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1/3 If ever you wanted any proof that, yes, you really can't make it
up, the club are unable to train at Gawthorpe, which is closed because of the foot and
mouth panic. The land around Gawthorpe is, of course, owned by the National Trust, and
they are setting up exclusion zones on all their properties. We are believed to be the
only football club affected by this. Fortunately, because we don't have a home game for
ages, the first team can train at Turf Moor. However, the youth team game against
Darlington, due to be played at Gawthorpe, is inevitably postponed. Meanwhile, Ternent
lets Paul Bernard go, saying he's not what we need. Given the state of our midfield, he
must be real crap.
2/3 The QPR home match on 24 March is moved forward to a one
o'clock kick off. This is, apparently, to allow people to watch England's World Cup
qualifier against Finland, kicking off, with the usual contempt for domestic football, at
three o'clock. They'll have to get to the pub fast, though. QPR didn't want the game
played on a different day, apparently. Ternent says he won't be signing Claridge, and
further, he's not going to make any more signings this season. He comments, "It is
pointless going out and paying some money before the transfer system is sorted out. So I
just need to wait on that and I won't do anything." He goes on, perhaps unwisely,
"If we get on a run and start winning matches away from home there is no reason why
we can't get into the top half a dozen. We have 14 games left, eight away and six at home,
which represents 42 points, so we'll crack on. And we have games in hand on a side that
are six points in front of us and in a play-off situation, so there is all to play
for." To pass some time until the summer, he keeps up his feud with the Trinidad and
Tobago Football Federation. Ian Cox hasn't returned from the Caribbean yet, and is in
danger of missing the squad's departure for the South Coast, and a second game. Ternent
says, "Coxy will come back, he's not that sort of a lad, but it's up to them to get
him there and get him back. I don't know where he is. I haven't got an itinerary from
manager Ian Porterfield or his agent… There's rules for some and rules for others.
Dwight Yorke stayed to play for his club but me, Harry Redknapp, and all the other
managers, our players have to go out on a manager's whim. It is an absolute Mickey Mouse
circumstance and it certainly can't be right in my view." He adds, unfortunately,
"We have to pay our player and insure him to play for some tinpot outfit." The
Burnley Express' cricket club referendum comes out 116 for and 113 against the move to
Fulledge, which is hardly resounding, with a fraction of their readership voting.
3/3 Portsmouth 2 Burnley 0. Scorers: Nightingale (56), Panopoulos
(65 pen). Team: Michopoulos, Weller, Thomas, Davis, Armstrong, Ball (Cox 73), Cook (Mullin
67), Branch (Briscoe 59), Little, Taylor, Moore. SNU: Crichton and Maylett. Att: 12,941.
Despite the result we stay 10th, of course. Little goes off with an ankle
injury after all three subs have been used. After the match, Ternent says, "It is the
same speech from the same songsheet so we have got to do better. It seemed a low tempo
game for some reason, it seemed like an end of season match, and I don't really know why
that should be. We were talking about the possibility of play-offs. Perhaps it's my fault,
because I have always said that I would be happy to maintain our First Division status and
we've more or less achieved that… If we maintained our First Division status and
never scored another goal or won another match this season I would still be extremely
happy that we maintained our First Division status." When asked about Payton's
absence, he responds, "Why's that so noticeable? Chris Brass wasn't on the bench or
Paul Smith or Micky Mellon. What about them? It is selection." London Clarets members
Ralph Coates, Dave Burnley and Phil Whalley have a jolly time broadcasting live to the
nation on Radio 5 that morning. Elsewhere, Alan Lee is sent off for violent conduct
playing for Rotherham, while other recent rejects Mark Ford, Kevin Henderson and Mark
Yates all score, and Craig Mawson finally makes his league debut, for Halifax.
4/3 It's suggested on the CISA website that Chris Brass, Micky
Mellon and Paul Smith have all been told that they will be allowed to leave.
