Barnsley Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England. The team play in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed "the Tykes", they were founded in 1887 by Reverend Tiverton Preedy under the name Barnsley St. Peter's. The club colours are red and white, and their home ground since 1888 has been Oakwell. Until the middle of last week they were a traditional old fashioned Yorkshire club down to earth no nonsense type of club, now they are owned by a Chinese billionaire and an American Billy Beane who I gather looks at the statistical side of the game involving the Moneyball scenario now in fashion at both Brentford and Fulham. The new owners are also involved in League 1 side Nice and have stated that they are not going to blitz money into the club immediately, so most of the next months imports will probably come from the South of France. Involvement from overseas some times works although Birmingham may not think so. Best of luck to the Yorkshire side however the locals may regret in time what has happened. On the pitch the home side are having a sticky run of results, currently 20th in the table having lost more than half their matches including yesterday 2-1 at Fulham. They have not won in nine since beating Birmingham and have shipped a few goals in the last couple of home games. Ex North End target Tom Bradshaw on target yesterday is their leading scorer. Oakwell is one of those grounds you do not mind going to three new stands and the old main stand built when Dickie Bird was a mere thought in his parents mind, atmospheric it is with a decent away end for the masses who will travel tomorrow. suspect Neil will change things around and advise the forward players to shoot more often, however a word to those who gave Alan Browne the bird on his substitution, no need for that eighth in the table two points from the play offs support rather than negativity is needed for the team. And on that a shorter thread than normal, all the best for Christmas, match report sometime on Tuesday night. Ref Watch: Barnsley please log in to view this image Taking charge of his second Lilywhites game of the season, Geoff Eltringham will be the referee for our Boxing Day trip to Oakwell to take on Paul Heckingbottom’s Barnsley. please log in to view this image Having officiated our early season game at Derby County, Geoff also took charge of one North End game last season, the home clash with our same St Stephen’s Day opponents Barnsley, having also done one the previous season, the 1-0 home win over Reading. The year prior to that he took charge of three PNE games, including the 2-0 home win over Peterborough United in March. The previous season he also took charge of North End twice, both of those at Deepdale - the 1-1 draw with Tranmere Rovers back in November 2013 and then the goalless draw with Sheffield United in March. The County Durham official is an experienced referee who had taken charge of North End a number of times in the past including the very first game after the departure of Graham Westley, when John Dreyer took the team against an in-form Bournemouth side and ran out 2-0 winners. He also looked after a thriller back in 2010, when North End overcame Crystal Palace 4-3 at Deepdale. This will be the match official’s third Barnsley game of the season, he has already visited Oakwell for their 2-1 home defeat to Ipswich Town and a 1-1 draw with Queens Park Rangers and in his 16 games he has issued 52 cautions and just one red card, a fortnight ago in the Wolves-Leeds clash at Molineux. For our penultimate game of the calendar year, the referee will be assisted by Nick Greenhalgh and James Mainwaring, whilst experienced official Andy Haines will act as the fourth official. Stat Attack: Barnsley please log in to view this image Tuesday will be the 87th time we have played a league match on Boxing Day, but only the 26th occasion we have found ourselves on the road the day after Christmas. please log in to view this image The first of those trips was to West Bromwich in 1888 and we came away having beaten Albion 5-0 that day. Fortunately the fixture planners have generally been kind, with only trips to Leicester and Cardiff in 1959 and 1963 respectively required any extensive travel. As for today’s hosts, this is our 50th league meeting with Barnsley and so of course our 25th visit to Oakwell. We have a 50 per cent success rate, in that we have taken points from half our matches there from six wins and six draws. Although we had a comfortable victory in our first visit to the Tykes winning 4-0 in 1901, it was to take 49 years and 12 further attempts before we next came home with all the points. We matched that 4-0 scoreline exactly 100 years later, but we have only scored more than one goal on two other occasions, losing 4-2 in 1931 and winning 3-0 under Alan Irvine in 2009. please log in to view this image Our hosts have been equally frugal with the goals, history suggesting today might be a tight affair. Jimmy Baxter began and ended his career with Barnsley, either side of a spell as a member of our great 1950s side that challenged for the league title and reached the 1954 FA Cup Final. Others to have played