Matthew Heywood left the club in January, signing for Swindon on a free transfer.
It isn't surprising that Heywood saw the need to go elsewhere to further his football
career, as he hadn't looked likely to play for Burnley for some time. This season, it
would have taken suspensions or injuries to four of Cox, Davis, Thomas, Armstrong and
Brass for him to get a game. Clearly, at this stage of his career, if he's going to make
it as a professional, he needed to play full time football, and he needed to do it
somewhere else.
Heywood played for Burnley at a time of crisis. It seems a world away
now, but two seasons back, everything at Burnley was wrong. After signing a professional
contact in the summer of 1998, Heywood made his debut in the infamous home match against
York. This was the one where, after the match, Ternent publicly declared that four
established players - Steve Blatherwick, Lee Howey, Michael Williams and Mark Winstanley -
would never play for Burnley again. Heywood came on as a half time sub for Blatherwick in
that game, along with Chris Scott, who made his debut at the same time. Both had been
pulled out of the youth team squad that morning. They really were remarkable times.
He was an unused sub a couple of times in September, but he didn't play
again until a home draw against Wigan at the end of that month. He then kept his place in
the team for a run of five games, during which we put in something of a mini revival.
Possibly his finest hour in a Burnley shirt came in a stirring 2-2 draw when we had the
better of the game at Maine Road. In all, he played in 13 league games for Burnley,
including some shocking defeats in December 1998, when he lost his place in the team, and
went back to playing for the reserves. He also featured in the disgraceful FA Cup defeat
to Darlington. His last appearance for us was as a sub for the injured Peter Swan, himself
a sub, at High Wycombe in February 1999.
It's probably fair to say that, if the club hadn't been in such a
state, Heywood would never have played. While it's always heart-warming to see young
players wearing the Claret and Blue, it needs to be remembered that the class of 1998 were
used because we didn't actually have eleven available senior players. The utter mess that
the useless chris waddle left the club in, combined with the self-inflicted off field
shambles caused by the pursuit of an illusory white knight, produced the circumstances in
which we needed players like Heywood to try their best. Other young lads who featured in
the first half of the 1998/99 season, such as Colin Carr-Lawton and Carl Smith, are long
gone. Chris Scott, whose career paralleled Heywood's, is believed to be on the way out
too. If you ever want to remind yourself of the chaos that was Burnley at that time, pull
out the 1998 Christmas Burnley calendar from whatever drawer it lies in. Its twelve pages
are padded with young players and reservists, because at the time of printing, that was
all we had.
Heywood always struck me as quite skilful for a big lad, although
obviously I've lost track of him since he went back into the reserves. He certainly goes
to Swindon with our best wishes. He tried his best when we needed him, always worked hard,
and for that, he deserves our thanks.