5/3 And straight away, Micky Mellon is signed by Tranmere on a free
transfer. Or is he? That's what Burnley say, but Tranmere state that they've signed him on
a month's loan with the "possibility" of a permanent move. Mellon, of course,
cost £350,000 from Tranmere in January 1999. Hmm. Ternent says of this apparent
departure, "Unfortunately I haven't been able to guarantee him a first team starting
place this season so it was the right time for him to move." Mellon comments, "I
have had a brilliant time at Burnley… I'm leaving the club on a high and couldn't
have asked for a better time. Burnley now have to keep making progress and I'm sure Stan
Ternent will be doing that." Latest Andy Payton rumours (is someone collecting these
into a book?), sparked by his absence from Saturday's squad, are that he'll be off to
Stoke. And Blackpool. The CISA site now suggests that both Paul Crichton and - hang on -
Andy Payton have been told that they too may leave. Jepson and Johnrose are both off to
see specialists about their Achilles troubles, and Blackburn insist that home fans wanting
to buy tickets for the derby game will also have to produce three ticket stubs.
6/3 Stockport 0 Burnley 0. Team: Michopoulos, Davis, Cox, Thomas,
Branch, Ball, Cook, Weller, Briscoe, Taylor (Mullin 90), Moore (Payton 88). SNU: Crichton,
Maylett, West. Att: 7,087. Thought it was a big game for them? Ternent says, "It was
a night for rolling your sleeves up and for big hearts and we did that. The improvement
just needed to be in the endeavour and the commitment and they certainly did that."
According to the CISA site, Dean West is also on the list of those on their way out.
Burnley Council decide not to sell Fulledge Rec, ruling out the cricket club's move there.
Alan Lee gets another goal for Rotherham, and Micky Mellon makes his second debut for
Tranmere.
7/3 Burnley Reserves 2 Wolves Reserves 1. Mullin and
Shandran score, and the team is: Crichton, Scott, Smith, Brass, E Davis, Boardman,
Maylett, West (Leeson 46), Shandran, Mullin (Barrett 60), Kevan (Waine 74). SNU: Eves and
Salisbury. Clive Holt suggests that there are other sites that the cricket club could move
to. He adds that there are "no hard feelings" towards Fulledge residents and
"that is democracy" (what?) before reaffirming the need to develop the Cricket
Field End. It's again rumoured that Ternent will move upstairs to become Director of
Football, with Gordon Armstrong earmarked for a coaching job.
8/3 Following their visit to a
specialist, both Johnrose and Jepson both have achilles ops, and may be out for the
season.
9/3 Rotherham's manager Ronnie Moore is thought
to be scouring our reserves for a right back. Having failed to sign Gary Parkinson from
Preston, it's said he might go for Chris Brass and Dean West. He clearly rates Burnley
players, having tried to sign Mellon before he went to Tranmere. Ternent won't say which
players he is allowing to leave, but admits that he has told some they'll no longer needed
and they should get fixed up with other clubs. It seems. Sheffield Utd sign Asaba for
peanuts (£92,500), so that's the end of that rumour. A hopefully malicious new rumour
links us with ex, and therefore always Bastard, Scott Sellars, now 35 and doing very
little at Huddersfield. Burnley FC launch their new betting site, www.claretsbet.co.uk.
10/3 We don’t play, and astonishingly are
no longer 10th, as Wimbledon win and go above us, level on points but
possessing a slightly better goal difference. Chris Vinnicombe plays in High Wycombe's
surprising FA Cup quarter final win at Leicester, and Andy Cooke scores another goal for
Stoke. Weekend rumours have West once again linked with Bury, while Paul Smith is supposed
to be interesting Bury, where he played on loan prior to his encounter with a hole, and
Tranmere. Meanwhile, in an article in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, the club say thet
are planning to expand their coaching network in a bid to improve the development of youth
players. Sub centres of excellence are to be set up in local towns, such as Bacup, Chorley
and Skipton, to bring more younger players in, with the hope that more of them will
progress to become scholars. At the same time, there is a plan to extend the recruitment
network for scholars to Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The club stress that this would be a
long term strategy, with the aim of working with children from the age of seven or eight.
