A new season and the same old quiz! Seven questions on Barnsley, our opening opponents in 2021/22, with the answers to be posted on here some time over the weekend.
60s. Starting off with his home town, this avian defender had a healthy scoring record, but he didn’t trouble the scorers so to speak at his second club among the sidings. He continued in red at Barnsley for three years, starting in 1964, where he was a semi regular. Next, he headed for a procession in a dip, staying there for a couple of years before heading for a club which was unique nominally at the time and there has only been one since then to match them I believe (neither side can boast the same claim to fame these days). He stayed with this club for the rest of his career and had a memorable, and prolonged, encounter with City while he was there which saw him score a hat trick of sorts – who is he?
70s. You could pack a dictionary with this Barnsley stalwart by the sound of it!
80s. Born in a place which now has a fishy troop, this midfielder didn’t travel far to join his first club where he did enough to earn a move to another seaside location for what was a big fee at the time. Although he didn’t leave them under the best of terms, he did endear himself to his second club’s supporters with a rare goal. He headed north to play in red after that, not with Barnsley initially, but he had four good years with them during this decade which ended with a falling out with his manager and a couple of moves to other clubs beginning with a B (one of which represented a short return to his roots) before moving abroad to play in the country where he lived until his death at a fairly early age. Can you name him?
90s. Did band play in key at dance in Barnsley (5,5)?
00s. A midfielder who won in his only appearance for his first club when they traveled north to Rotherham and won 3-1. His early senior experience came mainly from loans by dreaming spires, in a left sided dip and in half a dozen pastures. His career began in earnest when he signed for Barnsley as he became a regular during a two year stay which began with a game against City. Although you wouldn’t think it now, his next move probably represented an upward move as he switched to stripes in the east and he was part of a side that earned a promotion. Moving on to a place with a wonky belfry, he was loaned out to alliterative Wanderers and then teamed up with a mad dog in a home for insects before following the aggressive canine to the Spitfires for £20,000. His final club was in Wernham Hogg country, but who is he?
10s. In the Barnsley side for a high scoring game at Cardiff City Stadium during this decade, this loanee has been managed by twice Champions League runner up Hector Cuper during his career, who is he?
20. Possibly an instrument of punishment with medicinal properties?
Anserws:
60s, Barry Swallow scored ten times in not much more than fifty appearances for his home town club, Doncaster, before moving out of Yorkshire for the only time in his career to Crewe for a couple of years that saw him feature mainly as a back up. Swallow was more of a regular at Barnsley between 1964 and 1967, but didn’t make it to a hundred appearances at Oakwell before moving on to Bradford City. It was at York (they and Yeovil are the only teams to have played in the Football League which begin with a Y) where Swallow really made an impact as more than half of his five hundred and fifteen league appearances came for them – in 1970, his own goal meant City escaped with a 1-1 draw from Bootham Crescent in a Third Round FA Cup tie, but, after another 1-1 draw at Ninian Park, Swallow scored twice at St Andrews in the second replay to help his side to a 3-1 win.
70s. Phil Chambers.
80s. Born in Fleetwood (home of the “cod army”), Billy Ronson signed for Blackpool as a teenager and was a club record buy for City in 1979. Never a prolific scorer, he did come up with the decisive goal in the first Cardiff v Swansea league derby at Ninian Park in fifteen years in April 1980, but he was booed relentlessly by City fans when he returned for his new club Wrexham in a Welsh Cup tie. Ronson was only at the Racecourse for a season before he moved to Barnsley in 1982, but a row with manager Allan Clarke meant that his days with them were numbered and, after a loan spell at Birmingham and then three more games for Blackpool, he headed to America where he played for a bewildering number of clubs (including Washington Warthogs!) before retiring. Ronson died at the age of 58 in Maryland in 2015.
90s. Nicky Eaden.
00s. Sam Togwell only played the one game for Crystal Palace who loaned him out to Oxford United, Port Vale and Northampton. He made his Barnsley debut against City on the opening day of the 06/07 season and was a non playing sub in the FA Cup Semi Final against us in 2008. Togwell next played for Scunthorpe, where he played a part in their promotion to the Championship in his first season with them. Togwell signed for Chesterfield in 2012 and there was a loan move to Wycombe before he teamed up with “Mad dog” Martin Allen at Barnet and then Eastleigh – he retired earlier this year after a spell with Slough Town.
10s. Sam Morsy was in the Barnsley team which won 4-3 at Cardiff City Stadium in December 2016 and was also in the Egypt squad (managed by Hector Cuper) in the 2018 World Cup Finals in Moscow where he was used as a substitute against Uruguay.
20s. Herbie Kane.