The London Clarets
The 1991/1992 season
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The Year of the Phoenix The 1991-92 season game by game - part three September 3 September Hey, this was alright. Maybe we were onto something. We out-played Chesterfield, and the win was comfortable. Even better, Roger Eli, charismatic front man, heart and soul player and crowd darling, got a hat-trick. Well, sort of. His first two were true strikes, but his ‘third’ was a John Francis shot that brushed Eli’s hip en route to goal, allowing him to claim it. Francis was sweet enough to let him. Okay, a hat-trick. So what? But this was a big thing then. If you want any illustration of how lean times had been, this was the first hat-trick by a Burnley player since 1985. Kevin Hird, February 1985. Six and a half years. For me, and every member of the post Orient Game generation, this was the first Claret hat-trick I had ever seen. For that, Roger Eli will always have my thanks. I remember this night under the grand old floodlights of Turf Moor better than many of the home games I saw that season. Night matches often have an edge, and they may be the thing I miss most in exile. The team was that which had finished at Doncaster. We played without conventional full backs, fielding instead a central back three, and Hamilton and Harper wide as wing-backs. Hey, it was a novel idea then. I seem to recall Casper taking credit for this tactical masterstroke in an interview. But against mediocre opposition, it worked. Neither Harper nor Hamilton were defenders; Harper was a winger, Hamilton a midfielder. Both were capable of attack. I was pleased to see Hamilton getting a chance, too. He’d shown promise the year before, until he was crocked in an assault by Stuart Pearce during a League Cup game against Nottingham Forest. So we returned to Nelson happy. The win took us to second, which set up Saturday’s home game against top of the table Crewe very nicely. The news that David Williams, reserve keeper, had gone on loan to Rochdale didn’t generate a flicker of interest, although this would shortly prove highly significant. Team: Marriott, Hamilton, Harper, Davis, Pender,
Monington, Eli, Deary, Francis, Conroy, Yates. Subs not used: Bray and Farrell. 7 September This was a lively one, and close to satisfying. I have a definite memory of standing on the Beehole instead of the usual Longside – can’t think why unless I was ultra skint – and of it being a splendidly sunny day. It was a big game, with a large crowd. Rocket Ron, returning to one of his many old haunts, got deserved stick. You’d have expected him to gather round his years of experience and transcend this, but maybe it got to him. He certainly didn’t last very long. He got into a scrap with, of all people, the mild mannered Steve Harper, and he made it easy for the referee to send him off. This was, of course, stupendously satisfying and quite funny. There are times when football enables you to feel entirely vindicated. It got even better when Francis put us in the lead. But it didn’t last. There was a second act to this. Bare minutes later they had equalised – and it was our own David Hamilton who scored it. He probably thought his day couldn’t get any worse, but then he too was sent off for bringing down an attacker in what was judged to be a ‘professional foul’. It had been one of those let-the-ground-swallow-me-up kind of games for him. With ten against ten, we had to settle for a draw. Not a bad result, but with an extra man and one up, it had seemed set for the kind of breakthrough result that has you believing. And we so much wanted to believe. Team: Marriott, Hamilton, Harper, Davis, Pender,
Monington, Eli, Deary (Farrell), Francis, Conroy, Yates. Sub not used: Bray. 14 September And then the wheels fell off, as we went down in distant Hereford. Naturally enough I stayed at home. I wouldn’t dream of going to such a far and distant place. Funny, because since moving to London I’ve done day trips to Carlisle, Middlesbrough and Su’lan’. I expect me and my brother would have done our usual thing – record shopping in Burnley followed by an afternoon with Radio Lancashire. Oh, how cruel could those ‘goal action’ jingles be? Anyway, it went badly wrong here. Hamilton continued his personal nightmare by being stretchered off – he would not play for us again – while John Francis was red-carded after some off the ball business. (With Mel Pejic?) Francis, whose speed was so important to us, subsequently got a three match ban for violent conduct. I loved John Francis – even before he did what he did at this season’s end and in 1994 – but he could be a stupid sod. From hoping to go top against Crewe we had now slid all the way to 8th. Were we that delicate? Was all it took John Deary’s absence and a sending off for us to fall apart? Would we always be this fragile? It appeared so. And when Harper broke an arm in training a few days later, that was both the wing backs gone in no time at all. Now the squad looked thin. Were we to start blowing it again? Team: Marriott, Hamilton (Jakub), Harper, Davis, Pender,
