15 YEARS AGO TODAY - THE BATTLE OF OAKWELL

Matt Bailey (the handsome one)

As the title of this article suggests, it's 15 years ago to the day, since we welcomed Liverpool to Oakwell during our one and only season in the top flight of English football. 


It's a day and a game that will no doubt be forever remembered by Reds supporters, but for the wrong reasons. 


I welcome Barnsley Player commentator and lifelong Tarn supporter, Matt Bailey to the blog, where he gives us his take on that infamous afternoon.. 

You the Guv'nor? Me Jovo..

Liverpool arrived at Oakwell on Saturday March 28th 1998, looking to avenge a 1-0 defeat sustained against Barnsley at Anfield the previous November.


The reds went into the game optimistic of completing a Premier League double over the Merseyside giants, having won three successive games against Wimbledon; Aston Villa and Southampton.


There was an intense, almost hostile atmosphere inside the ground and tempers were frayed, especially in Liverpool's case. Barnsley were the better side and captain fantastic Neil Redfearn deservedly fired them in front via Martin Bullock's deflected low cross from the left, in the 37th minute.

Captain Fantastic

Karl-Heinz Riedle equalised from close range shortly before the break, as the first-half passed without major incident. That cannot be said of the second period....




The referee that day was 37 year old, Gary Willard from Worthing in Sussex - who had the dubious distinction of holding the highest tally of Premiership players booked during that particular campaign. 


Willard brandished his first red card eight minutes after the interval, when Darren Barnard clipped Michael Owen's heels as he threatened to go clean through down the right of the penalty area. Barnard looked to be the last man and that particular dismissal was probably correct.

Willard takes centre stage

Barnard heads for his early bath

The visitors capitalised on the reds reduction to ten men and Riedle put them into the lead with a thirty yard screamer, just before the hour mark. Six minutes later, Barnsley were down to nine men, when Chris Morgan's raised arm appeared to catch Owen in the face. The contact was plainly minimal, but Willard gleefully produced another red card.

Morgan dismissed as Owen whinges

It was all too much for one angry supporter, who ran onto the field in a bid to attack the referee, but was rugby-tackled to the ground by Jan-Aage Fjortoft. Willard - fearing for his safety - decided to take the players off the pitch, possibly on the advice of the head steward and there was around five minutes of uncertainty before the teams eventually re-emerged from the tunnel and the game got back underway. 

The fastest I ever saw Fjortoft move

In the words of Barnsley manager Danny Wilson, Willard had "Clearly lost the plot."

Roy Evans and Danny Wilson

The clash continued after the flashpoint and when Phil Babb brought substitute Georgi Hristov down in the box, Redfearn slammed home the resultant penalty, to put the nine man reds back on terms, after 85 minutes.


Liverpool began to exploit the space as Barnsley tired and Steve McManaman fired in what proved to be their winner in the final minute. Darren Sheridan was then involved in a stoppage time altercation with McManaman and Paul Ince. Willard continued his zero tolerance approach to proceedings by issuing 'Shez' with a second yellow card and as a consequence; his marching orders.


This sparked a mini pitch invasion as seething fans attempted to vent their spleen on the beleagured official. Ince and Redfearn managed to protect Willard, who was then led off the field with a police escort as chaos ensued once more. There was an appeal for calm over the public address system and the pitch was cleared and order restored to give the man in the middle the opportunity to blow the full-time whistle.

Ince makes his best tackle of the day

It had been a shocking display of refereeing and Willard had seemed to revel in it all; his sense of self-importance growing visibly with every inexplicable decision he made.


I still feel a big sense of anger and injustice some fifteen years on. Barnsley had gone into that game in a confident frame of mind following a fine run of form - we were outplaying Liverpool until Willard decided to have his "moment" in the spotlight and I feel we would've gone onto win if we had kept the full compliment of players and if we had done so, I remain convinced that we would also have avoided relegation.

Reds supporters appeal for justice

As it was, that result and the events of the day seemed to knock the stuffing out of us and I don't think it was any coincidence that Barnsley only managed one victory in their final eight games of the season (Sheffield Wednesday: 2-1 at Oakwell over the Easter weekend). 


Our fate was effectively sealed on that sunny, incident packed, Spring afternoon at Oakwell.


It is of course 'Sheffield Wednesday Week' on this very blog and it is interesting to note that Gary Willard had in fact taken charge of the clash between the Owls and the Reds at Hillsborough the previous December, when the two clubs locked horns at top-flight level for the first time ever. 


Wednesday's maverick Italian attacking-midfielder Paolo Di Canio took it upon himself to question the officials' every decision that night, remonstrating with Willard and co at every opportunity. He received a yellow card, but the amount of dissent he was displaying clearly warranted a second booking and a dismissal, but Willard seemed to remain oblivious at Di Canio's attempts to undermine both himself and his colleagues.


With the scoreline locked at 1-1 it looked as though Barnsley would earn themselves a draw and a valuable point, but Di Canio inevitably popped up to score a dramatic late winner for Wednesday even though he should have been busy running the bath water for his team mates. Thanks Gary!






Far be it from me to suggest that Gary Willard had an agenda against our club during that historic campaign - I'm certainly no conspiracy theorist; maybe he was just a shocking referee full stop and it was merely coincidence that he was the man in the middle for the two most controversial games of Barnsley FC's solitary season in the Premier League... 

Mussolini

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Matt for giving us his summary of that quite extraordinary encounter, and fingers crossed his dulcet tones will be describing a massive victory this Saturday for the Reds, over on Barnsley Player. 

You can follow Matt 'HERE' on twitter.




That's about it for 'Wednesday Week' on the blog. 

Thanks to all this weeks contributors, and to you lot for reading. 


Up The Tarn!