The day Allison atoned for two bad misses with the decisive goal against Tykes
OE Jordan was less than three months into his second spell as Bristol City manager when Barnsley visited Ashton Gate on February 4, 1995.
The Scot had guided the Robins to promotion from the old Third Division in 1990 before leaving to take charge of Hearts and remained a hero with supporters.
Now Jordan was back, bringing with him a new wave of optimism having replaced the sacked Russell Osman. But he soon found himself facing a much different task.
City had started the 1994-95 campaign poorly and, while Big Joe’s initial impact has brought a morale-boosting home win over Swindon Town, a run of six successive defeats followed to confirm the club as relegation candidates.
The tide appeared to be turning when a 3-1 win over Stoke City at Ashton Gate was backed up with draws against Watford and Portsmouth and a 2-1 home success against Sheffield United.
But City were still rooted in the bottom three when mid-table Barnsley, this weekend’s opponents, arrived on a sunny winter afternoon looking to boost hopes of a late run to the play-offs.
The visitors had a player-manager in then 35-year-old Danny Wilson, later to spend four years as City boss. He lined up in a five-man midfield and had strong claims to be his side’s man-of-the-match.
Facing him were the recentlyrecruited experienced midfield duo of current BBC Radio Bristol pundit Gary Owers, valued at
£300,000 in the £750,000 partexchange deal that took Martin Scott to Sunderland, and Martin Kuhl, signed from Derby County for £330,000.
Barnsley started well and edged a goalless first half. Andy Liddell had a shot blocked by Stuart Munro and Richard Dryden cleared off the line from a Brendan O’Connell header.
It was no surprise when the visitors went in front three minutes after the break. Wilson produced a superb 30-yard through ball and Andy Rammell left City’s defence in his wake before steering a shot past Keith Welch.
In the latter stages of his career, Rammell would earn icon status with Bristol Rovers fans, for scoring a flurry of goals at the end of the 2002-03 season, which helped the club narrowly avoid relegation out of the Football League.
His strike against City sparked Jordan’s men into life. Wayne Allison’s 52nd-minute header from a Vegard Hansen cross produced a miraculous save from David Watson. Seconds later the hosts were level. The resulting corner, taken by Brian Tinnion, was touched on by Allison for centre-back Richard Dryden to tap home.
Dryden had replaced injured skipper Mark Shail for only his second start since signing from Birmingham City in December. It was his first goal since he scored for Notts County in a 1-1 draw with local rivals Forest three years earlier.
Yorkshireman Allison then wasted two great chances to put City in front, shooting wide from Dryden’s pass and blazing over from ten yards when through on goal.
But, on 66 minutes, Watson made a hash of punching clear a Martin Kuhl cross and Matt Bryant became the second City centreback to score, steering the ball into an unguarded net.
Barnsley were far from finished and Liddell twice went close to equalising before Allison atoned for his earlier misses. With substitute Ian Baird preparing to replace him, the powerful striker produced a sweetly-struck shot off his instep that curled past Watson on 83 minutes after an exchange of passes with Robert Fleck.
There was still time for Wilson to ensure a nervy finish, almost matching Allison’s finish with a thunderous 25-yard drive which gave Welch no chance.
Just four minutes remained, and City held out for a 3-2 victory, much to Allison’s relief.
“I don’t really know what happened with those first two chances,” he said. “The second was the most disappointing because I was clear on goal. I hadn’t scored since Christmas, so it was great to just to see the ball go in at the end. More importantly, we needed the three points and I think we showed a lot of character to fight back.”
Among the happiest fans leaving Ashton Gate was Matt Bryant’s father Geoff. “I’ve been following City since before Matt joined, but my interest is even stronger now,” he said. “It was a pleasure to see him score. It was a good game. City seem to have solved their scoring problems and the battle they put up deserved the points.”
Sadly, such optimism proved unfounded. Although the Robins continued their resurgence with a 3-0 away win over Swindon two games later, when Bryant was again among the scorers, the final 15 games of the season yielded just 12 points and they ended up being relegated.
Only Notts County finished below them, while Barnsley did well under Wilson, finishing in sixth place, just four points below the play-off zone.
Finding the back of the opposition net remained City’s major problem, Allison ending the season as leading marksman with only 13 goals and Baird next best with six.
Overall, City’s 46 league games yielded only 42 goals, the second
worst tally in the division behind Sunderland’s 41. Jordan reacted by signing striker Paul Agostino the following summer for £50,000 from Swiss club Young Boys and for a while he formed a promising strike partnership with fellow Australian David Seal. But Allison departed for Swindon in a £475,000 deal, some of which was subsequently spent to sign striker Kevin Nugent from Plymouth Argyle and fullback Darren Barnard from Chelsea.
City could manage no better than 13th place in their first season back in the third tier of English football, three places below Bristol Rovers.
When the 1996-97 campaign followed a similar pattern, Jordan left in March, to be replaced by John Ward