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The
Year of the Phoenix
The 1991-92 season game by
game - part seven
January
After a few thrilling months which saw us rise to the top of the Fourth Division, January was all about the FA Cup. What an incident-filled, ridiculous month it was, too.
1 January
Chesterfield 2 Burnley 0
First, we started the New Year as we finished the last, with another win. It was the seventh league away win in a row, apparently breaking a record that had stood since 1919. There was one change to the line-up. With Chris Pearce again being dropped, Mark Kendall was the latest man to be handed the opportunity of solving our goalkeeping problem. He kept a clean sheet. We weren't to know.
John Deary scored right at the start of the match, and John Francis had it wrapped up before the half hour, in front of another huge away following. For the first, the ever hard-working Roger Eli headed the ball on to Mike Conroy, who turned and put an excellent cross into the box, which was just asking to be headed in by Deary. Our second came from Andy Farrell's free kick. A defender made the mistake of heading it towards goal, and Francis used his best asset, pace, to race onto it and score. Job done, and thanks very much to Chesterfield for the six points.
Following Kendall's debut in goal, Pearce asked to go on the transfer list.
Team: Kendall, Measham, Jakub, Davis, Pender, Farrell, Randall, Deary, Francis, Conroy (Lancashire), Eli. Sub not used: Harper.
Burnley scorers: Deary (2), Francis (25).
Attendance: 7,789.
4 January
Burnley 2 Derby County 2, FA Cup Third Round
Cracking FA Cup match, this. In front of a big crowd, this was the sort of game you always hope the cup will provide. Derby, two divisions above us and wealthy with it, twice had the lead, but we just wouldn't let go. Once again, this team of rare persistence showed it would never give up a fight.
After plenty of build up and anticipation, it started so badly. Martyn Chalk scored after 32 seconds. The crowd deflated. Was it going to be a rout, then? But we came back, and within a handful of minutes we were level. Steve Harper finished off a right wing attack, scoring past Derby’s veteran and legendary keeper, Peter Shilton. Shilton had been given a typically warm reception by the crowd behind the Bee Hole Lane End goal. (We’d recall this with bitterness two and a half years later when, as a manager, he sent his Plymouth Argyle side out here to kick Burnley out of the game in the play-offs, but that’s another story for another time.)
Close to the end, they went back in front, when Andy Comyn finished from close range, but they had reckoned without Roger Eli. It had been in a cup match, against Scunthorpe a little more than two years before, that he’d become a striker. Now our cult hero produced something really special. Finishing off another great Conroy cross, Eli's header was perfect, powerful and precise, truly bullet like. It must still be one of the best headed goals I’ve seen, and Shilton didn’t stand a chance.
With the game level, it meant a replay. We went home happy. It had been a terrifically entertaining game, and it was exhilarating to have matched a team half a league above us. One other point to note was that Derby fielded a player who, although we disliked him on the day (largely because he was a handful), would go on to become a Burnley cult hero: Ted McMinn.
Team: Kendall, Measham, Jakub, Davis, Pender, Farrell, Harper, Deary Francis (Lancashire), Conroy, Eli. Sub not used: Yates.
Burnley scorers: Harper (6), Eli (84).
Attendance: 18,727.
11 January
Blackpool 5 Burnley 2
Oh shit. Here, it just all went wrong. And against these tossers, too. In those days, Blackpool were the nearest thing we had to rivals at our level, so this hurt like hell. It still hurts a bit, and it’s ten years ago now.
Everything about going to Blackpool was unpleasant. The shabby seaside town itself holds little appeal, while the ground was an unimaginable dump. It looked like someone had got an old, decrepit non-league ground, thrown it all up into the air, and it had landed funny. On top of that, the supporters hated us, making the walk back to the railway station a dangerous mission. Inside the ground, Jimmy Mullen, being a former Blackpool manager, was a particular target for abuse. I seem to recall him being badly treated by a steward, although whether it was at this game, or another, or both, I don’t know. The experience of watching the match at Gloomfield Road was really something. I think by this stage the crumbling kop behind the goal had finally been closed for safety reasons, so we would have been in the paddock, the front of which was actually below pitch level. From that angle you could see precious little, but just to make sure, a surly git of a steward blocked our way. He would take sour, aggressive delight in celebrating Blackpool’s goals.
Yep, all in all, a fun day. Doubtless the team underperformed – perhaps this was the rebound after their great exertions against Derby – but the blame for the defeat could be laid squarely at the door of one man: Mark Kendall. Kendall didn’t just have a very bad game in goal. If only. He was far worse than that. Kendall produced one of the worst individual performances I have ever seen from a Burnley player. He was at fault for a minimum of four of the goals. He just didn’t stop anything. In fact, would Blackpool have had so many shots if Kendall hadn’t been so obviously useless? True, our defence had an off day – but if our goalkeeper had occasionally tried to keep the ball out of the net, such was our attacking power that we would still have had a chance.
The first set the tone. A long cross was never cleared, and Kendall ran out to avoid the striker the ball fell to, ex Colne man Tony Rodwell, who couldn’t have had an easier finish into the unguarded net. But the second was the corker. Full back Dylan Kerr’s cross was poor, too long and far too near Kendall, who let it pass straight through his hands.
We were 2-0 down at half time, but at least we fought. Conroy pulled one back after great work by Eli, who beat a defender and held him off to set up our top scorer for a precise finish. But the most dispiriting thing about this match was that every time we looked to have got back in it, we shot ourselves in another foot. So a few minutes later we didn’t clear a shot, and Kendall could get nowhere near the rebound.