Monington, Eli, Yates (Bray), Francis, Conroy, Farrell. 21 September Answer comprehensively, conclusively yes. It is because of games like these that I still find it hard to be nice about Casper. Here’s what happened: while we had a Nottingham Forest player in goal for us, there was one full time Burnley goalkeeper on the pitch that day. He was David Williams and he was playing for Rochdale. Against us. How cracked was this? Isn’t it usual to put a clause in these deals to stop the loan player playing against his club? Through what act of carelessness or stupidity had this been allowed? As we all know, the laws of football decreed that Williams would have either a blinder or a stinker. He’d done nothing to impress me in rare sightings in the reserves or friendlies. So of course he had a blinder. This Burnley player stopped everything his team-mates could offer. A brilliant display by a Clarets goalkeeper ensured a defeat. Of course, it wasn’t just about this one abberation. A disjointed team never got its arse into gear. We would have missed Davis even if playing well, and the lightweight Jason Hardy could hardly be an adequate replacement. There were too many weak links in the team now. Rochdale’s one goal with 20 minutes to go felt immediately decisive. Another large crowd grew frustrated and angry by the end. They called for Casper’s head and, because that was what happened when things went sour, for Chairman Frank Teasdale’s. Meanwhile, the Rochdale fans – it was a sign of what depths we had plumbed that at this time they considered us rivals – loved it, rubbed our noses in it, celebrated the fact that they owed their win to one of our players, and sang David Williams’ name. Well, wouldn’t you, if you played against a side stupid enough to do this? This was a dark day. In a season of highs, this was the low point. I left furious. I had now, finally, had it with Casper. I would never grant him another chance. For supporters with some hopes, the sight of Williams keeping us at bay in the oppostition goal was sickening. Those who had allowed it to happen could not be called professionals. Team: Marriott, Farrell, Bray (Eli), Hardy, Pender,
Monington, Yates (Sonner), Deary, Francis, Conroy, Jakub. 28 September The last rites of Casper’s second reign were duly served. The changed team – with rare starts for Hardy and Peter Mumby, and the introduction of Graham Lancashire – showed signs of optimistic fiddling. Keep messing about with it until something goes right? It never was enough. Again, I didn’t show for this one. I’d already done Scarborough when I lived in Leeds – and was treated to a 4-2 defeat – and I didn’t see the need to go again. This place was something of a Burnley graveyard. Heavy defeats were not unknown. Oddly enough, I’ve remembered this wrong. I’d have sworn it was a night match. I’m sure I remembered listening to Tuesday night Radio Lancs commentary. But records show this was a Saturday game. I must be thinking of some other drubbing, some other time. Those who went reported it was desperate. Even Casper, not normally given to self-criticism, described it as "horrible". Inexcusably, Scarborough’s win was achieved despite the sending-off of their player Mark Ash. People were now getting very angry indeed. The one spark amid the gloom was a first goal for Graham Lancashire. Of course, what we didn’t know that night, having slumped to 11th in the table, was that this was as low as we would get that season. This defeat would turn out to be the end of an era – an era of ‘not good enough’. Although this night looked like typical Burnley – we were going to do what we always did, and fall apart after a bright start – the pattern of failure was about to be shattered. Salvation was just around the corner – and from an unlikely source. Team: Marriott, Measham, Hardy, Davis, Pender, Farrell, Mumby
(Monington), Deary, Lancashire (Yates), Jakub, Eli. Firmo October 2001 |