I was eight at the time of that final, and
although we had a television, the thing decided to go wrong on the Thursday before the
game and couldn’t be fixed in time, so I listened to the commentary on the wireless
(sorry, radio). I can’t remember much about it at all, except that I now realise that
I was a Burnley supporter before that game; I don’t know how or why,
but I was too gutted by that Cup Final defeat, even at that age, to be anything else.
So it must be the second reason that I give which is nearer the truth,
even though I feel that I made it up in order to accommodate people’s desire for
answers. That reason is that at the time (early sixties) Burnley and Tottenham were the
best two teams in the country, most kids of my age support the best, many of my friends
were Spurs supporters, I wanted to be different, and so chose, and stuck, with Burnley.
Whatever the reasons at the start, 40 years later I am convinced that Burnley in fact
chose me.
I certainly had plenty of opportunities to change my allegiance. My Dad
and most of my family were Arsenal supporters. Understandable as they were born, bred and
still lived in Islington. Dad, indeed, was a season ticket holder at Highbury for many
years in the period just after the war, until marriage, kids and the need to work most
Saturdays came along. My early taste of league football was at Highbury. I remember quite
vividly sitting in the stands for games against Chelsea, and indeed Blackburn, in 1963 and
also being passed down the terraces to sit on the wall at the front for a game against
Manchester United sometime in 1964. It was about that time as well that I first saw
Burnley live when I persuaded Dad to take me to see them on a cold, damp winter's
afternoon. Arsenal were not a particularly good side and the crowd was low, the football
dismal and Dad not too impressed. I think we drew 1-1. I was happy.
We moved to Romford in Essex when I was still Primary school age. Romford
had a football team, then in the Southern league, which was then the best league outside
the Football league. As Brooklands, their home ground, was only a short bus ride away, I
began to go to their games on a regular basis and saw most of the home fixtures in season
1966/67, when they won the Southern League Championship, clinching it over the Easter
period when they beat Wimbledon (who were in second place at the time) both home and away
4-1. Had a system been in place at the time for automatic promotion to the Football League
for the winners of the Southern League, then it is possible that I would have been lost to
Romford, but there wasn’t, I wasn’t and within a few years Romford had suffered
that far too familiar path of having their ground sold by the council for housing and
being promised a new ground which never materialised. Relegation, bankruptcy and
extinction followed.
Meanwhile I moved onto secondary school, paper rounds, odd jobs, a raise
in pocket money and the freedom to travel that little bit further. This meant that I could
see Burnley on the odd occasions they got stuffed (I mean played) in London. Five visits
to White Hart Lane brought 22 goals conceded with no response. I recall a 5-0 thrashing at
West Ham and a 4-3 deficit at Fulham. Arsenal during the atrocious Billy Wright reign
always had too much for us at Highbury, although I saw a couple of draws at Chelsea, the
best one in the Cup when we came back from two down with two goals from "Dobbo"
in the last five minutes. I also (joy at last) saw us beat QPR at Loftus Road during the
eight wins on the trot run, Casper and Murray scoring. My next win wasn’t until the
1970/71 relegation season, when I saw us beat Palace 2-0 at Selhurst Park. By this time I
had left school and my dream of going to Turf Moor had been realised.
It happened at last on Saturday 30th January 1971, when Burnley
played Newcastle United. I caught the 9.05 from Euston and got to Burnley at 2.30. The
return was 5.05 from Burnley Central and we drew 1-1. Probert scored our goal and
Newcastle equalised near the end. I think Barraclough was their scorer. My memory of the
game even now was that it was men against boys. Newcastle just seemed so much bigger and
stronger than us (perhaps the striped shirts created an optical illusion) and we gave a
debut to Ronnie Welch (Squelch) who really was the smallest player I had seen at that
level. You couldn’t fault the commitment and we almost pulled off the win but in
truth we weren’t really good enough.
It was a damp, cold, gloomy day, but I knew I would be back. Walking up
the streets of terraced houses on the way back to Burnley Central station, I realised that
this Islington/Essex boy had found his home. I had no idea when it would be, but I did
know I would return. Although I made the whole trip on my own, there were probably other
Burnley supporters on the trains whom I was to meet at a later date. I discovered many
years later that this game was also the first visit to Turf Moor for Clive Jennings, later
such an influential and important Chairman of our supporters association.
