A brief history of
Burnley Football Club
by Andrew Braid
Burnley were founder members of the
Football League in 1888, although the club was formed in 1882 when they changed from being
Burnley Rovers Rugby Club and became Burnley Football club. The cricket club then invited
the club to join them and Turf Moor has been the club's home ever since.
In 1886 Turf Moor was the first football ground
to be visited by a member of the Royal Family when Prince Albert came and watched the
first half of Burnley's game against Bolton Wanderers.
Since 1888 Burnley have won every major honour
except the League Cup, their first trophy coming in the 1897-98 season when they were
Second Division Champions. In 1914 Burnley played Liverpool in the FA Cup Final at Crystal
Palace and won 1-0 in front of a crowd of 72,778 including King George V. The winning goal
was scored from a terrific volley by Bert Freeman in the 58th
minute and was dubbed 'A goal fit for a King'.
After the war Burnley continued to make their
mark on English football and in the 1920-21 season they went 30 games unbeaten (a record
that still stands) and went on to win the First Division Title.
Burnley is the smallest town to have a team in
the top flight for more than a season. In 1899-1900 Glossop took their place in the First
Division for just one season and in 1974-75 Carlisle did the same.
It wasn't until after the war that Burnley were
to taste success again. They spent a decade in the Second Division but were again promoted
to the First Division in the first season back after the war. In 1947 Burnley again
reached the final of the FA Cup but lost 1-0 to Charlton Athletic.
The 24 years up to 1970-71 was the brightest
period in Burnley's history. Throughout the 50s and 60s Burnley produced excellent teams
on a shoestring budget under the Chairmanship of the legendary Bob Lord. Burnley relied
largely on a superb youth policy that produced good young players many of who were from
the North East such as Alan Brown and Harry Potts, team mates
in the 1947 FA Cup Final; they both went on to manage Burnley.
Harry Potts took charge after Brown moved to
Sunderland and he led Burnley to the First Division Championship
on the last day of the 1959-60 season. Two seasons later, in 1961-62, the Clarets almost completed the double but devastatingly
they ended the season runners up to Ipswich Town in the First Division and they lost again
in the FA Cup Final, this time going down 3-1 to Tottenham.
In the 1960s the Clarets enjoyed two European
campaigns; in 1960 Burnley they beat French side Rheims in the first round of the European Cup but in the second round they went out to the German
champions Hamburg.
Burnley achieved a place in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (now known as the UEFA cup) after finishing
third in the league in 1965-66. Burnley beat Stuttgart and Lausanne in the early rounds
and surprised many people by beating Naples in the 3rd round. In the Quarter Finals
Burnley drew away at Eintracht Frankfurt but were then beaten 2-1 at home.
Towards the end of the 1960s Burnley began to
struggle and were eventually relegated in 1970-71. They returned to
the First Division in 1972-73 after two seasons in the second and
spent another three seasons in the top flight before being relegated again. Only four
years later Burnley were relegated to the third division for the first time in their
history.
In 1981-82 Burnley won the Third Division
championship after which they enjoyed just one season in Division 2, also reaching the
semi-finals of the League Cup and the quarter-finals of the FA Cup in the same year.
By 1985 Burnley had slumped to the Fourth
Division, less than 10 years after playing in the top flight. In their Second season in
the Fourth automatic relegation to the Vauxhall Conference was introduced and Burnley came
far too close to the drop. Burnley were saved from non-league football on the last day of
the season when almost 16,000 fans turned up to watch Burnley beat
Leyton Orient 2-1 which meant Lincoln City were the first team to be relegated to the
Conference.
Burnley's fortunes revived slightly and the
following season they reached Wembley in the final of the Sherpa Van Trophy. A crowd of
over 75,000 turned up to see Wolverhampton Wanderers win 2-1.
In 1990-91 Burnley reached the fourth division
play offs and the following season in 1991-92 the new manager Jimmy
Mullen took Burnley to the Fourth Division Championship, making
Burnley the second club (after Wolves) to have won all four divisions.
