Barnsley have endured a wretched season on the field.
The Reds have gone from Championship play-off qualifiers last year to relegation fodder this time around. They have gone down with a whimper and look like finishing rock-bottom, even below fellow relegated side Derby County - who have had a 21-point deduction applied.
Last week's loss at Huddersfield Town was the final nail in the Tykes' coffin with three games to spare, and manager Poya Asbaghi departed the club just two days after their fate was sealed. Whilst things on the pitch have been bad, it seemed to get even worse on Thursday when their club mascot 'Toby the Tyke' was seemingly arrested.
A video on social media emerged of the bizarre scene of the long-serving cheerleader being led away into a police van. Thankfully, it proved to be a tongue-in-cheek ploy to raise a few smiles.
South Yorkshire Police Barnsley tweeted: "How about this for ruff justice? Officers from @BarnsleyWestNPT and BarnsleySE_NPT had to arrest Barnsley mascot Toby Tyke today as part of promotion work for the BFC Community Game Changer Barnsley project. We bet sitting in the back of the van gave him paws for thought.
"Rest assured we followed every lead going to get our man!"
Whilst the episode injected a slice of much-needed humour into Barnsley's season, midfielder Matty Wolfe insists the campaign has been no laughing matter.
"Two teams have had points deductions and it is embarrassing to be honest that they are above us. It says a lot," he said ahead of their final home game of the season against Preston on Saturday lunchtime. "Not finishing bottom is a target we've got.
“It’s probably been the lowest week. Seeing the lads, everyone is devastated. Obviously, the game against Blackpool, we wanted to go out and press and get in their faces, and things just didn’t go to plan again. It’s obviously hard to put a finger on what’s going wrong, but nothing seems to be falling for us and they were the better team again. We didn’t deserve to get anything, and it was a poor game for everyone.
“There’s no explanation; we haven’t been good enough – and that’s everyone, really. People are putting in shifts, but even myself in the last couple of games I haven’t been good enough at all. I know it’s cliché, we’ve got to keep going and that’s all we can do.”
Asbaghi's exit last week hardly came as a surprise, following his brutally honest comments post-match following the loss at Huddersfield. When asked about whether he would be willing to stay at Oakwell, he said: "There are demands on me as a coach. There will be time now to reflect for everyone and you will have a clear answer from me soon (on future). But it has to be an environment where it mirrors yourself. As a player you want to be in a team where you know players around you have the same attitude. The time will come soon where we reflect and ask 'do we get that from each other?'"
