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A club with a nice ground and a loyal fan base, Barnsley were a Premiership club in 1997 and they claimed the scalps of Liverpool and Manchester United during their solitary season in the top flight.  They hope they are back in the big time under the influence of Andy Ritchie...  

The Club and The Ground

FORMED in 1887 by the Rev. T.T. Preedy as Barnsley St Peter, a reflection of the church connection. St Peter was dropped ten years later, a year before Barnsley were elected to the Second Division of the Football League.  

Onto the ground.  Approximately three sides of the ground, Oakwell, were re-developed in the 1990's. On one side is the particularly attractive new two-tiered covered East Stand running along one side of the pitch. This stand has a capacity of 7,500. On the other side is the older West Stand, which is all-seated, but only covered at the rear. At one end is a relatively new all-seated covered stand for home supporters, called the South or Van Damme Stand, with a capacity of 4,500. The other end, the North Stand, was previously an open terrace, but is now a new single tier, covered stand, housing 6,000 supporters. This is the most recent addition to the ground and has greatly enhanced the overall look of Oakwell. The North Stand is shared between home and away supporters. The amount of seats given to away supporters can vary dependant on demand. One unusual feature of the ground, is a purpose built stand for disabled supporters. This is a three floor structure that sits at the corner between the East & South Stands. There is also a new electric scoreboard at one corner of the North Stand, on top of a newly constructed security control room. 

Hatters fans are housed in the new North Stand, where the facilities are good. The normal allocation for away supporters is 2,000 tickets although, if demand requires it, then the whole of this stand can be allocated (6,000). This club I found to be particularly friendly from the car park attendant to the programme seller. Even the P.A. announcer had a sense of humour (although a little optimistic), when he announced that perhaps the visiting fans would like to come up again to see the next Barnsley home game, so that we could see a decent game of football! However, I have reports of fans getting hassle at Barnsley (especially in the town centre) and stewards acting a little heavy handed, although I've never personally had any problems. It is advisable to keep your Hatters colours covered especially around the town centre. 

Ground Guide courtesy of the excellent Internet Football Ground Guide.

History - Barnsley Football Club

An old photo at Oakwell - home of Barnsley.

Formed in 1887 by the Rev. T.T. Preedy as Barnsley St Peter, a reflection of the church connection. St Peter was dropped ten years later, a year before Barnsley were elected to the Second Division of the Football League.

Apart from winning the FA Cup in 1912, two years after they had been beaten finalists, the early years were unremarkable.

The club remained in the lower reaches of the League, dropping down to the old Fourth Division for three seasons from 1965-68.

Second Division (now Division One) status was achieved in 1981 and the club completed a remarkable rise into the Premiership at the end of 1997 as one of the least fancied clubs for promotion - under the guidance of former Luton Town favourite Danny Wilson - a member, of course, of the Hatters' 1988 Littlewoods Cup final side.

The stay in the highest ranks, was a short one, although they won many admirers with their attractive football and impressive scalps of Liverpool and Manchester United.

After being relegation they soon went down again, as is so often the case, and now find themselves in Division Two, indeed finishing 19th during the 2002-03 season. 

Their most famous players of the 50's included Cecil McCormack, Danny Blanchflower and Tommy Taylor.

Famous players from the 70's and 80's included Ronnie Glavin and David Hirst.

In recent times their best known players have been goal scoring midfielder Neil Redfearn - who bagged 17 Premiership goals during that eventful single season in the top flight - Macedonian international striker Georgi Hristov and former Hatters legend Danny Wilson, still referred to as God by some Tykes fans, who was one of the club's most successful managers.   

However, after much boardroom trouble over the past few years, a section of Barnsley supporters formed a new team - just as Wimbledon fans had done - for the 2003-04 season - AFC Barnsley.  The club started life in the Windsor Food Service County Football League Second Division.

Following a poor run of form, Barnsley sacked former manager Paul Hart and replaced him with coach Andy Ritchie, who immediately set about a revolution at Oakwell and led the club back to the Championship in his first full season in charge.  After a dramatic penalty shoot-out win over Swansea City at The Millennium Stadium, the Tykes begin the 2006-07 season in the Championship - a real achievement for Ritchie's men.

History Conducted By: Josh Tidy.

Luton Town v Barnsley...

A full rundown of all of the past meetings

Home Matches   Jan 7 1899 D2 W 4 1     Jan 13 1900 D2 W 3 0     Dec 25 1937 D2 W 4 0 15829   Nov 2 1946 D2 W 3 1 21723   Apr 14 1948 D2 W 2 1 13594   Feb 5 1949 D2 W 1 0 16386   Apr 7 1950 D2 W 3 1 15149   Jan 13 1951 D2 D 1 1 15032   May 3 1952 D2 W 4 2 8789   Mar 14 1953 D2 W 6 0 15315   Jan 11 1964 D3 L 2 3 4555   Apr 7 1965 D3 W 5 1 6112   Oct 9 1965 D4 W 5 4 5948   Jan 14 1967 D4 D 1 1 8287   Aug 26 1967 D4 W 2 0 7887   Aug 28 1968 D3 W 5 1 15899   Nov 8 1969 D3 D 1 1 17422   May 15 1982 D2 D 1 1 14463   Feb 27 1993 ND1 D 2 2 7595   Oct 2 1993 ND1 W 5 0 6201   Oct 29 1994 ND1 L 0 1 7212   Apr 27 1996 ND1 L 1 3 6194   Aug 24 2002 ND2 L 2 3 6230 Report Statto's Corner

Away Matches   Sep 10 1898 D2 L 1 2     Sep 16 1899 D2 L 1 2 2500   Dec 27 1937 D2 L 1 3 8242   May 10 1947 D2 L 0 4 15264   Sep 20 1947 D2 L 0 3 17670   Sep 18 1948 D2 W 2 1 20922   Apr 10 1950 D2 L 0 1 9476   Sep 9 1950 D2 L 1 6 22052   Sep 5 1951 D2 W 2 1 13109   Oct 25 1952 D2 W 3 2 11423   Sep 6 1963 D3 L 1 3 5388   Jan 30 1965 D3 L 0 3 2989   Jan 1 1966 D4 L 0 3 5053   Sep 10 1966 D4 L 1 2 2188   Dec 23 1967 D4 D 2 2 8704   Oct 8 1968 D3 L 1 3 13019   Mar 31 1970 D3 L 1 2 9988   Mar 16 1982 D2 L 3 4 14044   Oct 10 1992 ND1 L 0 3 5261   Mar 26 1994 ND1 L 0 1 6289   Jan 14 1995 ND1