I returned sooner than I expected; the bug had taken a firm grip. I saw
three more games at the Turf during the rest of that season, including my first win when
Paul Fletcher scored his first goal for the Clarets to secure a 1-0 win over Blackpool. By
this time I had found that I was not alone on my journeys and they were being spent with
new friends such as Michael Bullen, Ken Webb, Simon Pettit and Peter Benjamin. These
people were going to most games home and away and that fever gripped me as well, although
I was restricted to seeing our relegation fate sealed at Highbury of all places, a win at
Chelsea and our last game in the top division at Molineux. My new found friends had had
enough of that grim season, but I had just discovered that such a world existed. I was
raring to go. Micky Bullen destroyed his home programme collection in a fit of rage. I
spent long telephone conversations with him during the close season persuading him to pass
his away collection onto me instead. A box eventually arrived.
By the time we played Cardiff in the first league game of 1971/72,
everyone’s enthusiasm had returned and all the old faces were present, although the
season would take its toll. I saw 38 games that season, the missing ones mainly being
those played in midweek. The season contained moments such as my first stay in Lancashire
to watch games (I stayed in Trawden over the Easter period) and meeting up with Henry
Lumley on the way back from Middlesbrough (4th March 1972) after a 1-0 defeat.
It was also the season that Dave Beeston (now Burnley) first crossed my path and I got to
know Martin Dobson and a few of the other players.
That was all very accidental and a sign of the times, I suppose. There
wasn’t the kind of money around in football as there is now, and although the players
were obviously earning a lot more than the average "person in the street" the
gap was not so wide for the distance not to be bridged. In those days as well the teams
still travelled to games by train. It was not unusual to have southern based teams that
had played at Turf Moor returning on the same train from Preston as yourself, and for
several years after London games a group of us would rush back to Euston and there idly
chat with the likes of Waldron, Fletcher, Dobson, Stevenson, Newton etc. as they wandered
around the concourse purchasing items for the train journey home This continued into the
days when we returned to Division One. Indeed I recall a very entertaining conversation
with Leighton James as we all waited for the train from Ipswich in our first season back
in Division One in 1973/74.
Season 1971/72, which was our first outside of the top division since
1946/47, started with a 2-2 draw at Cardiff, Casper and Dobson scoring after Cardiff had
swept into a two goal lead. This was followed by a 2-1 victory over Luton Town at Turf
Moor, and the omens looked good for a challenge to regain our top-flight status. A
terrible display and defeat at Oxford put that in doubt, however.
Burnley seemed to reserve their best performances for games that I was
unable to attend. A victory at Preston followed the Oxford shambles, the 3-1 scoreline
including superb goals from Kindon and Casper and a penalty from Waldron. We beat Coventry
at Highfield Road in the League Cup thanks to a Casper goal, and Arthur Bellamy scored a
hat trick as we demolished Leyton Orient by 6 goals to 1 at Turf Moor. In between all this
we also drew with Bristol City and beat QPR at home, but lost to Charlton away. The best
performance that I saw during this period was at Craven Cottage, where a 19 year old
Leighton James replaced Steve Kindon for his first league game of the season and scored
twice in our 2-0 win. Three days later a 15-year-old Ray Hankin scored on his Central
league debut at Bury.
After the Orient game we were handily placed in 4th place
although Norwich were already runaway leaders. We lost at Carrow Road 3-0, but
inconsistency was the name of the game as we beat both Carlisle and Cardiff by the same
score but suffered defeats against both Sunderland and Sheffield Wednesday, although we
did manage a win at Hull and a home draw with Birmingham, who were 2nd in the
table. Our interest in the League Cup also ended when Manchester United won 1-0 at the
Turf after a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford. Top scorers at this time were Frank Casper 10,
James 8 and Bellamy with 6. Paul Fletcher, however, had only scored 2 along with Dobson,
Kindon and Thomas.
We were 6th and 4 points behind 2nd placed Millwall
when we faced Middlesbrough at home on November 13th. Middlesbrough were lying
3rd and I was about to witness the best game that I had seen so far at Turf
Moor. Goals from Bellamy and James had been levelled by Laidlaw and Downing, and the score
on the hour stood at 2-2. Steve Kindon, who was making his first appearance for seven
games, replaced Bellamy. Kindon joined James on the left flank to devastating effect.
Kindon’s power and James’ sheer class carved open ‘Boro time and again.
Nulty restored Burnley’s lead for the third time after 68 minutes (this was his first
game of the season after replacing Eddie Cliff at left back) and Dobson made the game safe
four minutes later. James put the icing on the cake with a long swerving shot from the
edge of the area. Although not on the scoresheet, it had been Kindon’s direct style
which had caused the turnaround after a very even first hour.
The Daily Mail said, "The problem now confronting Burnley of course
is how to find a permanent place for Kindon. Kindon’s 14 stone launched at a defence
on a straight muscular course is an awesome weapon." From The Guardian: "Kindon
came on for Bellamy and from that moment Burnley mounted an almost non-stop assault on the
Middlesbrough goal."
