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Allan Clarke lead Barnsley to promotion during his first season in charge as player manager. The club spent £55,000 for the services of Clarke, a brave move by Chairman Ernest Dennis but one that will be well remembered by all Barnsley supporters.
The 1979/80 season opened in quite spectacular fashion with the Reds winning their first five league outings in a style reminiscent of Clarke's previous club Leeds Utd. Halifax Town and York City fell at Oakwell whilst the other three victories came at Crewe, Bradford and Scunthorpe. A Brian Joicey hat-trick was the highlight of the home game against Halifax Town, when just two weeks before on the opening match of the season he had played at centre-half!
The media turned out in abundance at the Reds next home fixture versus Torquay Utd, with the Barnsley hoping to extend their winning sequence to six matches. 12,844 turned out to watch them and their 100% record fell when they lost 2-1.
Barnsley bounced back though with a hard earned victory over
Huddersfield Town at Oakwell, with Alan Clarke scoring the only goal which kept the Reds on top of the table. Next up came Doncaster Rovers at Belle View in front of the YTV cameras and the Reds got off to the worst possible start trailing 2-0 after just 29 minutes. However, they fought back to draw 2-2 with Glyn Riley and Alistar Miller on the score-sheet.
A goaless draw in an ill tempered mid-week match at Dar
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but once again they showed their determination to fight back when they beat fellow high flyers Reading 3-1 at home, with Clarke even missing a penalty. Reading Manager Maurice Evans conceded that the Reds had been the best team that his side had so far come up against.
By the end of September Barnsley had taken their points total to 16 from a possible 20 but they still remained one point behind leaders Wimbledon.
In their next five matches Barnsley suffered a bad loss in form
particularly in front of goal, taking just four points from four matches which saw them slip to 4th place in the table. Wimbledon, Reading and Grimsby were all above the Reds at this point.
Clarke had obviously realised that there was a problem and splashed out £30,000 on Halifax Town striker Derek Bell and the new boy had a fine debut, scoring in a 1-1 draw at Newport.
Two goals a week later for Bell came in the 3-1 home victory over Wimbledon which made him an instant success with the Oakwell faithful.
Bell headed the match winner at York City despite still having four stitches in his head from an injury sustained in the Wimbledon
encounter. 6,900 supporters watched the game which was York's biggest gate for three seasons.
Unfortunately the match signalled the end of Brian Joicey's Barnsley career when he was
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