I used to be suspicious about Burnley's history. I didn't have much time for those who would harp on about the glory days. I thought they were living in the past. The reality, as I saw it, was that we were supporters of a struggling, lower division team with a track record of recent failure. The past seemed a distraction, and an indulgence when the present was so unappealing.
I don't think that way any more. Partly, it may be the case that, as our present has got brighter, the past seems more palatable. But also I think I've come to grasp the value of our heritage. It is important to remind ourselves what makes Burnley different. This is not a run of the mill club we support. What makes us special is that we have been to the very top, and the very bottom. We have won the league, and come within a game of going out of it. All that has happened in the past - the peaks and the troughs - make us what we are today. They go some way to explaining why the Burnley diaspora is so huge, why there are Clarets all over the world and, I suppose partly, why our supporters club is one of the strongest in London.
And so to this new video about one of those peaks, which came to me with typical speed from the brilliantly efficient on-line club shop. It's the second Burnley video made by BAFTA Award winning film-maker Stewart Binns. He previously, of course, made the splendid Rhapsody in Claret and Blue video, which no home should be without. That's a hard act to follow, but this new video is a good addition, worthy of sharing shelf space. Like that, it's well put together, and unlike the shambolic club videos of old, it has production values and a decent script.
It should be pointed out that material about our European games is clearly at a premium, and there are gaps in the footage on this video. This is not a criticism. Stewart Binns will have worked long and hard to track down precious archive material, and you can rest assured that, if it's known about, it will be on show here. He must have hoped when he started searching that rather more had survived, but at least what now exists will be preserved in thousands of Claret homes. And there's some typical Burnley bad luck here, too. We scored twice in the first leg at home to Rheims, but the BBC only showed the second half, while as Stewart Binns, himself the narrator, points out, the German TV company apparently didn't bother to record our goal away to Hamburg.
It is the Hamburg home match that dominates the video. In some ways, this gives the video an unbalanced feel, but as acknowledged, it was clearly a case of making use of what material has survived, and the whole of this match was broadcast by the BBC, with commentary by Kenneth Wolstenholme. There may be a lot of it, but fortunately, it's a great match. Both teams play sharp, entertaining, attacking football, which is miraculous, given the shocking state of the pitch. For someone who missed seeing Jimmy McIlroy play by a couple of decades, there are moments in this match when I could see what all the fuss was about, while Brian Pilkington's second goal would, in the present day, be described as 'Littlesque'. Burnley's last ditch defending is a fantastic, too, and at the end of the game, how heart-warming it is to see the Clarets line up to applaud the opposition off. This match is a pleasure to watch.
I think my favourite moment on the video is an indignant Harry Potts undertaking a one man pitch invasion in Paris, which I'll not spoil for you. Another highlight from that game is the French commentary. When Rheims score, it's all 'tres jolie', but when John Connelly storms through with a mad solo goal, all he can say is 'oh, la, la, la, la'. It sounded strange hearing the familiar British names intersperse a French commentary. Perhaps more than anything, this brought home to me how extraordinary this adventure was. Here was Burnley, a club from a small town, representing England on the world's biggest stage. We were playing the best, being taken seriously in Germany and France, and on the BBC, carrying the hopes of the nation.
The Fairs Cup coverage comes as a coda to the main action at the end of the video. It doesn't look like much of that survived. The highlight from that campaign is undoubtedly the infamous Battle of Naples, where Burnley emerged from Napoli having qualified for the next round, and with their lives intact to boot. There's some footage of that, and physio Jimmy Holland's tale of the after match shenanigans is an absolute hoot. How come he never went onto the after dinner circuit?
Interviews with players and personnel from the time are spread throughout the video. These nicely punctuate the action, and are never less than interesting. Jimmy McIlroy, bless him, still seems to feel the pain of missing a vital chance against Frankfurt, while Uwe Seeler, from the Hamburg side, comments positively on the atmosphere at Turf Moor. And Andy Lochhead still looks hard after all these years.
If I have criticisms, they are minor. The Fairs Cup coverage could be taken as an afterthought, although again, that will be down to the availability of material. The packaging is on the naff side, too, although I find the map of Europe that gives Burnley parity with Frankfurt and Naples amusing. In these days of highly packaged DVDs, the footage could have been complemented by some nice words about the games on the (blank) inner sleeve. In fact, why not bring it out as a DVD too? (Perhaps it could have alternative endings, such as Jimmy Mac scoring and we go through to play Barcelona.)
These are small gripes. I enjoyed it tremendously. If you have any interest in Burnley - and you're reading this, so you do - you have to get this. These things happened. They're part of what made us what we are. And now you can watch them, whenever you like, again and again. An important part of our history has been preserved.
Seeing this, I appreciate further what makes us special. Congratulations to all involved.
