What’s your name and where are you from?
I’m Joe Beardsall, 28 and I’m Barnsley born and bred. I started supporting The Tykes from about the age of 13. I wasn’t football-mad as a younger kid but when I started to get into it, I wanted to support Barnsley as my local team. I begged my Dad to take me down to Oakwell for the first time in a 2-2 draw with Southampton back in 2009.
How are things going this season after a miraculous feat to avoid relegation on the final day of the last campaign?
It’s an exciting time to be a Barnsley fan. Our owners are intent on playing an attractive style of football and have implemented a strategy where we buy talented young players, build them up and sell them on whilst the team hopefully make progress on the pitch. The owners have taken some stick along the way from supporters (it’s not all been plain sailing), so they deserve a lot of credit for what we’re enjoying at the moment.
What kind of impact has manager Valérien Ismaël has made since taking over from Gerhard Struber in the Barnsley hot seat?
There was a lot of disappointment after Struber left but it had been a difficult start to the season with the speculation surrounding his future. When he left for New York, there was a sense of ‘here we go again’ amongst the fan base. It always seems to be the way at Barnsley that after we achieve something as a club, we lose those instrumental to that success. However, under the new regime, the next man has to fit the brand and since Ismaël came in as an unknown, we’ve not just won games, we’ve won them well and in an exciting way too. Some of the football we’ve played this season has been outstanding.
What would a good season look like from your perspective after such a promising first half of the campaign?
My aim at the start of the season was to get to the last five games of the season in mid-table and forget about any relegation worries. We are starting to get a bit giddy that the play-offs might be a possibility if we can continue to stay in the top half of the division.
What should Forest fans expect from a travelling Barnsley team?
We’ll be out to attack and we're always at our best when we are playing football on the floor. It won’t matter that we’re away from home. We’ve got two really attacking full-backs in Callum Styles and Callum Brittain and they possess our biggest strengths (they spend more time in the opposition half than in our own)! Michael Sollbauer has galvanised the backline since his arrival from Austria and we’ve stopped making the schoolboy errors that left us in perilous trouble last season.
I expect us to stay in the game for 70 minutes at The City Ground and then try to win it at the death. Ismaël is not averse to making substitutions with the game evenly poised and in striker Victor Adeboyejo, we have a real battering ram of a player than can make things happen coming off the bench.
Which player should Forest fans look out for in particular?
We have a number of potential match-winners but Callum Styles is our best player and probably the best at the club since John Stones left for Everton back in 2013. He can take players on, create and score a screamer from the edge of the box too. He’s destined to play in the Premier League.
If you were an opposing manager, what chinks would you identify in Barnsley's armoury?
We aren’t blessed with pace at the back and so speed against defence is probably the best course of action. If Forest play with a slow tempo and try to play around us, we’re probably able to manage that but if you absolutely have a go, this will be a problem.
What are your thoughts on Forest so far this season?
From the outside looking in, it looks like Forest have struggled with a hangover from last season’s disappointment. Having worked so hard over the majority of the season to miss out at the end must have been psychologically hard to process. It’s not a surprise to see why you’ve had a difficult start to the new campaign. Forest have still got some serious quality in their ranks though with the likes of Anthony Knockaert while Joe Lolley is a player that I’ve always liked.
What’s your prediction for the game?
I respect Forest and we know it won’t be an easy fixture. However, you’re one of the sides that we need to be beating if we’re serious about a play-off push. Realistically, I’m going to go for a 1-1 draw with Cauley Woodrow getting our goal.
As we continue to follow football from behind closed doors, how has the experience been for you as a Barnsley supporter during this time?
It’s typical of Barnsley that for the first time in a while, we’re playing really well and we can’t go and watch it! I think we’ve benefitted from not having fans inside the stadium, it’s afforded our younger players the chance to make mistakes away from the frustration of supporters and taken away an element of players being ‘starstruck’ when we’ve visited the bigger sides in the division and caved into the home supporters’ influence.
From a personal perspective, I’m grateful that football has helped me through the pandemic. It’s great that I’ve been able to follow Barnsley both home and away despite playing behind closed doors. That said, I can’t wait to get back in the ground, supporting the lads and going crackers in the stands!
And as a final, all-important question, what do you call a bacon cob in South Yorkshire?
It’ll always be a bacon sarnie around these parts of Barnsley!
You can follow Joe on his YouTube channel ‘Red All Over’ for more of his thoughts on all things Barnsley.