane went in hard on the impressive Daniel Williams, and McCleary charged in to put the Barnsley captain on his backside à la Paul Alcock.
Stam was prowling on the touchline throughout, even after John Swift had scored a second from 25 yards, admitting his stress when Adam Armstrong pulled one back with a late volley.
“Of course it’s never easy if you’ve got to play 55-60 minutes with 10 men. Sometimes people talk about a heart attack, I’m not going to have one but it was a stressful situation in the box. We did well, but they gave us a hard time in the second half,” the former Holland defender said.
“Every time you want to step on the pitch and help the players out. That’s how I try to coach, you see certain things before the opponent has played the ball and you want to warn the players about where to go in certain times. That’s how I am, I don’t think I’m going to be changing that.”
Barnsley will not be changing anything, either. In the next month Aston Villa and Newcastle travel to Oakwell, and there are also trips to Brighton and Leeds, more of the “big names” that Heckingbottom is hoping to upset.
It marks a significant improvement for the Tykes who not so long ago were scrapping at the bottom of the third division. As Richardson writes, hope has been restored.
Talking points
• It was a battle of two men under pressure at the Cardiff City Stadium in the Championship’s early fixture on Saturday, but Garry Monk was the one smiling at full-time rather than Paul Trollope. Leeds United’s head coach bristled last week when asked if he was under pressure, ending a radio interview prematurely amid questions about his relationship with Massimo Cellino, the owner. Yet two wins from two have lifted Leeds out of danger while Cardiff sit rock-bottom. Trollope said “patience is key” and insisted he retained the support of Vincent Tan, the owner, despite four defeats in succession.
• The tumultuous nature of the Championship was exemplified at St James’ Park, where Wolves beat Newcastle 2-0 following an own goal from Chancel Mbemba and strike by Hélder Costa. It was a remarkable result when looking at both sides’ previous matches in midweek. Newcastle won 6-0 at Queens Park Rangers while Wolves were thrashed 4-0 by Barnsley. Rafa Benítez was highly critical of his team, lamenting their “mistake after mistake”.
• Undoubtedly the strangest incident of the weekend came at Valley Parade. Bradford City’s 1-1 draw with Bristol Rovers was paused briefly by the referee in the 65th minute after a drone was spotted flying overhead. Players congregated by the touchline and play restarted after three minutes, once officials had guaranteed their safety. The Sky Sports reporter, Brian Beard, said: “I’ve never ever seen anything like it – it’s all very strange.”
• Coventry City have endured a terrible start to the season. The Sky Blues drew 0-0 with Oldham Athletic and have yet to secure a win under Tony Mowbray this term. It means Coventry have sunk to the bottom of League One and adds to the growing malcontent surrounding the club. There have been more protests against the hedge fund owners, Sisu, who have struggled to progress the club since a buyout in 2007 and temporarily moved the team’s home matches to Northampton.
• Plymouth Argyle stayed top of League Two after a 2-0 victory over Exeter City in the 104th Devon derby. Five supporters were arrested during the match, and although much of the build-up focused on Reuben Reid – the former Plymouth striker who has signed for Exeter – he did not feature until the 64th minute. Exeter slipped into the bottom two after a contrasting start to their rivals.
