Barnsley
Website : www.barnsleyfc.co.uk
Ground : Oakwell
Capacity : 23,009
Home colours : red shirts, white shorts, red socks
Club nickname : The Tykes
Pitch dimensions : 101m x 69m
Founded : 1887
Record attendance : 40,255 v Stoke City, February 15th 1936
Record win : 9-0 v Loughborough Town, January 28th 1899
Record defeat : 0-9 v Notts County, November 19th 1927
Posted by : Ady Mirf
Date : 30/04/10
Subject : 280 miles - wrong ground!
QPR V Barnsley 3pm K.O, 19 Jan 2008
I set off from my home in Newcastle early one Saturday morning, had a look around London, and headed to QPR, but there were Tube restrictions due to maintenance works around the area. So I had to get a bus. I asked a guy which one to get and he said "If you're off to the game follow me!". So I sat on the bus opposite this guy who was on the phone the whole 20 minute journey so I couldn't have banter with him.
We got off the bus just after 3pm and headed down a road where crowd noise was echoing through the streets but no sight of the ground. As I got closer I could just make out a chant, "Arsenal, Arsenal, Arsenal!". I stopped and said "Oh ****, this ain't QPR is it?" to the guy who was still on the phone, now looking puzzled at me. He replyed, "Na it's Fulham - Arsenal".
Gutted.
So it turns out, this guy was Austrailian and thought my Barnsley shirt was an Arsenal one, I've come 280+ miles to stand outside the wrong ground, 20 minutes into the game! I nearly cried.
I spoke to a policeman on the street to explain my story, and asked where QPR is, to which he replied "You got no chance of making it!". Just as I was walking away, head in hands, he shouted me back and asked me to jump in his Police van and offered to escort me to QPR, sirens on, weaving in out of West End traffic! Brilliant fun. Got there at Half Time, where the Policeman said "Don't ask for my name or shake my hand, just jump out and enjoy the game".
Barnsley were 2-0 down at Half Time, and thats the way it finished.