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Lest we forget
Season 1986/87

Earlier in the season the configuration of 6/7 seemed to have a significance, and it was then I realised that it is now ten years since the commencement of the 86/87 season, culminating in the ‘Orient Game’, which took place on May 9th 1987. This prompted me to dig out my club mags and programmes from this era, which made fascinating reading.

Context

The first thing one has to recollect is the desperate economic climate which East Lancashire, as well as many other traditional industrial areas, was suffering at the time. I recall that unemployment was as high as 18-20% in my home area of Rossendale and jobs were virtually non-existent. The Thatcher policies of high interest rates, high VAT and creating the circumstances for the manufacturing industry to collapse in favour of a ‘service’ based economy had hit the region particularly hard.

Aided by rock bottom property prices, dereliction and dilapidation were prevalent throughout the area, and this air of depression was reflected in the fortunes of the football club.

Financial state

The club was at its lowest ebb financially. Issue 58 of the London Clarets magazine had a terse message on the front cover urging the recipient to turn to page three immediately and take note of the ‘Save the Clarets’ prize draw. At the start of the season the club were £800,000 in debt and losing £10,000 a week, according to Dave Ellis’ review of the previous season. A reference was made to the Bond era, and perhaps the gloom can be summarised by this quote: "Never again will players earn the ridiculous wages of the Bond era and after." Not quite true, but at the time it must have been difficult to envisage the comparative prosperity now enjoyed by the club. I am not sure what coefficients one uses to put the debt into present day figures, but whatever way you look at it, the situation was extremely dire. The average gate for the 1985/86 season was 4,214.

Pre-season, the Club Chairman had to go cap in hand to the TSB, and one of the conditions they imposed was the withdrawal of the Reserve side from the Central League. The ‘green light’ of support was given for another season on the basis of Frank’s parsimonious financial plan. There are references throughout the season to the possibility of a share issue but no concrete news of it is ever given.

The London Clarets raised £300 from the prize draw organised by Chairman Clive Jennings, and achievement noted by Peter Pike MP at the 1995 AGM. The 1986 AGM voted to donate all surplus funds to the club. Objections that the sum in question (£200) would not make any difference were countered by this simple stark logic: if the money was not given there would simply be no football club to support. The motion was carried 16 to 6. Membership at the time stood at 148. I think that those who proposed this donation can feel proud of their actions as, although the money was a flea bite, I am sure that the gesture of support was worth far more to those running the club in their efforts to secure the club’s future, and this is perhaps indicated by the fact that three club members were invited to a pre-match sponsors lunch with the Board as a result.

Management

Frank Teasdale had taken over the year before as Chairman from Mr Jackson. For those that give Mr T stick about his parsimony and thrift, they would do well to look at the set of circumstances he inherited. Apart from the financial disarray, the club had gone through two managers in his first season when the gutless Martin Buchan suddenly realised that club management was a bit different from going up for the toss every week for Man Utd. For the rest of the season the side had been managed by Tom Cavanagh, brought in by Buchan initially to help with pre-season training. However on June 30th Cavanagh quit on medical grounds, and on 1st July Brian Miller was prised away from his Worsthorne newsagents and put in charge of the club for the 1986/87 season. Speculation had centred around the return of Martin Dobson (as usual at the time) but he scotched all rumours by signing a three year contract with Third Division Bury. Ironically, Miller stated his objective as getting out of the Fourth Division and back into the Third. As we all know, Brian nearly kept the first part of his pledge, but not the latter.

Also in July, the Board was strengthened by the arrival of two new Directors, Bernard Rothwell and Bob Blakeborough, who joined a Board which, at the time, included Lancashire cricketer Jack Simmons. Clive Holt also joined in August 1986.

Playing side

The previous season had seen the side finish a disappointing 14th with Swindon as Champions and Port Vale in fourth place. This was the last season of four up and four down automatic promotion and relegation, and the new play-off system was introduced, although not in its present format, as one of the bottom sides from the division above was also involved. More controversially, the concept of re-election to the Fourth was abandoned and relegation to the GMV Conference league for the last placed club was introduced, although no mention of this appears in the club mags at the start of the season, as it couldn’t happen to us, could it?

