It is not Brazil any longer

Last updated : 20 September 2005 By Tony Scholes
Robbie Williams
Much has happened to Barnsley over the last few years and it hardly seems believable now that they were playing Premiership football as recently as 1997/98. They have hardly been successful since and apart from a play off place in 2000 that nearly saw them return to the top league they have failed to secure a top half place in any league since they were relegated from the Premiership.

Danny Wilson was the manager in charge when they were supposedly playing like Brazil in the top flight but as with all non successful clubs there has been a steady change of managers and current boss Andy Ritchie, the former Oldham manager, is the ninth since Wilson.

He took over from Paul Hart back in March of this year, initially as caretaker, and was not expected to get the job on a full time basis. However he did well enough to get the job and he currently sees his side in 6th place in League One.

Barnsley have had their problems financially and it all started when long serving chairman John Dennis placed the club into administration. A hard up mayor and Peter Ridsdale later they are back in business although for a time it did look as they could close down.

Ritchie has been able to do some rebuilding and he brought in four players during the summer. He signed three of them on the same day at the beginning of June, bringing in Brian Howard from Swindon and Scunthorpe pair Richard Kell and Paul Hayes.

It’s been bad news for Howard who broke a bone in his foot on the first day of pre-season training and is still awaiting his first game in a Barnsley shirt. As for Hayes, they took him on a Bosman and being under-23 they have recently found out they have to pay an initial £70,000 for him which will double if he plays a full season.

Later in the month Ritchie signed Daniel Nardiello from Manchester United, the 22 year-old forward had twice previously been at Oakwell on loan.
Since the start of the season there have been two more additions to the squad. Martin Devaney, long linked with Burnley, signed from Watford whilst at the end of August Marc Richards arrived from Northampton.

Current form has been good and they have won two and drawn one this month, the draw coming last Saturday in Milton Keynes against Franchise. What a pity they couldn’t win it but they did dump the pariahs of English football, now under the direction of Barnsley’s former Premiership boss Danny Wilson, on the bottom of the league.

Click HERE to see all Barnsley’s results this season.

Team News

It is going to be difficult to even consider what the starting line up will be for the Tykes with manager Ritchie admitting that he will be shuffling his pack for this one. Just like Carlisle they are not likely to field a full strength side.

He has confirmed that highly rated young goalkeeper Scott Flinders will play in an otherwise unknown line up. Flinders is still to make his league debut for Barnsley. Also expected to start are Bobby Hassell (a sub on Saturday), Stephen McPhail and Matt Carbon but Paul Reid is ruled out with injury.

Their team at Franchise on Saturday, a team which is likely to be somewhat different tonight was: Nick Colgan, Paul Reid, Neil Austin, Robbie Williams, Martin Devaney, Jacob Burns, Antony Kay, Nicky Wroe, Chris Shuker, Paul Hayes, Barry Conlon. Subs: Scott Flinders, Bobby Hassell, Dale Tonge, Marc Richards, Daniel Nardiello.

Click HERE to see the full Barnsley squad.

Steve Cotterill will welcome back Garreth O’Connor into the squad after he completed his three match suspension on Saturday and it is unlikely the Burnley boss will be doing any tinkering with his squad.

O’Connor should return to the squad where he is expected to replace Karl Bermingham who is unlikely to be given clearance to play by Manchester City. That would then just leave the concern of replacing Keith Lowe should Wolves do likewise, and that is likely.

The good news is that both Jon Harley and John Spicer were left out of their previous clubs’ ties in the last round and are able to play. Burnley will line up something like:

Danny Coyne, Wade Elliott, Michael Duff, John McGreal, Jon Harley, John Spicer, Micah Hyde, James O’Connor, Garreth O’Connor, Gifton Noel-Williams, Ade Akinbiyi. Subs: Brian Jensen, Duane Courtney, Chris McCann, Graham Branch, Kyle Lafferty.

Last Time

That last cup tie against Barnsley in 1911 saw Burnley through with goals from Morley and Green but the last meeting between the clubs at the Turf was in the 2001/02 season in our current division.

That game ended 3-3 but it really should have been a big win for Burnley but it wasn’t the best of games and a game that was spoiled by an awful performance from referee Graham Laws.

Stan Ternent gave Tony Grant his first start for the Clarets, he replaced Arthur Gnohere from the side that had lost the week before at Forest.
We were 2-0 up with a Chris Morgan own goal and a second from Lee Briscoe but inexplicably we allowed a poor Barnsley side back into it before apparently sealing the win with a penalty from substitute Andy Payton four minutes from time. However, Barnsley came back to earn themselves a draw with a free kick from Darren Barnard two minutes later.

The teams were,

Burnley: Nik Michopoulos, Dean West (Andy Payton 67), Steve Davis, Ian Cox, Lee Briscoe, Paul Weller, Kevin Ball, Tony Grant, Paul Cook (Brad Maylett 55), Ian Moore (Gordon Armstrong 84), Gareth Taylor. Subs not used: Luigi Cennamo, Dimitri Papadopoulos.

Barnsley: Andy Marriott, Lee Crooks, Chris Morgan, Jonathan Parkin (Darren Barnard 50), Chris Barker, Chris Lumsdon, John Oster, Kevin Gallen, Mitch Ward (Bruce Dyer 40), Peter Sand, Kevin Donovan (Dean Gorre 87). Subs not used: Matt Ghent, Carl Regan.

Previous 20 Seasons

Season

Div

Ven

Result

Att

Scorers

1994/95

1

h

0-1

11,968

.

.

.

a

0-2

5,537

.

2000/01

1

a

0-1

18,725

.

..

h

2-1

15,380

Johnrose Payton

2001/02

1

h

3-3

14,690

Morgan(og) Briscoe Payton(pen)

.

.

a

1-1

14,411

Taylor

Click HERE to see all our results against Barnsley since our first meeting in 1901.