Conor Hourihane’s message to fans has emerged after Barnsley’s draw with Northampton attracts the lowest Oakwell league crowd since 2015.
The game, which played out to a 2-2, attracted an attendance of 8,806 on a cold February evening, last last seen lower when they played Port Vale over 10 years ago.
Fans remain discontent with the club suffering yet another lacklustre mid-table season, sitting 14th in the League One table with 37 points from 26 games played, 11 points from the playoff places and are just 6 points from the relegation zone.
🔴🔴Barnsley’s lowest Oakwell league crowd for over a decade exposes fans’ disquiet.
Piece – with some comments from Conor Hourihane on fans #barnsleyfc https://t.co/uGQi9l92XO
— Leon Wobschall (@LeonWobYP) February 5, 2026
Credit – @JamesBushell8
Through thick and thin… #ntfc pic.twitter.com/beKeMkRCyA
— Joel Colson (@joel_colson) February 3, 2026
Back at Oakwell working again.
An early error gifted the cobblers the lead, but #Barnsleyfc responded with a strong spell late in the 1st half and early in the 2nd, scoring twice.
Complacency let #ntfc back in and they earned a point.
Two penalty appeals waved away for the Reds. pic.twitter.com/wegoorPMU3— Jack (@Hoppyontour) February 3, 2026
Credit – @downes_har25583
Barnsley boss Conor Hourihane said, per Yorkshire Post: “I think the people who came here were fantastic and stuck with the team to the very, very end.
“They could have easily had moans and groans obviously because I’m well aware of people’s frustrations.
“So I’d like to thank the fans that were here because I thought they were brilliant and they’ve come out to support the team and me which is great.
“They’re going to have a group of players here now at the football club – with a group of staff with me – that show a lot of care for the club and want to do the very best for it.
“We’re going to try and win as many games as we can before the end of the season and let’s see what happens and that would be the message that I’d send to them.”
Gabriel Sutton was asked to give his take on the situation at Barnsley, he said: “I think as football fans, we’re not always very good at scaling our criticisms to the size of the issues – it’s often either none or full blast, isn’t it!
“So at Barnsley, I think Neerav Parekh, Julie Ann Quay and Jon Flatman are far from perfect, but have the best of intentions.
“Likewise Jean & James Cryne, even if those two may be doing it more to honour Patrick’s legacy than for their own intrinsic passion (it’s for them to say if that’s fair but it at least appears that way to me).
“None of them though are particularly experienced when it comes to running a football club, and sometimes that period of learning where you’re bound to make mistakes can get mistakenly conflated with character flaws.
“I don’t think the club’s been run well, necessarily, but nor do I think key figures deserve anywhere near the same kind of criticism as Paul Conway and Chien Lee.
“I gather they’ve been seeking advice on financial sustainability, and they’re trying imperfectly.
“Until an ownership group better placed to take the club forward shows interest, I believe the current lot deserve constructive feedback, and to be supported in their efforts – because for now, you’re all each other have.”
— Whippetgood (@wippetgood) February 3, 2026
— Marv slater (@Fatrocker70M) February 5, 2026
— Dave b (@Daveb916307) February 5, 2026
In January 2026, Barnsley chairman Neerav Parekh, spoke at a fans forum. He was joined by Jon Flatman and Conor Hourihane and took questions from supporters on transfers, off the field issues and the future of the club.
On having the 13th highest budget in League One, Parekh said, per Barnsley Chronicle: “It makes me sad to say this, but unfortunately, league position correlates very closely to spend. That’s just what the game has become. And again, we need to break that cycle because otherwise, what’s the point of football?
“So even the teams that you think of low budgets, it would surprise you to see some of the budgets in League One this season. I was shocked when I got the report from the EFL in terms of how many teams had a higher budget than us. I thought we’d have a very competitive top six budget but we’re 13th this season. I talk to a lot of League One owners right now and it blows my mind in terms of how much they are spending.
“Even the teams that seem like they’re a fairytale, and I think the classic media example which I absolutely despise is Wrexham. They’re not a fairytale. They’ve bought their way up to the Championship. And there’s a lot more teams like that.
“So unfortunately, that’s the reality of football right now. But our goal as a club, we’re Barnsley, we need to do better than just the budget. We can’t just rely on that.
“We should be doing better in terms of smarter recruitment.
“We should be doing better in terms of bringing more money into the club from other revenue streams so that we can improve the product and the pitch.
“Because at the end of the day, you’re in football to win games. And we need to put as much money as we can on the pitch.
“But 23 other clubs are thinking the same way as well.
“The way League One works right now is owners can put in unlimited amounts of money if they want to. And that can go towards playing budget.
“Attendances count towards three, four, five million pounds maybe.
“But owners are willing to put in 15, 20 million pounds. And then they have larger budgets – Huddersfield, Bolton, Luton with parachute money.
“Attendances are part of it. They’re really important for clubs like us.
“But for some other clubs, owners pumping money dwarfs all of that.
“Different clubs have different cost structures. For example, we don’t own the ground. We pay rent. It is an older ground.
“So maintenance comes to somewhere north of half a million pounds every season. Other clubs don’t have that.”
Parekh on mistakes made: “I think recruitment hasn’t been good enough over a couple of seasons.
“I think this summer we got it spot on with some of the players coming in.
“Reyes Cleary and Patrick Kelly probably being the best examples.
“But over the last few years, I have to hold our hands up and say it didn’t work out. That said, recruitment’s not an exact science.
“I think it was Sir Alex Ferguson who said if you get 50 per cent of your incomings right, you’re doing really well.
“We probably haven’t got that number over the last few years.
“So I think that’s one area we need to improve on. I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but the amount of investment that other clubs are making means
On backing the manager: “I think looking at the league table for sacking a manager is actually quite a blunt instrument. There’s a lot more that goes into it. When we hired Conor in the first place, it’s his first gig as a manager.
On that from January onwards: “We brought in Eoghan O’Connell, a 30-year-old who I really feel will help us for sure.
“I think it was really important to identify someone to help out the defence.
“I think, right now, to bring in another one, I do feel like someone will have to leave. We go back to the budgets and being a little bit tight with money.
“The top end of the pitch is going to be where we’re going to be focusing on after bringing Eoghan in.
“I do think to rejig the defence even more so, we’re going to have to be patient with that one until the summer or someone leaves in this window, potentially to bring in another.
“We knew there’d be inconsistency, we talked about this and we said: look, you’re learning, we have young players, we have a young coach, so it’s not just about the results, it’s a lot more than just the results.
“How we’re playing? Do we feel like we have chances of winning a game?
“Football’s a high variance game. You can play really well and still lose the game. But it’s about the performance because over the long term, you perform well, you get the points. We need to build for the long-term. Changing managers often doesn’t work.
“We’d like to build for the long term, both in terms of players, managers and not just on the pitch, even other staff.
“Unlike a lot of previous managers, I think Conor has an extremely high ceiling as a coach. He’s incredibly hard-working. He’s incredibly driven. So I think, like with a lot of young players that Barnsley have, they have incredibly high potential.
“And so you put up with that because you know that they’re going to consistently get better and consistently give you a really high level. Conor’s going to be here next year even if he’s inconsistent because I think he can drive this club forward.
“I’ll hang my hat on that.”
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