Having recently read many articles on your excellent site of past games, I was surprised at the omission of a particular game from 19th October 1968. I hope you will allow me to fill that particular gap.
If I was given only 24 hours on this Earth left to live, but the opportunity to spend that time as wished, then I would surely spend 90 minutes of that time at Turf Moor on 19th October 1968. Burnley's opponents that day were Don Revie's Leeds United, but the background to this game began a little earlier when Burnley played West Ham United at Turf Moor.
Burnley were to play West Ham United in a Tuesday night fixture. The Burnley side were ravaged by injuries and had to bring in a number of young reserves, and we were joking that West Ham, with England's World Cup Winners Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters, were in fact playing Burnley Reserves. We didn't give this side much chance against a Hammers side renowned for the quality of their football. What we were to see that night was the product of Burnley's youth policy (was it really that idiot Bond who dismantled it?) and something which is not often lauded, that is the Burnley ‘Think Tank’. Burnley would quite often be innovative, tactically, years before such tactics became the norm. For example, there was the use of Andy Lochhead as a target man, while Freddie Smith and Les Latcham both started their careers as wingers and were converted to overlapping full backs.
Suffice to say that the football that night was simply breathtaking. Burnley won 3-1 and the Hammers were never in it. Steve Kindon provided telling balls from the left wing as the West Ham full back had no answer to his pace (Steve could run 100 metres in about 11 seconds) and his power (at 6 feet 2 inches and built like the proverbial brick shithouse). The simple expedient of placing the ball inside the full back provided Kindon with the room to use his blistering pace.
On the grounds that you don't change a winning side, Harry Potts named an unchanged line-up for the next game, and this was to be the second victory in a run that saw The Clarets win eight games on the trot. In the middle of these games Burnley were to play Leeds United at Turf Moor.
The Leeds side that day consisted of : Gary Sprake - Welsh international, Paul Reaney - England international, Terry Cooper - England international, Billy Bremner - Scottish international, Jack Charlton - England international, Norman Hunter - England international, Peter Lorimer - Scottish interanational, Allan Clarke - England international, Mick Jones - England international, Johnny Giles - Eire international, Eddie Gray - Scottish international. Sub: Paul Maddeley - England international. They were are extremely powerful side, and with Don Revie at the helm, tended to be one of the most uncompromising.
The Burnley team that day consisted of: Harry Thomson, Freddie Smith, Les Latcham, Martin Dobson, Colin Waldron, Colin Blant, Dave Thomas, John Murray, Frank Casper, Ralph Coates, Steve Kindon. Sub: Sammy Todd.
Burnley scored first through Ralph Coates in the 19th minute. Frank Casper added a second two minutes later. Two minutes after that Billy Bremner pulled one back for Leeds. As half time approached Burnley were on the attack. When the ref blew for half time, John Murray found the ball at his feet and buried it in the back of the Leeds net anyway, an important psychological blow. I can remember thinking at half time that as the scores were relayed around the grounds that people would think the scoreline was reversed. Could Burnley hold on for a momentous victory?
This side gave no thought of holding on. Their first thought on receiving the ball was attack, and within a minute of the restart Burnley went 3-1 up through John Murray. For some reason, Leeds did not resort to their usual tactics when in a situation like this, of kicking their opponents over the Pennines back to Leedsm but tried to match Burnley in their football. They failed miserably, and in the 77th minute Steve Kindon put the Clarets 4-1 up. This was the sign for Burnley fans to go absolutely crazy. I've never been one to chant or sing, but half of the Longside was chanting, singing, screaming their lungs out, myself included, whilst the other half were grunting or gnashing their teeth - the Longside was segregated into Burnley fans in one half and Leeds fans in the other.
In the 80th minute the ball looked to be going out of play near the Leeds left hand corner flag. There was only one person in the ground who believed it wasn't going out; fortunately that person was the one who was chasing it, Ralph Coates. He managed to wrap his left foot around the ball and crossed first time. Gary Sprake was out of position as the ball floated over his head and dropped invitingly at the far post. A rush of Claret and Frank Casper and the ball ended up in the back of the Leeds net. The ref blew his whistle and we could scarcely believe it. 5-1!
This result sparked the worst violence I have ever seen attending a football match, as the Leeds ‘supporters’ looked for anything Claret and Blue to vent their anger. It is not surprising that these were the same fans who caused their club to be banned from Europe after rioting in Paris following a European Cup Final. I can remember a Burnley fan being stabbed in the neck with a broken bottle so that his jugular pumped out bright red blood. An inspector detained the culprit by pinning him to the wall of the bus shelter. As our bus pulled out of the bus station, a Burnley fan was fighting off five or six Leeds ‘fans’ with nothing more than a crash helmet, desperation lending effectiveness to his defence.
Leeds went on to win the Championship that year with a record 67 points, in the days when two points was the reward for a win. They only lost two games all season. Burnley's eight game winning streak came to an end, at home to Wolves.
If our present manager says we have ‘champagne tastes on beer money’ he is wrong. Once you have tasted Vintage Claret, anything else is just cheap plonk.
