I first started watching City's first team in the 1975/76 season at the age of six and I always say that my first City idol was the imperious Dave Watson, who joined in the summer before that campaign began. In fact, though, Barney, who left that same summer, was actually my first hero.
Unlike with the senior side, I can't remember specific matches or dates, but I know that my old man was taking me to see the reserves at an earlier stage and it must have been in 19074/75. I spent a lot of the time running up and down the Main Stand steps with other kids, but the main (in fact, pretty much the only) thing I recall from events on the pitch is that Barney seemed to score every week. As these games represented my entire point of reference for professional football at the time, I thought this was as good as it got and I loved him for it.
I saw a
typically excellent piece by
@Gary James on his site that quoted Barney's City stats and it turns out that he scored
44 goals in 62 reserve games for City, which would average out at a tally of 30 for a 42-game season. That definitely merits the description of prolific and I'm glad to say my memory wasn't failing me. Sincere condolences to Rachelle and his family on their loss, and RIP Barney, who for a while for me was a real-life
Roy of the Rovers figure.