1992-93 saw Burnley consolidate in the Second
division finishing comfortably in mid table. Burnley's stay in Division two wasn't to be a
long one, as at the end of the 93-94 season the Clarets needed a draw at York to ensure
6th place and a play off berth. Marlon Beresford and 10 defenders went to York and came
home with the required 0-0 draw that put Burnley through to meet Plymouth Argyle in the
play offs.
Having won only a handful of games all season
away from home many people could be forgiven for thinking that Burnley's chances were gone
when they failed to come up with the goods in the first leg at Turf Moor. To expect a win
away from home against 3rd placed Argyle seemed too much to hope for but two goals from Super Johnny Francis helped Burnley to come back from 1-0 down and
the Clarets won the match 3-1.
Burnley went on to play Stockport County at
Wembley in the Play Off Final. The crowd on the day was around
43,000 with only 7,000 of those from Stockport. The sight of all those Burnley fans at the
tunnel end must have been intimidating for the Stockport players but if they felt it they
certainly didn't show it as they took the lead from a sloppily defended free kick after
only minutes of the start of the game. Burnley didn't even have a shot before David Eyres
scored Burnley's equaliser. Stockport had two players sent off and Gary Parkinson scored
the winning goal that took Burnley into the First Division for the first time in 12 years.
Burnley's opening game was against
Middlesborough and it was Boro's first match under Brian Robson. A Marlon Beresford
miss-kick gifted John Hendrie the first goal in their 2-0 win and that kind of luck stayed
with the Clarets all season. The Clarets put together a 14 game unbeaten run before
Christmas and looked to be comfortably mid table but their form took a nose dive and they
went about as many games without a win in the New Year. The Clarets made a habit of
conceding last minute winners and equalisers and eventually were relegated
back to the Second Division.
Season 1995-96 saw a lot of changes at Turf
Moor, unfortunately Burnley's form didn't but record signing Kurt Nogan did start to
settle in and score some goals. He finished the season as top scorer with 20. On 16th
September 1995 Burnley played their last game in front of the Longside
against Hull City, the famous old Terrace was demolished as part of a £6.5 million
redevelopment programme that was to turn Turf Moor into an all seater stadium with over
21,000 seats.
In the autumn the bookmakers rated the Clarets
amongst the favourites to go up and they were up in the Play Off places in the early
months of the season but once again their form slumped and after a run of poor results
Jimmy Mullin decided to quit the manager's post. Adrian Heath
was brought in as his Successor and the fans' first choice helped to steer Burnley clear
of relegation, the Clarets finishing a disappointing 17th.
Adrian Heath brought in John Ward as his
assistant manager and they tried to improve the morale of the team. Inchy tried to bring
some belief back into the squad and Burnley pre season preparations included a tour of
Ireland where they didn't concede a single goal. After the third league game Burnley had
got maximum points and were top of the table but unfortunately they lost the following
three games and a pattern developed which was to continue throughout the season. Burnley
were unable to maintain an unbeaten run of more than a handful of games and lost to teams
that they should have easily beaten.
Burnley's inconsistency is best illustrated by
the fact that they took more points from playing against the teams who finished in the top
six than they did from the teams who finished in the bottom six.
1996-97 saw one tradition from Burnley’s
past revived and that was bringing players through from the youth team, Adrian Heath gave
Chris Brass, Paul Smith and Paul Weller extended runs in the first team and they all
developed into useful assets for the club. Heath also brought Andy Cooke into the squad
and after playing barely half the season he finished as Burnley’s second highest
Scorer behind Paul Barnes, Cookey’s progress gave Inchy the opportunity to sell Kurt
Nogan to Lancashire rivals Preston for a knock down price of £150,000 rather than allow
the out of form striker to leave for free under the Bosman ruling.
In the summer Adrian Heath left to become Howard
Kendall’s assistant at Everton and after only a few weeks Chris Waddle was appointed
as Burnley manager.
