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The
Year of the Phoenix
The 1991-92 season game by
game - part six
December
If in November we swept all before us, December was harder. We were never particularly convincing in this month. That said, we did go top! We went into the month second, with Mansfield above us and Blackpool, Barnet, Crewe and Rotherham below us. We finished it top dogs. December was also when Jimmy Mullen made his first moves to add to the squad he had inherited from Casper. I would say strengthen, but there was Mark Kendall.
3 December
Burnley 4 Dynamo Stavropol 3, friendly
Yet another Russian friendly! We had become blasé about such exotic opposition. But why were we playing this game, a few days after beating Northampton and with an FA Cup tie coming up at the weekend? Someone must have been doing a bit of business.
Anyway, for the record, Conroy, Francis and then Danny Sonner, with two, scored our goals. It was a rare outing for Sonner, although perhaps his presence shows that this wasn't an encounter we took seriously, as does the scoreline. The records show a suspiciously round crowd of 2,000, and for unknown reasons, my brother and me were among them. I can't find a record of what the team was.
7 December
Burnley 2 Rotherham 0, FA Cup Second Round
Back to the serious business. Rotherham were proving to be promotion rivals, but at stake here was a potentially lucrative place in round three. With Marriott having gone back to Forest, Chris Pearce returned in goal. We struggled a bit until Conroy's strike, and then Lancashire wrapped it up to put us through to the Third Round. Having gone through, we were drawn to play Derby at home. Derby were then two divisions above us in the Second Division, and had spent big to try to get promotion, so it looked a tough tie.
Interesting to note the decent attendance. Today's kids may not believe it, but there was real anticipation about FA Cup games then. They felt different, and people used to look forward to them, and make an effort to see them.
Talking after the game about the success of his move to Burnley from Reading, Mike Conroy observed, "Sometimes you have to take a step backwards to take two forwards."
Team: Pearce, Measham, Jakub, Davis, Pender, Farrell, Harper, Deary, Francis, Conroy, Eli (Lancashire). Sub not used: Yates.
Burnley scorers: Conroy (59), Lancashire (83).
Attendance: 9,773.
The following week, Jimmy Mullen made his first signing, after more than two months in charge. Adrian Randall, a midfielder, joined us from Aldershot for £40,000. He was generally acknowledged to be their best player. Aldershot were desperately struggling to survive at this point, although the money would not make a difference to their fight. Apparently his previous club, Bournemouth, collected £17,500 they were owed, while the rest went towards their overdraft. It was said that Sheffield Wednesday had tried to sign Randall for £250,000 in the summer, but Randall, a native of Salisbury, hadn't fancied moving north.
14 December
Burnley 1 Scunthorpe 1
Nothing lasts forever, and the League winning run finally ended. These were the first points dropped under Mullen, after nine wins from nine games. Of course, you can't win them all, but I read somewhere that ten would have been a record, so it was a small pity hat we didn't manage it. Scunthorpe were no mugs, though, and proved hard to break down, although once Andy Farrell had scored, we assumed the usual win was on. Joe Jakub's free kick from close to the touchline was swung into the box, and after a couple of headers it fell to Eli. The keeper saved his weak reaction shot, but by the post there was Farrell to stab in the rebound: another rebound. We scored from so many this season.
Their equaliser saw the re-emergence of that legendary creature, Penderog. This was a bit unfair, as our captain was a stalwart alongside Davis in central defence. It's just that he went for everything, even if sometimes it meant he headed into his own net. He nodded on their corner, and unluckily it glided towards the goal. Pearce was perhaps more culpable, stranded in the middle of nowhere.
When I bought my prized highlights video at the end of the season, John Pender was doing a signing session in Burnley WH Smith's. The video played on a monitor above his head. As I got my copy signed, it showed his own goal against Scunthorpe.
The other disappointment here was that, if we had won this game, we would have gone top, for the first time in over three years. As it happened, we only had to wait another week.
Team: Pearce, Measham, Jakub, Davis, Pender, Farrell, Harper, Deary (Yates), Francis, Conroy, Eli (Lancashire).
Burnley scorer: Farrell (34).
Attendance: 8,419.
With all attempts to sign Andy Marriott having met with a blank refusal, and Chris Pearce obviously still a weak link, Mullen was still searching for another keeper. Between these two games, Mark Kendall joined us on loan from Swansea. Kendall had previously played for Spurs and Wolves. His role, we were told, would be to provide dedicated goalkeeping training for our three keepers, Pearce, David Williams, now back at the club from Rochdale, and Ian Walsh. We had also been linked with one of our old keepers, Gerry Peyton. Our attempt to sign a goalkeeper would prove to be one of the season's enduring themes.
