On a works outing they will never forget, Michael Duff took his Barnsley players 500ft down a coal mine to show them how many Tykes fans had to graft for a living.
And when they bobbed to the surface, they were greeted by news of the Queen's death.
Going down was nothing new for Barnsley in 2022 after they slipped through the Championship pit shaft without a whimper last May. But manager Duff's inspired visit to the National Coal Mining Museum at Overton last September put his squad on the same wavelength as a fan base who confounded, for generations, the adage that grime doesn't pay.