(Firmo picks up the baton.)
Unfortunately, Emperor Waddle turned out to
be naked. It soon became apparent that our rookie manager was not just inexperienced, but
also arrogant and prone to blame everyone but himself. When Waddle lost it and turned on
the supporters, after a rare home win against Northampton (November 1997), it was obvious
that he didn't have what it takes to be a football manager. Nevertheless, we limped on
under Waddle, our season culminating in the home win against Plymouth
which, combined with other results, enabled us to cling on to second division status by
the skin of our teeth. Waddle resigned shortly after, to embark upon a career of cameo
roles with lower division clubs and appearing on TV.
From January 1998, the club became embroiled in
a serious take-over battle. It began when the club revealed
that they were heavily in debt. A combination of the cost of the new stands, our recent
lack of success and giving Waddle more to spend than we could afford had crippled the
club. While Ray Ingleby, a Lancashire man grown rich in America, made an offer, the club
announced Peter Shackleton, a man about whom little was known, as their take-over bidder
of choice. As Ingleby sniped from America and bought up every spare share he had his hands
on, Shackleton could neither prove he had access to any real money nor name his alleged
backers. Nevertheless, the club persisted with his mythical bid, and as each deadline was
passed unmet, found more time to give him.
By this stage, Stan Ternent had been poached
from Bury, where he had won them two promotions, to become our new manager. It was a
popular choice. But we all knew there was no money to spend, and downsized our
expectations on mid table. It was only a few years since we were in the First Division,
but it seemed like another country now. Ternent wheeled and dealed in free transfer
signings, picking up some bargains, some donkeys. Nevertheless, it seemed to work. We
bumped along, putting out some very inexperienced teams full of teenagers who would
normally hope at best to be getting in the reserves. We beat Colchester 4-0 away and took
a point from our trip to Man City. And then the wheels fell off. Heavy defeats at Preston,
Bournemouth and Fulham, combined with indifferent home form that was only a shadow of the
'Fortress Turf Moor' days, conspired to keep us near the bottom.
At around this time, surprisingly, the
Shackleton / Ingleby take-over battle was finally resolved with the emergence of Barry
Kilby as our new Chairman. Kilby, who founded the local Europrint company and was an
unsuccessful Burnley youth player, invested over £3 million of his money to buy out a
couple of directors and clear some debt. Instantly, Ternent was able to buy players. We
lashed out a new club record of £750,000 on the return of the prodigal son, Steve Davis, and another quarter of a million on Micky Mellon. Form
picked up and we enjoyed some good results away from home, where we beat Bristol Rovers
4-3 and won 2-1 at Millwall. However, we just couldn't get it together at home. Against
Gillingham and Man City we lost 5-0 and 6-0 successively. The team was in a state of
crisis. We were going down. As all called for Ternent's head, Kilby considered the options
and decided that the club couldn't afford to keep changing managers. Ternent's job was
assured. We lost the next game, but only 1-0, and that was the last game we lost that
season. An eleven match unbeaten run, including a 4-1 win at Stoke and a 1-0 defeat of
Champions Fulham, ensured our survival with some room to spare. Ternent celebrated by
releasing twelve players, including some of his own signings, and set about bringing in
new faces.
Meanwhile, Kilby continued to put the club on a
sound financial footing. A rights issue raised further funds. Our first General Manager,
Andrew Watson, was brought in from Everton. In the summer of 1999, the club revealed a big
shake up in commercial staff. Shaken by the revelation that the club shop was barely
making a profit, we set out to market ourselves better and increase commercial
sponsorship. Meetings between the Board and supporters clubs, unimaginable even a year
before, were now the order of the day. When the club announced that henceforth, the stand
on the site of the Beehole Lane End would be known as the Jimmy
McIlroy Stand, they cemented a vastly improved relationship between the club and
supporters. Optimism was once again an option at Turf Moor.
