Barnsley v. Chester FC [FA Cup 2nd Round] 0-0
Well the last thing you need on a freezing December Sunday morning when you have to drive 80 miles across the Pennines is a pulsating, nauseous hangover brought on by a night drinking JaegerBombs with the Liverpool branch of Hell's Angels.
But that's how I roll.
Barely able to hold down breakfast in my charming Preston B&B, I nevertheless had to slap myself into shape and get on the bloody road early unless I was going to miss the game in Barnsley.
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| The M62 Cross-Pennine Route in December. Bleak. |
And so off we set, a little later than I had planned across the stark, barren moorlands of the high Pennines that the M62 cuts through, crossing from red rose county to white, and into Yorkshire.
I had been recommended a pre-match pint in the Old No. 7 in the town centre. There would have been no struggle to find real ale in this award winning pub, I was told!
I'd love to tell you I went in there and had a hoot of a time with new best mates Dickie Bird & Michael Parkinson over a couple of pints of best bitter, before picking up other fellow Tykes Darren Gough and Mr T from the A-Team on the way into the ground - but I'd be lying.
My Saturday night out on the wrong side of the Pennines (from a a Barnsley fan's point of view) had put the kibosh on seeing anything of this apparently quite charming town surrounded by the South Yorkshire countryside.
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| Barnsley Town Hall with a statue of a very small man in front of it. |
So the picture above of Barnsley's Town Hall, which looks like something from Ceausescu-era Bucharest, was lifted off the internet, not viewed in person by me. And what a shame, as it looks amazing. Sorry readers, I let you down.
Mind you, it wouldn't have looked that nice had I actually seen it on Sunday - as just as I pulled up to park outside the ground the heaven opens to a hailstorm of biblical proportions.
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| Barnsley Street Scene: Sunday Hailstorm in December. |
Just look at that fucking sky! I got absolutely drenched. Welcome to Barnsley I thought - the town's weather was punishing me for getting there late and not seeing anything of the town. Bastard.
With only 30 mins till kick-off, and the hail destroying my natural perm, I couldn't really do very much else than buy a soggy programme and take my place in the ground.
I always like to do a circuit of the ground first of course, just to see if anything else is worth seeing before going through the turnstiles. So I headed past the historic West Stand, around the 1990s-built South and East stands to take my seat in the North Stand behind the goal.
Although I couldn't get through to the pigging North Stand that way, could I? There was a whopping great metal fence separating the walk around the ground in the North-East corner, wasn't there?
I stood there in the hail looking at it for a minute, wondering if I could somehow get around that way and avoid a 10 minute freezing cold trudge back 3/4 of the way around the ground.
"You can't get around that way, pal" said a helpful steward.
Thanks for that, chum.
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| East Stand, Oakwell |
On eventually getting back to the North Stand entrance, I realised for the 2nd game in a row the ticket I'd been sold in advance on the internet hadn't quite gone right. Yesterday at Preston I'd been sold a seat that didn't exist within the team dug-outs. Today at Barnsley, I'd managed to buy a ticket in the away end with 2,000 very over-excited travelling Chester fans.
Not that I have a problem with over-excited Chester fans of course. I'm excited for them myself after all the shit that happened to their predecessor Chester City just 4 years ago. Read about it here, if interested. To have got back into the Conference so quickly is a great achievement, and having already knocked out a League side in the last round to be playing Barnsley today - you can understand why the Blue Army were so boisterous.
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| Outside of the Old West Stand, Oakwell. |
So I decided to just go with it. Certainly all the atmosphere was coming from the travelling support in the North Stand - a total crowd of 7,227 was made up of 5,100 subdued home fans and 2,100 all-singing, all-jumping around alcohol-fuelled away fans (I think the other 27 in the ground was basically me and a 26-strong singing-section from the back of the home end).
It was standing room only in there, and if you weren't jumping around or singing along to the "We hate Wrexham" chants you were in danger of being approached by a burly, rather drunk gentleman walking up and down the packed stairs (seemingly known to everyone in there as "Curly") who would put his hand on your shoulder in a gesture of encouragement and shout "COME ON AND SING YOU BORING BUNCH OF BASTARDS!!"
