 Born in Doncaster, Ravenhill came through the youth academy at Barnsley joining the first team setup in 2000 under the managerial tenure of Dave Bassett.Bassett was dismissed early into Ravenhill's time at Oakwell and was replaced by Nigel Spackman.Despite being on the fringes of first team football at the beginning of the 2001–02 season, Ravenhill was allowed to leave the club in January 2002 by The Tykes new manager Steve Parkin.