ten things...
Barnsley
1 Before bloody great coal mines tunnelled beneath the place, Barnsley was a market town for centuries. People would come from all over this region and one tyke was selling Mitre, Adidas and Nike gear to all those budding Yorkshire footballers for funny money.
2 Reverend Tiverton Preedy got his congregation formed up in WM formation in 1887 at St Peter's church. They weren't so holier than thou though, deciding to turn professional and later entered FL div2 to boot.
3 Barnsley more or less kicked off at Oakwell, which was handy because there was a nice flat green field there to play on. Also the brown and white stripes had to go, as they wanted a distinct contrast with those regular brown balls and boots.
4 Prior to WW1 as a div2 outfit they unbelievably won an FA Cup. In the whole cup run they fielded only 12 players and took the trophy at Sheffield's Bramall Lane. Never in the field of knockout football had so many devoted Yorkshiremen eventually been made victorious by so few.
5 In a league reshuffle in 1915, third placed Barnsley had a chance to take a spare spot in div1. However Arsenal got 'promoted' by committee ballot and voting went south. Enraged men from Yorkshire had a long and lonely journey in grim fashion back up north.
6 Before WW2 Barnsley had dropped into third division north and had a few years as a yo-yo club. After the war it seemed Danny Balnchflower would set them on the road to success but they got an offer no tyke would refuse.
7 In the sixties and seventies it was doom and gloom until Allan Clarke became player manager. Norman Hunter came next and crowds also followed like in all their yesterdays of Leeds run of luck.
8 In the eighties Thatcher left her mark on striking mining communities and by association, hand to mouth, bread and butter-less northern football clubs.
9 Can you believe it, bloody Barnsley forever of div1 had only gone and gotten into the Premiership in '97. Oh well, it was all over inside twelve months and life went back to normal.
10 Then Administration as interested parties now picked over scraps of a 21st century club. Previously they'd had so much pride for over one hundred years in football league. Eeh by gum, it's a rum 'un for t' tykes.
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