The London Clarets
The 1991/1992 season
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1991/1992 Proud to be a Claret Living locally, 1991/92 was, I think, the time it finally became totally safe to wander around town again without being ridiculed for wearing a Burnley shirt. In the mid eighties things got so bad that every time you ventured through the front door you were either laughed at or heard comments such as, "You’re not still going on are you?" It all changed briefly to an extent after the Orient Game, and then more so after the trip to Wembley a year later, but by the summer of 1991 the sight of a Claret and Blue shirt down St James's Street had all but disappeared again. The new season hadn’t started well under Frank Casper, although to be fair he had now put together a more than reasonable squad as far as Fourth Division football was concerned. There were already the likes of Andy Farrell, John Francis, Roger Eli and John Deary at the Turf and in the summer Frank added Steve Harper, an unknown striker in Reading’s Mike Conroy, and centre half Steve Davis came in to replace centre half Steve Davis. The new one had been with us before on loan and looked like he could be reasonably good value at £60,000. It wasn’t really looking any better to be honest, and three consecutive defeats in September saw Frank leave. Resigned they said, and probably that was right, otherwise Teasdale would have had to make a decision. It was this inability to actually get off his arse and do anything that probably prompted him to give the job to the assistant manager rather than go out and look for a new manager. The grey haired Geordie was to become an unlikely hero. He got off to a winning start, and then went on to win and win and win and… before we knew it, his first nine games in charge brought nine wins - and five of those were away from Turf Moor. By this time we were right up there with the top clubs Mansfield, Rotherham and Blackpool. It’s frightening now to look at those names and realise that this was what we were competing against ten years ago. No Birmingham or Wolves or anything like that, but games against the three mentioned, and then real treats and visits to Maidstone and Scarborough. I think it was just after the nine game run had ended and into December that I first had this crazy idea that after seven years we might finally escape the basement division. This was the division we had only intended staying in for one year but the nightmare (which could admittedly have got much worse) had just gone on and on. The amazing run of wins couldn’t last forever and we started to lose the odd game. We didn’t lose many though. When Frank left there were still 36 games to play and only five of those were lost. One of those was a January defeat at Blackpool that turned into stuffing, but only courtesy of a goalkeeper who was a long way past his best. He had been brought in on loan but went as quickly as he arrived. The grey haired Geordie had made his first mistake but quickly corrected it. With weeks to go promotion looked almost certain, but as a Burnley fan I was insistent that it had to be mathematically certain first. That happened at York with three games to go. If anyone should ask me for my highlights from that season then the trip to York has to be right at the top. John Francis wasn’t the greatest of players but he did have this knack of scoring the odd important goal, be it in North Yorkshire or even in the South West of the country. Ten years on I still know exactly how I felt when his goal went in that night in stoppage time that signalled the best Claret and Blue celebration for years. I’ve seen that game again on video and it is nothing like it was the first time round. We played a hell of a lot better in the first half than I could ever remember at the time. I suppose the other big memory of that season coincided with us being knocked out of the FA Cup. Never in over 40 years of watching the Clarets have I ever been in the middle of anything quite like it. I just wanted all those who had dared to ridicule me to see how magnificent it could be as a Claret. The Burnley Express in a recent article on Stan Ternent suggested he will go down in Turf Moor folklore. Maybe he will, although I am not sure what it is that entitles you to folklore. Whatever it is, though, I’m sure that the grey haired Geordie from Jarrow will have all the qualifications. He might not have been the best but he turned the club round, gave us something to remember for the first time in years. I think he will be in there with Stan in the folklore list, behind Harry Potts of course. What is it that I will always remember about that season? It was what I was in the middle of at Derby for hours - JIMMY MULLEN’S CLARET AND BLUE ARMY. Tony Scholes |