Quote Originally Posted by animallittle3 View Post
I don't think it's that simple Shad with all due respect , I draw the line criticising young players who are trying to find their way in the game , that's something I'd never do .

When you say grown men booing pathetic that is just the way the game takes folk and reduces us to adolescents at times , I was jumping up and down in the front room with my Man Utd supporting wife just yesterday when United scored that fourth goal , that's not entirely the behaviour you'd associate with a man of 62 and his wife of 52 , even more bizarre given I don't support United but was pleased for her to finally have something to hang her hat on , it's been a while !! .

Every football fan out there is a huge hypocrite , it just goes with the beast that is football .

I just think trying to understand it is perhaps fruitless and probably neither you , me or Pass are right and none of us are wrong either .

It's just football , it's bloody complicated .

That's a fair comment Animal. Personally speaking, I've just matured (speaking in football terms) into perhaps something that I don't particularly like. The game seldom gets me out of my seat these days and when it does, its normally alcohol induced but still feels laboured if you know what I mean. I feel the excitement sometimes but tend to go through the motions. I literally live 5 mins walk from Oakwell but I never really feel the urge to get off my arse and go. It's kind of strange when I think about it. 20 years ago I'd seldom miss a game. Even when we were treading water in league one under Steve Parkin and Glynn Hodges and going thru administration. As crap a season as that was, I'd be excited about going to games. Feeling the 'judder' as my Dad used to say when in sight of the ground.

These days I find myself taking a more philosophical point of view towards our games. The Hecky Wembley season and the Championship season that followed was the last time I felt the 'judder' when going to Oakwell. That was until that infamous January fire sale when a potentially brilliant Barnsley team was dismantled as we lost our best players. Since then, it's been quite subdued from my point of view with the exception of the Val season which was a complete freak and I have to say that during the lockdown, I was completely absorbed in it, perhaps because we were in an unprecedented situation socially and the superhuman effort those players were putting in.


The Bolton game at Oakwell a couple of weeks ago was a classic example of how I've changed in terms of being a football fan. It was a massive game for us and at 2 nil up it was looking rosy. However, as the game drew on, I thought to myself that if Bolton equalise, then they deserve it and it wouldn't be life or death to me as it would've been 20 years prior to that where I would've been absolutely seething and inconsolable.


Strange innit