Centre of Excellence Supervisor, Jeff Taylor, who works with the Centre Director Jimmy
Robson, says, "We are probably under-achieving at the moment and that might be the
case for the next 18 months or so, but after that I see a lot of decent kids coming
through." Current Centre of Excellence coaches include Andy Farrell, Ashley Hoskin,
Phil Malley, Craig Mawson, David Miller, Vince Overson and Les Thompson.
12/3 Jack Butterfield, the club's first
Commercial Manager, dies at the age of 78. Butterfield had three spells at Burnley, first
as a player, before injury ended his career, returning as the Commercial Manager in 1965,
and finally putting in a third period of service as General Manager in 1985. Butterfield
is credited with introducing match sponsorship, draws and golden goal competitions at Turf
Moor. He also worked for Colne Dynamoes and Colne Cricket Club, amomgst others. Peace
threatens to break out between Burnley and the Trinidad mob. With Cox likely to miss the
home games against QPR and Birmingham due to call ups, Trinidad's Neville Chance says,
"We are talking to Burnley before, during and after to manage it so that we have a
win-win situation. The whole idea is that football, Burnley, Trinidad and Tobago and Ian
Cox are all winners. We aren't looking for conflict… We are happy and willing to work
with Burnley and that's our position. We certainly respect the contribution of Burnley to
the player and certainly in respect that Burnley are the organisation paying the player.
But we also have to respect the situtation with world football and the situation there is
that FIFA have given the privilege to nations to get players to play for their
country… We hope that Ian will be involved for the entire campaign. He's very
important to us and very important to our hopes of qualifying." Ternent comments,
"You don't want to stop players playing international football and having the
opportunity to get to the World Cup finals and I think they will have a good chance of
doing it. All I want is some form of communication. I want to know where my player is and
when he's coming back, that's all." Little and Branch are both said to be struggling
with injuries before the game at Watford. We're linked with a young Leeds player, as we
are from time to time, the current one being Jacob Burns, a midfielder. Andy Marriott,
onetime Claret, joins Barnsley on loan from Su'lan' for the rest of the season.
13/3 Watford 0 Burnley 1. Scorer: Taylor (73).
Team: Michopoulos, Davis, Thomas, Cox, Mullin (Maylett 80), Weller, Ball, Cook (Armstrong
76), Briscoe, Moore (Payton 88), Taylor. SNU: Crichton and West. Att: 13,653. This is our
first ever win at Vicarage Road, and some recompense for a miserably wet day when the
original match was postponed at 3.15. We reach the magic 52 point mark that spells certain
safety. And naturally enough on such a night, we go back to our favourite position of 10th.
The journey home is enlivened by a jolly encounter with Barry and Sonya Kilby and the man
who made that Rhapsody in Claret and Blue video. Ternent says of our goalscorer,
"He's done very well for us since he came. I need to have a chat with him first, but
my view is that he has been good for us and I would like him to stay for another month
perhaps, and maybe until the end of the season." Ternent adds, "I feel that I
could now state categorically that we will maintain a First Division status, which is what
we set out to do and all credit to the players. We've got 11 games to play but every time
I start talking about the play-offs we seem to lose, so we'll just go ahead and see where
it takes us… The main objective was to maintain a First Division status. A lot of
people say it's a negative thought but it isn't because of the budget I work with, because
of the chairman I've got, who's top draw, and the board of directors, Burnley Football
Club has come has come a long way and we're not in the same league, financially, as a lot
of clubs, so it's all credit to the players. We're delighted that at this time, at worst,
next season we're going to be playing First Division football." We're supposed to be
interested in signing Robbie Blake from Bradford for £500,000, but this is quickly
dismissed as speculation. Micky Mellon, already on loan, completes his permanent transfer
to Tranmere. It's okay, he isn't coming back.
14/3 There's some speculation that the club
isn't looking for a shirt sponsor for next season.