The close season activities were not very encouraging. Alan Taylor, top scorer with sixteen in 1985/86, joined Bury. Vinny Overson joined John Bond’s Birmingham for £20k (who says he never did a good deal?). Kevin Hird, joint second top scorer with Neil Grewcock (seven), joined Colne Dynamoes, and Les Lawrence, with six goals in sixteen starts the previous season, joined Peterborough on a free. Additionally, Peter Devine broke his leg whilst on holiday, never to play for the Clarets again, and the Clarets released five youth players, including England youth cap Andy Kilner, later to re-emerge briefly with Stockport County.

At one point Miller had only thirteen full professional players. This included Steve Kennedy, who retired during 1986/87 through injury, and Jim Hegarty, who cancelled his contract shortly after the start of the season. Furthermore, due to his dubious medical condition, Gallagher had not made any league appearances in 1985/86. Miller boosted his squad by adding Leighton James and Billy Rodaway prior to the kick off. The lack of continuity in the side is emphasised by the fact that at the start of the season only three players had made more than fifty appearances for the club: Hampton (83), Grewcock (80) and Malley (52), not counting the extensive Burnley careers of the returning James and Rodaway.

The reserves finished next to bottom of Division Two of the Central League in the season prior to their withdrawal. One notable name, making ten outings, was Rick Holden, who left the club at that time as they would not allow him to play part-time, which now seems rather ironic, as they all nearly ended up doing so in any case. Top scorer was Bobby Regis with seven.

So the scene was set. Looking back at the combination of these circumstances gives you some flavour of the ‘challenge’ Miller took on.

The season

I remember being reasonably optimistic at the time, as I had seen quite a creditable performance by the Clarets on the last day of the 1985/86 season against sixth placed Colchester, when a 2-2 draw was secured by a net ripping 25 yard rocket from Peter Devine. Despite the loss of key players, the Clarets made a reasonable start. On the first day they took a point from the long trek to Torquay, who had finished bottom the previous year, but significantly on the opening day the side included two loanees, Ian Britton (Blackpool) and Wayne Entwistle (Stockport). They also squeezed a draw in the first left away to Rochdale in the Littlewoods Cup, and followed this with a home victory vs. Scunthorpe, which Burnley "dominated," Hoskin causing "all sorts of problems" for the visitors. However, Rochdale cruised through 3-1 in the second leg of the Littlewoods Cup at the Turf. Steve Taylor even missed a first minute penalty for the visitors. Nevertheless, Miller still signed him next season.

Things were going reasonably well in the league, and in particular the Clarets managed a fine 1-0 win at Wolves, in front of 5,786, with Grewcock scoring to complete a rare away win at Molineux. The magazine diarist, Eddie Simmons, described it as a "superb performance," with James controlling the game and the back four playing their part.

In the club mag for October, there is a particularly upbeat piece from me (!) where I urge those in charge to sell everything they can and lay down a plastic pitch, an idea taken up by future contributors, I might add. On the other hand, I also question the disbanding of the reserves. However, at the time it seems the Board had no alternative. I still think that this was a bad idea and contributed greatly to the steep decline of the playing side, as the first teamers had no-one to train with and I would imagine that not many players would sign for a club if they knew that they would not get at least one decent game a week if not selected for the first team.

The Christmas edition of the mag starts off positively, recording that the 3-0 win over Halifax took the Clarets to fifth place in late September. However, defeats away to Tranmere, and a 4-1 walloping at home to a rampant PNE. soon brought the Clarets down to earth, and henceforward the season declined sharply, with the club staying in the bottom half for the rest of the season. worryingly, Eddie describes the Clarets performance as "pathetic," and I suspect he was being deliberately moderate to protect us from the truth.

The month of October was disastrous, as only a home victory against Stockport punctuated the thrashings. A 0-0 home draw at the beginning of November brought about almost a complete collapse of support, as only 1,692, the lowest post-war crowd for a league match, turned out in midweek to see the Clarets stem the tide by beating Colchester 2-1. I have often thought that a medal ought to be struck for those 1,692, for they are the real die-hards and in a way the rest of us are just bandwaggoners. Among them was Neil Bullen, who reported the Clarets victory. Colchester were managed by Mike Walker, and Neil reports a sterling performance from Andy Farrell. Brian Miller must have also noted this as Farrell joined the Clarets in the following close season.

