Why the play-offs shouldn’t define Barnsley’s season

At the start of the season back in July 2022, did anyone expect Barnsley Football Club to have confirmed their place in the play-offs with several games to spare? Me neither.

I suspect most supporters, me included expected the reds to finish anywhere from mid table to just outside the play-offs. So whilst I am now getting nervous at the prospect of a two legged semi final with Bolton Wanderers after conceding nine goals in three games, losing two and drawing one of those it is time to reflect on what has been a very good season so far for the Reds.

Some fans feared a double relegation

You never know how a side will react to being relegated, never mind a team that had waved the white flag whilst in the Championship for most of that season. Two awful managerial appointments in Markus Schopp and Poya Asbaghi confirmed our fate from day one. A team that had been so close to the Premier League under Valerien Ismael to one that looked a shadow of itself by September the following season was nothing short of disastrous. Then the board members doing their best to alienate themselves from the fanbase with meddling in transfers and you had a toxic mix around Oakwell last season. No wonder some fans feared a double relegation.

In fact, this time last season we were relegated on live television at Huddersfield going down with a whimper. Only then to lose emphatically in the last home game against Preston North End and West Brom wiped the floor with us on the last game of the season. The end of the season couldn’t have come quick enough.

Turnaround under Michael Duff

So to be in this position a year on is some achievement that manager Michael Duff, his backroom staff and the players should all be proud of.

To lose a crop of your best players, bring ten new players in either on loan or free transfers and still mount a challenge for automatic promotion shows the turnaround in fortunes at Oakwell. To lose Luke Thomas and Conor McCarthy so early on in the season to long term injuries didn’t help either but it didn’t derail the reds challenge for promotion.

Whilst we worry about the fitness of Mads Andersen and the teams current form ahead of the play-offs, we should all take a step back and be proud of how this team have grown and won 31 games this season accumulating the second best points tally since three points for a win was introduced.

Whatever happens in the play offs it shouldn’t define our season. You want year on year progression and I have no doubt with Duff at the helm even if we start next season again in the third tier we will be right up there challenging for automatic promotion.