Barnsley

Barnsley lit up the Premier League following their arrival for season 1997–98, after finishing 
runners-up in the First Division title race. Armed with money from a record number of season
ticket sales manager Danny Wilson invested heavily in the club’s first season in the newly 
formed elite and splashed out a new club record fee of £1.5 million to bring in striker Georgi 
Hristov from Partizan Belgrade.

With the chant ‘It’s just like watching Brazil’ echoing around Oakwell Barnsley got off to a 
flier in the opening home game against West Ham and Neil Redfearn had the honour of s
coring Barnsley’s first Premiership goal when he headed home after just seven minutes but 
The Hammers hit back to take the points with two second half goals. Undaunted ‘The Red 
Army’ headed south for game number two and a first Premiership victory was achieved as, 
once again, Neil Redfearn scored to defeat Crystal Palace.

Two games, three points on the board and next up were Chelsea for a televised game. 
Barnsley fans were loving life in the fast lane but they came down with a bump as Chelsea 
rattled up a 6–0 victory to remind the newcomers that the Premiership was a whole new 
ball game.

Confidence was shattered by that mauling but the team bounced back to win 2–1 at home 
to Bolton but it proved a ‘one-off’ as defeats followed at Derby, 1–0, at home to Aston Villa,
3–0, 4–2 at Everton and 4–1 at Wimbledon. It got worse as Leicester won 2–0 at Oakwell 
before Arsenal rattled up a 5–0 score at Highbury.

The rude awakening of that run forced the manager’s hand and he signed Ashley Ward 
from Derby County and it paid off, initially, as Ward opened his account in the 2–0 win at 
home to Coventry that arrested a run of six consecutive League defeats. But next up were 
Manchester United, the reigning champions, and they delighted another capacity crowd at 
the Theatre of Dreams with a nightmare 7–0 thrashing for The Tykes. The 4–1 loss at 
Southampton meant that Barnsley had conceded 25 goals in just nine Premiership outings 
so they were on a hiding to nothing when they went to Anfield in late November but fate 
had something else in mind.

With new signing Peter Markste making his debut, at the heart of the defence, and German 
’keeper Lars Leese inspired between the sticks Ashley Ward scrambled home the only goal
for what proved to be Barnsley’s best win of their Premiership campaign.

The next two fixtures were local derbies against Leeds United and Sheffield Wednesday but 
both were cruelly lost to last minute goals and Barnsley remained rooted to the foot of the 
Premiership table mid-December but a run of improved form began with a 2–2 draw at home 
to Newcastle United. Although they then lost 3–0 at Spurs a 1–1 draw at Bolton and a 1–0 
success over Derby meant that December had yielded five points from five games. Not 
earth shattering but enough to give Tykes’ fans hope for the New Year, unfortunately West 
Ham shattered that optimism with a 6–0 mauling to open 1998 with a bang. Seven days 
later Barnsley bounced back and completed their first League double of the season with a 
1–0 win at home to Crystal Palace but then Chelsea completed their ‘double’ with a 2–0 win 
at Stamford Bridge.

February saw an improvement in form and three games yielded four points, a 2–2 draw at 
home to Everton was followed by a 1–0 defeat at Coventry before Wimbledon were beaten 
2–1 at Oakwell, with new signing, Jan Arge Fjortoft scoring both goals. Barnsley took that f
orm into March and began the month with an impressive 1–0 win at Aston Villa, against 
Ashley Ward was the scorer. Three days later Barnsley delighted their home fans with a 
thrilling 4–3 win over Southampton in which Fjortoft scored again. Liverpool were next up at 
Oakwell but the game proved pivotal in the fight to avoid an immediate return to the 
Nationwide League.

With the score level at 1–1 the referee sent off two Barnsley players, Darren Barnard and 
Chris Morgan and Liverpool went 2–1 up with Karl Heinz Riedle scoring his second goal. The 
referee then mysteriously left the field and after a short break returned to the game which 
Barnsley levelled to 2–2. However, with 9-man Barnsley looking set for an unlikely draw, the 
referee then dismissed Darren Sheridan and from the resultant free-kick Steve McManaman 
scored for Liverpool to snatch a 3–2 victory.

That reverse effectively ended Barnsley’s fight to stay in the Premiership and the team 
won just one of their remaining seven games, a 2–1 success at home to neighbours 
Sheffield Wednesday on 11 April. Seven days later Barnsley picked up their final point in 
the top flight with a 1–1 home draw against Spurs. Fittingly Neil Redfearn, who had scored 
the club’s first Premiership goal, back in August, was the scorer of the last one. Barnsley 
went on to end to a memorable first, brief, stay in the Premier League with three 
consecutive defeats that finished on 10 May 1998 with a 2–0 home defeat to Manchester 
United.

Managers

Danny Wilson          1994–1998