After leaving the Burnley area, I had not been a regular attender, managing only a perfunctory one or two games a season, but on the following Saturday I went to the Abbey Stadium to see for myself at first hand the depths the club were plumbing. The Clarets lost 1-3 to a very moderate Cambridge side, which included future Claret Ian Measham at right back, and I have to say the performance was far worse than the result. Even the Clarets’ goal was a dodgy penalty. Perhaps most disappointing was the form of Rodaway and James, the two senior players brought in to bolster the Clarets at the start of the season. Rodaway would have been well advised to start his non-league career a season earlier and some of Taffy’s play was very indifferent on the day, but with the feeble Bobby Regis up front against the gargantuan Lindsay Smith this was never going to be a contest. Smith scored twice for Cambridge. It looked fairly apparent that the team was in a dire state. This view was supported by contributions to the Christmas mag, and the 3-0 FA Cup Round One reverse the following week to expert GMVC based giant killers Telford United.

However, the Clarets were in no immediate danger of relegation, but I well remember the thought crossing my mind that if an improvement was not forthcoming soon, Burnley could well sink into the danger zone. At the end of November, Miller took some positive action and brought in new signing, centre forward Phil Murphy, and fielded YTS youngsters Peter Leebrook at full back and Jason Harris up front in the side. This had an immediate positive effect, the Clarets beating Lincoln 3-1 at the Turf and Blackpool at Bloomfield Road, 3-2 in the Freight Rover Trophy.

The significance of the Lincoln result would not be fully appreciated until the last day of the season. At the time, Lincoln were among the play-off contenders.

Our upswing in fortunes did not last, as the side lacked any sort of consistency, except when producing strings of poor results. Another defeat at Southend was followed by a 2-0 reverse at Orient. I made a bit of effort to get to this game, and my worst fears were reinforced.

Orient were worse than Cambridge United at this stage of the season, but they squeezed in two late goals to send the Clarets trudging off. New signing Murphy had a disappointing match and was completely ineffectual, lacking even the basic ball control required for this level of football, but ineptitude was rife throughout and they had the look of a side that couldn’t beat an egg. Nevertheless, this game had 0-0 written all over it until former Spurs forward Chris Jones skinned Gallagher for the opener with ten minutes to go. I bought a copy of the Orient fanzine ‘Orientear’, which was full of the usual bile directed against their current manager Frank Clark. They returned at the end of the season for THE game as play-off contenders.

At this stage the Clarets were in 19th position, but twelve points ahead of Stockport, who had only ten points and looked doomed. Rochdale and Torquay were also six and seven points adrift of the Clarets. Lincoln had 30 points in seventh position.

So far, at least the home form had held up, but in mid December mid table Cardiff clattered the Clarets in front of another low crowd of 1,700. However, the side had the fortunate knack of pulling off results against some of the better sides, and forced a 2-2 draw at promotion-chasing Wrexham on Boxing Day, and the following day they belted Crewe 4-0. The crowd figures are interesting, with 4,568 at the Racecourse and only 2,533 for the Crewe match at Turf Moor. Again I forced myself out of my armchair for this match, and it is one of those that sticks in the memory well. For a start, it was an absolutely foul day, with rain and wind lashing across Deerplay, and a nightmare for goalkeepers. Fortunately, Crewe’s Parkin had an absolute stinker. First of all he dropped Hoskin’s shot at the feet of Phil Murphy, and even he couldn’t miss. However, there followed a spell of Crewe pressure which resulted in a penalty, saved by Joe Neenan. The taker was Gary Blissett, of Brentford and Wimbledon fame. The Crewe line up also contained some other notable names: Geoff Thomas and John Pemberton, later to play for Palace and the former for England, Steve Davis Mk 1, later to play for the Clarets and Barnsley, and the up and coming David Platt. If only Dario Gradi could have kept that side together!

All of these could not prevent Hoskin making a superb 25 yard strike, followed by James slotting in from the end of the area. To round off an excellent day, Phil Malley capped a fine performance with a rare goal. Reporter Mark Pilling reports that Crewe were a poor side in the London Clarets mag! After this result there looked to be no danger of the drop. However, this feeling of comfort lasted only four days until the visit on New Years Day of Rochdale, who stunned the Clarets by winning 3-0, made all the worse by the fact that Dale were now bottom of the table.

