Survival An Achievement?

Barnsley’s third season back in English football’s second tier ended with yet another relegation dogfight, going down to the last day of the season for the first time.

However, discounting Leeds United’s points deduction in 2007, this season saw Barnsley avoid the drop by more points than they did in the previous two seasons.

In 2007 they finished 4 points clear of 22nd placed Leeds United, who subsequently had 10 points deducted.

In 2008, an F.A. Cup run as far as the Semi Final at Wembley saw the Tykes avoid the drop by just 3 points, with Leicester City eventually filling the last relegation spot.

This year however, Barnsley finished 6 points clear of 22nd placed Norwich City. The gap before the final game of the campaign was just 3 points but a victory for the Reds and defeat for the Canaries doubled the size of the gap and meant that Plymouth were the team lucky enough to escape the dreaded bottom 3 by the lowest margin – 5 points.

The three teams to be relegated to League 1 this season are by reputation, bigger clubs than Barnsley, so can we see survival by 6 points as anything less than a successful season? After all, the majority of Davey’s transfer budget was laid in a hospital bed for the majority of the season.

This season we scored less goals than in the previous two, but we also conceded less, suggesting that with Iain Hume back and another striker alongside him, we could start to climb the table.