Burnley were 4th after this game, still 4 points behind a
promotion place but looking ready to mount a serious challenge. However, it all went badly
wrong from this point. Our next game was at bottom of the table Watford, and that game was
lost 1-2. We then lost our next two home games, firstly against Swindon 1-2, in a game
played in torrential rain. (In fact it did not stop raining heavily all day, train
services were badly affected and I finally got home at 5 o’clock on the Sunday
morning.) The next day, feeling thoroughly miserable and depressed, I wrote a letter to
Martin Dobson. I don’t know what I wrote as I have no copy of my letter. I can only
assume that it was the usual moans and groans of a frustrated Clarets' supporter at this
time in the club's history and fortunes. The previous two weeks had been a terrible let
down after the heights of the Middlesbrough game, and sometimes you just need to share
things. As I have already said, professional football players just seemed more accessible
then. At least to this 19-year-old supporter they obviously did.
We earned a good hard earned point at 2nd placed Millwall the
following Saturday to remain 7 points behind them in 5th place. On Saturday the
11th December we played Portsmouth at the Turf. Portsmouth included ex-Burnley
legend Ray Pointer as captain in midfield and also had Fred Smith and Colin Blant in their
line up. Waldron put Burnley ahead with a tremendous shot after 20 minutes but the game
turned on its head after 38 minutes when Geoff Nulty turned and lifted a back pass over
the head of keeper Peter Mellor, and Portsmouth grew in confidence from that moment and
fully deserved the win which two further second half goals brought them.
On Thursday 16th December I received a letter from Turf Moor,
and it was written in the not so fair (but who am I to complain) handwriting of Martin
Dobson. It started by saying how good it was for one's ego to receive correspondence but
it is few and far between.
He then goes on to say, "You mention about my loyalty to the club.
Well I feel if no player has any feeling and loyalty and sincerity to the club which pays
his wages then what chance is there for him if he is transferred to another club? I was
given a free transfer by Bolton Wanderers and it seemed like the end of the world because
I hoped that football would play an important part in my future. Then after a successful
trial with Burnley they offered me a contract and from that moment on I was determined to
do everything I could to repay them." (Of course he was repaid himself three years
later.) Ironically he goes on to say, "It's only by playing well in the first team
that people start to recognise your assets and put you in the many thousand pounds
bracket"
Martin agrees that promotion is now out of the question and goes on to say
how Nulty’s goal knocked the stuffing out of them on Saturday. He also says that
maybe there are too many young players in the side. "The confidence is affected when
things start going badly, that’s why I feel experience is necessary but obviously the
manager feels differently. How many teams have won trophies with as young players as ours?
Not many, Leeds, Arsenal, City all good experienced competitors."
Dobbo then touches upon Burnley’s transfer policy. "You
mentioned about Burnley’s policy of selling players such as Lochead, Morgan Coates
etc. but this has always been the case hasn’t it? Burnley don’t get good gates
and so they must bring the money in through different channels. Large transfer fees is one
of them. Who will be next to go? Who can tell? As players all we can do is keep playing to
the best of our ability and if the chance to move on comes along then to give it serious
consideration. Anyway that’s hypothetical."
Martin finished the letter by saying that he would leave a couple of
tickets for the QPR game at Loftus Road on New Year's Day 1972. The whole tone of the
letter is in keeping with Martin’s overall demeanour: honest, modest, a gentleman and
such a nice person. The letter remains as one of my proudest Burnley FC possessions.
We won our next two games (at Bristol City 2-0 and at home to Blackpool
2-1) but lost that game at QPR and went into free fall down the table, winning only 3 of
the next 14 games. By the time of my stay in Trawden over the Easter period we were in 9th
position, but only 9 points above Cardiff who were 2nd from bottom. Cardiff had
two games in hand. We lost 2-4 to Blackpool on Easter Saturday 1st April,
having been 0-4 down at half time, and on Easter Monday I travelled on a very empty
football special to Roker Park. "Adamson out" was the battle cry of the journey
there. Burnley led 3-1 but ended 3-4 losers. The Adamson out cries continued on the
journey home.
The following evening the lowest post war crowd for a league match at Turf
Moor (9,367) saw Burnley play Charlton. We were now just 6 points ahead of Fulham who
occupied a relegation place and had two games in hand. An inspired Frank Casper scored two
(his 5th goals in 3 games over the Easter period) and Fletcher scored one as
Burnley ran out 3-1 winners and eased relegation worries. These were completely dispelled
when we won the next 5 matches allowing us to finish in 7th position.
Of the 38 games I attended in this, my first full season of travel, I saw
16 wins and 16 defeats, witnessing 59 goals for and 64 against. For the next few years I
was ever present as the Clarets returned to the top flight. That Burnley bug was growing.
