Barnsley

Barnsley v Reading

Sky Bet Championship
Oakwell
Wednesday 11th December 2019

7:45pm

Journey Time to the ground: 5 hours 30 minutes.  I'd booked a half-day at work for the trip up to Barnsley and ended up leaving work at 1:15pm for the coach pick-up in town at 1:30pm.  Despite some rush hour traffic on the M1 we stopped for a 45-minute break at Woodall Services and grabbed some dinner at KFC.  The coach managed to park up in the away car park at 6:45pm.

Ticket Price: £23

Programme Price: £3

Attendance: 11,510 with 294 Reading fans.

This was my first visit to Oakwell, a ground that I had wanted to visit since Barnsley's one Premier League season in 1997-98.  We hadn't arrived as early as we had on previous coach trips owing to traffic on the M1 so we had a quick look in the club shop before making our way into the ground.  We had tickets in the away end in the Palmer North Stand behind one of the goals, which is a single-tiered all-seater stand.  The view from close to the front of the stand was good, especially with sparse away support, and the leg room was comfortable.

To the left of the Palmer North Stand is The Investment Room East Stand which also incorporates the C.K. Bennett Family Stand.  This is a large two-tiered all-seater stand and the most vociferous of the Barnsley support seemed to congregate in this stand.  Opposite the Palmer North Stand is the C.K. Bennett South Stand.  This is a large single-tiered all-seater stand and almost identical to the away end.  In between The Investment Room East Stand and the C.K. Bennett North Stand is the Club 04 Disabled Corner Stand which is a small three-tiered structure exclusively for the use of disabled supporters.  To the right of the Palmer North Stand is the Haylesden West Stand.  This is a smaller single-tiered all-seater stand which would originally have been the main stand at Oakwell and houses the team dug-outs at its front.

With Barnsley struggling towards the foot of the table I was hopeful of picking up all three points however the first half-ended 0-0 with the best chance of the half coming when Charlie Adam's well hit effort from 25-yards was parried by Sami Radlinger in the Barnsley goal. 

Barnsley took the lead just before the hour mark when Jacob Brown intercepted a Michael Morrison pass inside the Reading box and the ball fell to Cauley Woodrow who stroked home from seven yards.  Reading pushed for an equaliser and got their reward when Lucas Joao poked home from close range after the home side were unable to clear Adam's left-wing corner.  Both teams pushed for a winner but ultimately had to settle for a point.

Atmosphere: The atmosphere wasn't bad despite it not being the largest crowd.  The home fans in The Investment Room East Stand tried to make some noise and despite the low attendance, the atmosphere in the away end was ok.  

Journey Time home: 4 hours 15 minutes.  The coach left the ground around 9:45pm and dropped us into town just after 1:45am after a short stop at Warwick Services and a diversion around Nottingham and Derby as the M1 was closed.

I did enjoy my trip to Oakwell, although it's not the best away day I've ever been on.  It was cold and the fact that it was midweek meant the attendance was lower than it would have been had the game been played at the weekend.  It also meant that we didn't get home until 2am, so getting up for work the next morning was difficult!  I was expecting Reading to pick up all three points so to end up going home with only one point was quite frustrating.  It would be nice to visit Oakwell when the ground is sold out as I imagine the atmosphere would be really good.