15/3 Chris Brass, the club's longest serving
player, joins York on a free transfer. Brass says he needs the first team football, and
comments, "In terms of football today I don't think people are so involved in a club
or have the feelings I will always have for Burnley. When I was driving away from the
ground it hadn't really sunk in that it was last time I would be doing that as a Burnley
player. It is saddening to leave a club of the stature and history of Burnley. But it's
also a plus-point that I've played a part in that history and actually been captain of
Burnley Football Club, which is a tremendous honour. I am a Burnley fan and from that
aspect, not many Burnley fans can say they've been Burnley captain." Ternent says,
"Chris has been a great servant to this football club. He has been part of the first
team squad for many years and has done a tremendous job for Burnley Football Club."
16/3 Latest rumour is that Ternent will step
down after the Blackburn away game. Hmm.
17/3 Sheffield Wednesday 2 Burnley 0. Scorers:
Hendon (41), Sibon (70 pen). Team: Michopoulos, Davis, Thomas, Cox, Briscoe (Payton 71),
Mullin (Little 63), Weller, Ball (Smith 45), Armstrong, Taylor, Moore. SNU: Crichton and
Maylett. Att: 20,184. Ternent goes off on one after the match: "We've got 52 points
and some of the players think the season is over. They were lacklustre, they rested on
their laurels, they rolled over. And I ain't having it. I'll do the best I can with what
I've got and when I get the chance I'll get shut of 'em. I'm not having it. Little went
everywhere but where he was meant to go... And if they don't wanna do it I'll get people
who will. I've done it before and I'll do it again. Oh aye, we've gotta move on, that's
the name of the game: select, reject and move on. I shall do it, because I'm not going
anywhere." And that's an edited version. On the approaching transfer deadline he
adds, "I've not had offers for any of my players, now what does that tell you?"
Briscoe is subbed with yet another hamstring injury. Chris Brass plays his first game for
York, coming on as a sub, while Kevin Henderson scores for Hartlepool again. Mark Yates
scores one of Cheltenham's four against Halifax, who have poor Craig Mawson in goal.
19/3 The club announce the arrival of our first
ever Ethnic Minorities Development Officer. Nourrendine Maamria will work in the club's
Football in the Community scheme to develop links with local ethnic groups. What a long
awaited and necessary step this is. Hats off. Andy Payton is now 'linked' with Blackpool.
Ho, and indeed, hum.
20/3 We still have over 2,000 tickets left for
the game at Deadwood. The club now begin selling them to season ticket holders who don't
have away ticket stubs. Alan Lee comes off the bench for Rotherham to score their winning
goal and put them top of Division Two. Hmm.
21/3 It's said that we are making another
attempt to sign Bournemouth's Eddie Howe before transfer deadline day. Ternent comments,
"I have one or two irons in the fire, but the way things are at the moment, we are in
a position of safety and I would have to justify whether I could afford to take more
players on my wage bill right now. The only way I could justify that is by going for a
play-off place. I don't know if we would be capable of doing that, but I will say there
are some players I have in mind and I have offers in, but we will see." He also
suggests that Man City may prefer to do a permanent cash deal for Taylor, while Burnley
would rather take him on another month's loan. As for summer recruitment, Ternent says he
still needs to find out what his budget it, adding, "I know exactly what I want but
whether I can afford them or not is another thing."
22/3 Our single piece of action on transfer
deadline day is to sign Gareth Taylor on another month's loan. Taylor says he'd like to
talk to the club about staying in the summer. According to rumour, negotiations had taken
place over Howe but a deal could not be concluded. Bournemouth media report a possible
£700,000 fee, and suggest that the deal broke down because Burnley wanted to take him on
loan for the rest of the season. The only other flicker of interest on a dull deadline day
is provided by former Claret Gary Parkinson, taking a well-trodden path from Preston to
Blackpool on a free transfer. Ternent says he hasn't forgotten Andy Payton: "The
situation with Andy is quite simple. I haven't selected him over the last few weeks. He
has been fantastic in training and he will be back before too long. All I do is select the
best team week-in, week-out and he is part of the squad. I have a clutch of strikers at
the club, people are selected on merit, and everyone will get their chance. He's a
goalscorer. He has scored goals all his career and we haven't seen the last of Andy
Payton."