This morale-sapping defeat precipitated perhaps the worse run of matches and performances in the club’s history as we went down to Lincoln in early January. Postponements delayed the next outing, which was a home match, with debutant Tony Woodworth in goal. The Clarets were crushed 6-0 by Hereford in front of 1,955 spectators. At the time United were just above the Clarets in the table. Ian Wood summarised the playing ability of the current staff in less than one page. At the time he was the only London Clarets travelling supporter, which would make the Fantasy Drinking Leagueİ a bit of a one horse race.

Again, remarkably Miller managed to pull the side around to take a point at fellow relegation strugglers Hartlepool, which might have been three had the Clarets not given two goals away after being two up, the equaliser coming via a disastrous Deakin backpass in the last minute. Surprisingly, despite the previous week’s result, Miller fielded exactly the same line up except for Neenan back between the posts, but then he had no-one else to bring in.

The following Friday, the Clarets produced yet another fine result holding Swansea to a 2-2 draw, with Ashley Hoskin’s goal featuring on the lunchtime ‘Saint and Greavsie’ show the following day. For the record, Ashley ran virtually the length of the pitch, beating five men on the way, before lashing in an unstoppable shot from the edge of the box. The Clarets had a man sent off, and held on until four minutes from the end before the promotion-chasing Swans equalised.

After being 2-1 up, the Clarets collapsed in the second half to a Steve Bull-inspired Wolves and lost 5-2, and Wolves even had a couple disallowed. More draws followed and on 4th March I went, on an inky black night, to watch the Clarets take on Peterborough at London Road. The Posh were looking to get into the promotion hunt on the back of four straight wins, with the Clarets yet to win in 1987. One sensed that a slaughter might well be on the cards. This was one of those games that has been indelibly etched into my brain, for I have never seen a side so outplayed as the Clarets were that night yet come out with a point.

When considering how close the club came to losing its status, we should thank the Peterborough No. 10, who missed four or five chances that night from barn door latch range. Combined with brilliant goalkeeping from Neenan, the score at half time was only 1-0 to the home team. In the second half the Posh were awarded a penalty and thankfully No. 10 stepped up to blaze it over the bar. Now ponder this: if it had gone in, the Clarets may have gone out of the league. Perhaps realising that the opposition were not going to score again in a month of Sundays, the Clarets rallied and mounted some attacks, which took the Posh lads a bit by surprise.

Astonishingly, the Clarets managed to equalise, and if you don’t believe in miracles, I will describe the goal to you. Hampton, with his head down, hoofed the ball aimlessly from the left side of the field to the far side of the Peterborough box to find Grewcock coming in on the blind side of the Posh defence. Neil controlled the ball and fired across goal. The ball was going wide of the far post when a Posh defender diverted it past his own keeper. Although Grewcock claimed that goal, I was sat exactly in line with its flight and it was going a yard wide before divine intervention steered it home.

Burnley even had another chance, but somehow loanee Mark Caughey managed to scoop the ball, from one yard out, onto the top of the bar. To give you some idea how bad Burnley were, Hampton got the ball once in the ‘Boro half fifteen yards clear of nearest defender. He caught him up in the next fifteen.

After another draw at home to Exeter, the Clarets actually managed to beat somebody, Stockport away, and then they continued the habit of performing well against the better sides, by beating the leaders Northampton 2-1 at the Turf, lifting the side to 19th. Once again, however, consistency proved elusive, with a string of four defeats, coinciding with the absence of the Clarets’ most consistent performer Neil Grewcock, putting the Clarets back in deep trouble. Support was falling away again with only 1,846 showing up for the home defeat at the beginning of April against Cambridge.

The transfer deadline passed with no new signings possible. Miller said, "the club has limited resources, a small squad of experienced players and little scope to strengthen it," and this was the good news! So much for ‘the bank that likes to say yes’, as Brian’s attempt to bring in a loanee floundered on the financial details.

The Clarets had a huge slice of luck when, against fellow strugglers Torquay, we were 2-1 down with a minute to go. Phil Devaney, on as sub, having been called up from the Youth Team, was brought down in the box in the last minute. James hammered home the spot kick. At this stage, the Clarets were 23rd with 39 points having played 38 fixtures, with only Rochdale below us on 37, but with a game in hand. Torquay were one place above with 40.