21 December
Aldershot 1 Burnley 2
Our new signing Adrian Randall was sub not used against his old side. We didn’t need him to complete our first League double of the season, against a team that had by now seemingly become known as Struggling Aldershot. Still, they made us work hard for this, our sixth League away win in a row, and it took two goals close to the end from Harper and Lancashire to put us in command. Even then, their late goal meant an uncomfortable finish. Apparently Harper's strike was a great goal. It was taken as symptomatic of his luck that later it didn't count for anything. When Aldershot were wound up, their results were expunged from the records. Our six points were written off. It was like this game never happened. But on the day it was a hugely significant result. Leaders Mansfield lost to Barnet. Make that ex-leaders. Finally, and rightly, with this win, Burnley went top.
Something that wouldn't have occurred to us at the time was that Graham Lancashire had just scored his last goal for Burnley.
Despite our rise to the summit, Jimmy Mullen was determined not to get carried away. He said, "We have to keep our feet on the ground and make sure we don't get smacked on the nose."
Team: Pearce, Measham, Jakub, Davis, Pender, Farrell, Harper, Deary, Francis, Conroy, Lancashire. Subs not used: Randall and Yates.
Burnley scorers: Harper (77), Lancashire (79).
Attendance: 2,574.
26 December
Burnley 1 Rotherham 2
We got smacked on the nose. Some laws of football transcend all others. An absolute, unbreakable, cast iron fact is that Burnley always lose on Boxing Day, regardless of the circumstances, however well we’re doing otherwise. Even Mullen, on the crest of a wave, couldn't change that. So it came to pass that we finally lost our first League game under our new Manager. It had been a magnificent 16 unbeaten in all competitions under Mullen, 11 in the League. It had to end sometime.
They scored right at the start of the second half. Francis pulled us level, but the winner came shortly afterwards. Adrian Randall made his debut as sub.
I remember us being below our best. Rotherham were looking good, so to lose both games to them was a little unfortunate. As was the fact that we disappointed our, so far, biggest crowd of the season. In fact, to date, it was the highest crowd in the Fourth Division all season. The previous highest was Burnley v Mansfield. Was it typical Burnley to screw up when the pressure was on? But however good you are, sometimes we get beat. And even then, we were still top, because somehow, Mansfield, Barnet and Blackpool all lost too. The top four lost. We discovered this walking back to Nelson, listening to the radio. There's no public transport on Boxing Day, so it meant a walk to exercise away the Christmas excesses, to Turf Moor and back over the tops.
Team: Pearce, Measham, Jakub, Davis, Pender, Farrell (Randall), Harper, Deary, Francis, Conroy, Lancashire (Eli).
Burnley scorer: Francis (70).
Attendance: 13,812.
28 December
Burnley 2 Doncaster 1
Before the year was up there was just time to play Doncaster for the fifth, and thankfully final, time. Our record against them this season read played 5, won 4, drawn 1. Although it wasn't a convincing scoreline, we played really well. This was our best football of the month. It must have been the most one-sided 2-1 win ever. We should have scored loads, but we didn't, and Doncaster's late goal left us worrying when we ought to have been adding up the goal difference. We were guilty, perhaps, of trying to walk the thing into the net, of over-elaborating in the knowledge of our obvious superiority.
We had so many chances! Conroy narrowly missed when fed by Eli. A scramble kept out Francis' shot after the keeper had saved Conroy's lob from a corner. Eli somehow managed to miss in front of an open goal when Conroy's shot from a Francis cross fell to him. Farrell's shot was cleared from close to the line. Farrell's volley fell to Conroy and was bravely saved. Eli's run into the box ended with Conroy taking the ball off his foot and shooting wide. Lancashire ran and shot just wide. Francis ran into the box and overcomplicated when he should have shot early. You get the idea. It was absolute one way traffic. Eli, Francis and Conroy linked well, while Farrell's involvement speaks of our midfield supremacy. They just could not clear their lines. We were always on them, always coming back at them.
At least we managed to score two. Our first was a peach of a goal, and it came from their corner. Deary headed it clear and Francis put his pace to good use, bringing the ball forward. He played it to Eli, and with Conroy and Davis tearing through the middle, Eli rolled the ball in front of Conroy. He took it on into the box, waited for the keeper to come out, shimmied past and placed the ball into the bottom right corner. Great goal.
Eli atoned for his earlier miss with another fine finish. Put through by a Jakub long pass, his control wasn't the best, but he got there just before the advancing keeper and chipped it, sending the ball spinning over the goalie and in.
Their 78th minute goal made for an uncomfortable last few minutes. It was a training ground free kick, just outside the area, fired home by Kevin Noteman.
Still, the main thing was that we hadn't lost again. I read somewhere that Mullen had set himself the target of not losing two in a row all season. We didn't.
Team: Pearce, Measham, Jakub, Davis, Pender, Farrell, Randall (Yates), Deary, Francis, Conroy, Eli (Lancashire).
Burnley scorers: Conroy (6), Eli (25).
Attendance: 9,604.
The month, and therefore the year, ended with Burnley at the top of the table, albeit not always playing the expansive, all-conquering football of the two months before. If I had a worry, it was that Burnley traditionally slumped after Christmas. I wasn't to know that it would be a defeat in the FA Cup that would provide the most memorable moment.
Firmo
December 2001
Part seven - January 1992
The 1991/1992 season
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