24/3 Burnley 2 QPR 1. Scorers: Smith (11),
Taylor (41) / Bignot (53). Team: Michopoulos, Thomas, Davis, Weller, Branch, Ball, Cook
(Armstrong 77), Smith (Maylett 63), Little, Moore (Payton 69), Taylor. SNU: Crichton and
Mullin. Att: 14,018. Ternent says, "Sometimes we have to learn, and we still are
doing, how to win better. We surrender an initiative and go and drop back. The intent is
good but the way of doing it isn't. We lived dangerously at times." And here's
another Stanism: "Sometimes people have champagne tastes on beer money." Ian Cox
gets another cap, his third in all, as he plays in a friendly against Guatemala, putting
in 90 minutes as Trinidad win 3-1. Elsewhere, Alan Lee scores again, but Rotherham
stupendously lose 4-3 to Oxford. Brass plays a full match for York, Brian Reid gets sent
off for Blackpool, and Craig Mawson keeps his first clean sheet for Halifax.
25/3 Micky Mellon does his bit for Tranmere's
relegation campaign by getting sent off against West Brom. Surprising really, as it
suggests he actually did something.
26/3 Burnley Youth 0 Tranmere Youth 1 in the
Lancashire Youth Cup semi final. Team: James Salisbury, Andrew Leeson, Paul Scott,
Jonathan Leary, Earl Davis, Liam Eves (Stephen Richardson), Matthew O'Neill, Joel
Pilkington, Robert Grimes (Damian Hindle), Paul Barratt, Andrew Waine. SNU: Richard
Chaplow and Brian Fogarty.This game marks the first appearance of the club's newly
sponsored shirts. Yes, we've finally got ourselves a shirt sponsor! Unfortunately, it's
burnleyfootballclub.com, the club's own official website.
27/3 The club announces its new prices for next
season. The best piece of news is that the child's season ticket of £35 will remain. For
adults, however, 17.5% rises are on the cards, with prices rising steeply if tickets are
renewed after the April renewal period. For pay on the day prices, games will be graded
into category A and category B matches, depending on the opposition. B games will be a
quid higher than this season, while A games will cost £2 more. As away end prices cannot
be higher than those of equivalent home accommodation (ajudged to be the Bob Lord Stand),
this should effectively enable the club to screw more dosh out of large away followings.
The club point out that our prices will still be towards the bottom end of what division
one clubs charge. Meanwhile, a weird rumour says that Adrian Heath could be on his way
back to Burnley, with Ternent to semi-retire. Eh?
28/3 Not such a happy outing for Ian Cox. He
plays as sweeper for Trinidad and Tobago in their World Cup qualifier against Costa Rica,
but Trinidad lose 3-0 and go bottom of their group, with no points from two games. The
reserve team's away game to Birmingham is postponed due to floods. Andrew Watson confirms
that the club will be sponsored by its own website for the rest of the season, with the
two upcoming televised games apparently being too good a chance to miss. He says, "We
have got a blank shirt and we just felt it was a great opportunity to market our
web-site." So much for earlier claims that they didn't want to undersell the famous
shirt. The club erroneously claim that Burnley are the first club to do this, but we know
Accrington Stanley got there first. And in the world of the strange, Ternent and Heath are
said to have been spotted in close conversation at Gigg Lane. By Elvis, presumably.
30/3 A small and modest celebration in the
Palace of Westminster marks the 25th anniversary of the Burnley FC London Supporters Club.
Tommy and Joy Cummings, Ralph Coates, Barry and Sonya Kilby and Peter Pike MP attend the
lunch, along with a room full of London Clarets. Barry and Sonya are made Honorary Vice
Presidents of the London Clarets, and Sonya is presented with a lovely new anorak. Or so
they tell me. Personally, it's all a blur after about 12.30. Ahead of the weekend's match,
it is announced that a planned release of 10,000 Claret and Blue balloons has been banned
due to 'safety reasons'. Ten supporters' clubs had each bought 1,000 balloons.
31/3 Paul Barnes scores two for Nuneaton, where
he is on loan from Bury. Surely he's better than that?
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