This meant that the Easter Saturday clash with Rochdale had immense significance and was a game the Clarets could not afford to lose. I made the trek home in order to watch this game and the one on Easter Monday, perhaps more convinced than ever that it may be some of the last league football played by the Clarets. After a nerve racking opening, when Rochdale failed to convert some very promising chances, the Clarets scored through a Devaney header at the far end, and in the second half Gallagher nodded in a Hoskin cross in front of the delirious massed ranks of Claret support who must have made up more than half the gate.

By this time supporters were beginning to rally round a bit more, and in front of just over 4,000 the Clarets were held to a tense draw on Easter Monday by a Wrexham side containing Barry Horne, Mike Salmon and future Claret Paul Comstive. Grewcock came back from injury and Britton was now firmly established in the side. For the last few games, Miller rather controversially left out crowd favourite Hoskin to keep Devaney in the side and allow Grewcock to regain his place.

Defeats at Cardiff and Scunthorpe piled on the agony and on April 29th Rochdale’s win over Swansea put the Clarets in bottom place. But yet again, the Clarets came good against one of the top sides at Turf Moor, beating Southend 2-1, with Grewcock scoring an unlikely headed goal for the winner. Southend managed to gain automatic promotion that season, just easing out Wolves’ late run. A relatively healthy 3,970 showed up.

With two games to go, the Clarets stumbled 1-0 to lowly Crewe, leaving the scene set for the Match of the Century. The Clarets, in bottom place on the day, HAD to win against Orient, but even then, if Torquay had beaten Crewe and Lincoln had drawn with Swansea the Clarets could still have gone down.

History shows that the Clarets won 2-1, Torquay drew and Lincoln lost to Swansea, making the Imps the first side to experience the agony of automatic relegation from the league.

Over the course of the season few players emerged with any credit. In the games I saw, Deakin performed heroically covering for the very limited groundplay of his partner Gallagher, as well as the two fullbacks. Both he and Neenan were unjustly criticised for the amount of mistakes they made, but then that was because they got through twice as much work compared to the others. Leebrook had some useful games at rightback. In central midfield Rodaway never looked convincing in any aspect of his play, and with this impediment the side never really looked solid defensively or going forward.

Top scorers for the season were wide midfield players James and Grewcock, who burst into life spasmodically. Neil Grewcock was priceless during the run in, when his contribution in terms of goals alone was invaluable. Neither of these two were great defenders, leaving the flanks very vulnerable, particularly considering the very poor quality of fullbacks Heesom, Malley or Hampton, Malley was one of life’s great triers, but this guy never had the ability to be a league footballer, treating the ball like a hot potato. Not the ideal temperament for his spells in midfield.

Up front a variety of combinations failed to produce the goals required. On the wing Hoskin occasionally sparkled and, as against Crewe, could be a real match-winner, but he lacked consistency and often anyone decent to cross it to.

How close the Clarets came to losing their league status can perhaps be gauged by the fate of the squad in the following seasons.

Players

Neenan - released in the close season and played league football for Peterborough United

Hampton - released, signed for Rochdale and then moved to Carlisle

Woodworth - released in the close season, never played league football again

Leebrook - released in the 1988 close season

Rodaway - released in the close season and went to Colne Dynamoes

Parker - released in the close season

Murphy - released in the close season

Deakin - remained with the Clarets until close season 1991, when he was released

Grewcock - remained with the Clarets until close season 1991, when he was released

Britton - released in close season 1991, played and managed Nelson FC

Heesom - released in the close season, went on to play for Altrincham

Harris - released in the 1989 close season, had no further first team outings

Gallagher - released in the close season

James - went onto the coaching staff, but was eventually eased out by Casper

Regis - released March 1987

Devaney - released in the 1988 close season

Hoskin - released close season 1989, re-emerged for Accrington Stanley in 1995/96

Only Neenan and Hampton went on to make appearances for other league clubs, although Britton, Deakin and Grewcock were first team regulars at Burnley, when available. James also made sporadic appearances, including some very successful outings as sweeper, and perhaps most memorably, as a sub at the Sherpa Van Final the following year.

The club came perilously close to extinction, as it is unlikely that would have got the financial backing to continue as a Conference club. Although we tend to remember the Orient Game, as it is constantly referred to, now and again we should recollect what went on leading up to it, and be thankful we still have a club to support.

Igor Wowk
April-May 1997

Links - The Orient Game, 9th May 1987