for both clubs include Deniol Graham, David Lucas, Jon Macken and Iain Hume. On This Date Two former players both celebrate their 35th birthdays today. Michael Keane is perhaps best remembered for his debut appearance in 2001, wearing a shirt that had clearly been made for a much bigger man! He certainly endeared himself to the fans and went on to make 65 appearances before crossing to Hull City in 2003. Guylain Ndumbu-Nsongo is one of a select band of players with hyphenated surnames to appear for North End, the Congolese player making six appearances on loan from Sheffield Wednesday in 2004. Two players who went on to have long careers at Deepdale made their debuts in the same game back in 1960. Full back George Ross and winger Dave Wilson were products of our highly successful youth team who reach the FA Youth Cup Final the previous season and both were selected for the home game with Nottingham Forest. Sadly the match ended in a 1-0 defeat, but George went on to make 441 appearances for the club and Dave had 327 games to his name by the time he left in 1974. George of course returned to the club as a matchday host until his sad death two years ago and lies eighth on our all-time appearances list. Last Five Games At Oakwell Barnsley 0 Preston North End 0, 4th February 2017 Barnsley 1 (Ibhere) Preston North End 1 (Garner), 21st March 2015 Barnsley 2 (O’Connor, Haynes) Preston North End 0, 1st February 2011 Barnsley 0 Preston North End 3 (Parry, Mellor, Parkin), 18th August 2009 Barnsley 1 (Cureton) Preston North End 1 (Wallace), 28th December 2008
All seasons greetings to you and yours Mac. Have a safe journey tomorrow and come away with 3 points.
Barnsley 0 Preston North End 0 Barnsley: Davies, Yiadom, Pinnock, Lindsay, Fryers, Gardner, Williams, Mallan, Isgrove (Barnes 74), Hammill, Bradshaw. Subs (not used): McCarthy, MacDonald, McGeehan, Ugbo, Thiam, Townsend. PNE: Maxwell, Woods (Browne 78), Huntington, Davies, O'Connor, Pearson, Gallagher (Harrop 59), Barkhuizen, Johnson, Horgan (Mavididi69), Hugill. Subs (not used): Boyle, Cunningham, Welsh, Rudd. Referee: Geoff Eltringham (County Durham) Atttendance: 14,014 (1,938 PNE) always seemed like we wanted one touch too manyWell after battling through the snowy waste land to get to the game this can be best described as a Christmas Turkey, North End probably just about shaded the firqst half but possibly put their worst 45 minutes of the season in the second period. Firstly the good news Cunningham was back on the bench since the injury in August, which may be as well as O'Connor had a horror of an afternoon against Hamill. We had the better of the early play hitting the post through Hugill and generally looking like we might score against a suspect home defence. Barkhuizen had plenty of joy but like Saturday got into good positions but we were starting to struggle against the impressive Yiadom who gave the experienced Hamill a useful foil to play off. The full back had the home sides best effort well tipped away by Maxwell. Anothyer home effort went narrowly over the top however we forced a number of corners getting towards the break and generally looked the maore likely of the two tpo score with Horgan being the main danger although always tended to get the ball when we didn't have a player within miles of him. Second half, apart from two shots and a corner created absolutely nothing and the home side certain looked the better side, lots of nice close passing by us which got us nowhere followed a long hopeful punt to the ever willing Hugill. The home sided again were denied by Maxwell especially late on Barnes had a goal bound effort well saved by the keeper. The home side had a hugh claim for a penalty when Woods and Gardner met in the area after the home pllayer looked well placed. Mr Eltringham didn't give which probably means it was a nailed on penalty. Seven minutes of extra time only prolonged the misery, put it down to experience. Barnsley first team coach Jamie Clapham: "It was a classic Boxing Day fixture. It was high energy, passionate game. It was enjoyable to be on the sidelines watching it. "Preston are a good, solid team and their expectations will be to be in and around the play-offs. "Their keeper made some good saves. I think we were on top in the first 15 minutes, then they really came into the game. In the second half I think there was only one team who looked like scoring, but it wasn't to be so we will take this point. "The positive thing is the performance of the players. Over the past three games, the performance levels have risen to where we know they can be." Preston North End manager Alex Neil: "Tom Barkhuizen got into three good areas with chances to slide Jordan Hugill in, but he chose to either shoot or he fired it in without the pace or detail on it that it needed. "Jordan himself hit the post with one and these are the margins between winning and losing. We've won a lot of games 1-0 this year because we score that chance when we get it. "It was an old-fashioned game and we had chances in the first half, but in the second half we weren't creative enough in front of goal. "We know we need to add more goals, I've said this for the past few weeks.."