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| Players come out infront of the visiting fans. |
And in fairness to him, I hadn't really been giving the anti-Wrexham vibe much gusto up to this point. I tried for a bit but at half-time, I decided to try and switch ends and go and experience the home end, as I'd originally intended to. I'm all for supporting the underdog, especially in these potential giant-killing cup ties, but I was meant to be visiting Barnsley and too much of the day had been about hangovers and Chester so far.
It was a struggle at first but I did manage to convince a steward in the corner of the stand that I was a Barnsley fan by flashing her the club badge I'd bought in the clubshop beforehand. I was clearly a Barnsley fan, she told her supervisor, as I had a Barnsley badge.
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| The Historic West Stand: Built in 1904. |
Troublemakers take note - You only need to spend £3 on a badge at Oakwell to sneak into the home end. Top tip there for fans of football-related violence. Luckily, all I was after from the home end was a tray of chips and a pie without having to queue for 20mins like I would have had to in the packed-out away end.
I was walked along the back of the magnificent West Stand, which for whatever reason was closed for this cup game but for the important bods in the Director's box. One of the fans I spoke to before the match told me that most fans have a great love for this stand - there is even a fanzine named after it ("West Stand Bogs"), and in his opinion it should be a listed building.
I quite agree with him - these old stands, even though unfortunately converted to all-seater, are becoming more and more of a rarity as I travel the 92 this season, and the 92 Club is all the poorer for that.
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| Oakwell's East Stand: Completed in 1993. |
Take a look at the facing East stand in comparison - yes ok it's modern and more comfy and full-covered and all that jazz, but take away the lettering in the seats and that could be any number of stadiums these days. Bring back the Archibald Leitch style Edwardian terraces, I say!
But then I'm a traditionalist at heart.
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| 2nd Half View of the Chester Fans in the North Stand as Barnsley attack. |
The game itself, well - it wasn't actually that bad as a 0-0 would suggest. It was certainly entertaining in the 1st half being with the excitable visiting fans. In the 2nd half I was surrounded mostly by disappointed Barnsleyites distraught that they were probably going out of the cup to non-league opposition, but most of the action came in the last 25 minutes.
Barnsley did have the lion's share of the game and a number of chances they should perhaps have done better with. And in the 2nd half, when the stout No. 11 Dale Jennings came on, he started to terrorise the tiring Chester back lane down the left and sending in crosses and slot-balls that a red shirt should have been on the end of.
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| East & North Stands: With the odd 3-tier Corner Stand in the middle. |
But it was Chester who had the clearest chances - a couple of scrambled-away goal-line clearances and an effort in the 2nd half pushed onto the crossbar by the Barnsley keeper in front of the travelling fans. Who all went "OOOOOH!" collectively, of course.
It was a tense finish to what might have otherwise seemed a drab game, and a late bit of pressure from Barnsley was batted away by Chester keeper Jon Worsnop (great name!), who himself played almost the entire match with a smashed-up cheekbone and minus a tooth after an early save and a clumsy leg left in late by a Barnsley player nearly spelt the end of his afternoon on the pitch.
It took Worsnop a good 5 mins to even stand up straight without wobbling after the collision, but he was eventually passed fit by a doctor who had run onto the pitch from the director's box to check him out. Well, I assume he was a Doctor and not just some random man in a sheepskin coat who ran on the pitch. Now I think about it I never saw anyone ask for his credentials before he treated Worsnop.
Even if he was a charlatan, he seemed to do the trick and Chester would have been glad to keep Worsnop between the sticks for his deserved clean sheet.
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| Sun came out in the end for the start of the game. Nice shot that. |
So, back to Chester's Deva Stadium for the replay then Tuesday week. I mean, I won't be going, obviously - I'm not mentally ill, you know!
So, that's another ground done then and as I waved goodbye to Barnsley I'm also having a little break from my little 92 club quest for a few weeks at least. I have got so carried away with all this that I've not seen my own team play for a while now.
So next weekend, I'll be going to watch them.
Don't worry though - I'll be back in January for more of this nonsense!
Only 16 left to do now - can I knock them all off by the end of the season in May?
With thanks to Paul Robinson (@BFCDrinkers)
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