Still we tried. You couldn’t fault the commitment of the attackers, who were desperate to get something. From a tight angle, Francis hit in a shot off a Blackpool player. So, at 3-2, and with the away supporters screaming for an equaliser and Francis urging on the team, we bollocksed it up again. Steve Davis, uncharacteristically, was second to a ball, losing out to a player running from behind him. Well, that was that, then. Normally you’d hope for your goalie to do something, but torn between the player advancing with the ball and Dave Bamber charging into the centre unmarked, Kendall decided to go for neither of them, opting instead to stand sort of half way between. With an unoccupied goal to aim at, big ugly brute Bamber had one of the easiest finishes of his long and undistinguished career. Game over.
Just before the end, Kendall made absolutely sure of it. There was another Blackpool run and cross, Kendall ambled along to somewhere nowhere near it and, having failed to cut it out, left another invitingly empty net for Rodwell to score in, again.
It was calamitous. We'd lost our first away game under Mullen, and how. We’d lost it to a side that really hated us, and one which also happened to be a promotion rival. Just to make sure it really hurt, we lost our top spot too, this result sending us to second.
What really stuck in my craw – what still does – was Kendall’s attitude. We might have hoped for a bit of contrition from the man that had cost us this vital game. But every time he made a mistake, Kendall blamed someone else. After each of his errors he charged out of goal – showing far more pace than he did when the ball was in play – waving, pointing, shouting, at referee, linesmen, defenders, anyone. Precisely who did he think was to blame, if not himself? So bad was Kendall that at least we could take some consolation: it was impossible to read any significance into this game.
Team: Kendall, Measham, Jakub, Davis, Pender, Farrell, Harper (Randall), Deary, Francis, Conroy, Eli. Sub not used: Lancashire.
Burnley scorers: Conroy (63), Francis (70).
Attendance: 8,007.
14 January
Derby County v Burnley (abandoned), FA Cup Third Round replay
At 2-0 down, we were bailed out by the fog. I didn't make it to the match, Derby by night being too adventurous a prospect then, although I've done it from London since. Derby did the expected and cruised to a 2-0 lead. Except... I was listening on Radio Lancashire, and they kept mentioning this fog. It grew foggier as the game went on. Into the second half, apparently you couldn't see a thing. Burnley supporters, sensing an unlikely escape, roared on the weather. Home supporters retaliated, cheering imaginary goals for the benefit of the Clarets who couldn't see the far end, and maintaining that Burnley 'only sing when it's foggy'. With a mere 14 minutes left before the formality of our cup exit was due to be pronounced, the referee conceded to the weather, abandoning the match. We'd get a third bite of the cherry. The re-replay was scheduled for fourth round day. We wouldn't need any fog to make us sing then.
Team: Kendall, Measham, Jakub, Davis, Pender, Farrell, Harper, Deary, Francis, Conroy, Eli. Subs not used: Yates and Lancashire.
Attendance: 17,621.
After the match, Mullen wasted no time in making sure that Kendall would get no further bites of anything. In a decisive move, he was promptly sent back to Swansea. In doing so, Mullen was acknowledging an error and setting it right. The only surprise was that Kendall hadn't gone straight after Blackpool, but at least now what had happened there couldn't happen again. Kendall had played only three games for Burnley, or four if you count the abandoned match, but that was enough to earn infamy. Largely on the strength of his performance at Blackpool, he will be remembered as one of the worst Burnley keepers of all time.
His weaknesses highlighted the importance of bringing in a decent goalkeeper to sustain our promotion bid. As soon as Kendall had gone, Pearce came off the transfer list. But we knew about his limitations, and much though we liked Pearce, most of us would have admitted by then that we needed someone better. Apparently the club tried again to buy Andy Marriott from Forest, and also looked at Andy Pederson, an Australian keeper at Luton. But Pearce was back for the next game.
18 January
Burnley 4 Gillingham 1
Although the scoreline shows this as a convincing win, the funny thing about this game is that I remember it for all the chances we missed. Conroy was, unusually, particularly culpable. I even recall some of the people around us on the Longside giving him the bird, which I thought was a bit harsh, given the season he was having. And he did emerge from the game having scored his first hat trick in English football, so he can't have been that bad.
That he did so was partly down to Gillingham's goalkeeper, Harvey Lim. He was regarded as a bit of a character. He was of Chinese ancestry, and he'd been in the papers saying he wanted to play for China. He had a ponytail, too. But, for this game at least, eccentric meant useless. After our trials at Blackpool, it was nice to see some other side suffering.
We had Lim to thank for our first goal. He made a hash of Davis' long ball, uncertainly dribbling it away from his area, before panicking and playing a tame clearance straight to Farrell. Farrell took it on and passed it to the lurking Conroy. With Lim not yet back in goal, it was 1-0.
Conroy then missed two great chances to end the game inside twenty minutes. From Ian Measham's accurate, pacy cross he missed with a header, and then he shot narrowly wide following Deary's pass into the box. We cursed those misses when Gillingham equalised, thanks to some poor defending on our part. Trying to help put in our box, Conroy headed their free kick straight into the air. When it came down, Pearce, under pressure, fluffed his punch. It fell to a Gillingham player, and although Pearce got in the way of their shot, they scored from the rebound.
The crowd grew nervous when further chances were squandered. Graham Lancashire, in for the injured Eli, ran and rolled a perfect ball into the box. With the keeper nowhere again, it was on a plate for Conroy, but somehow he hit the bar. Then, in the second half, Lancashire superbly controlled a ball on his chest, but for once Lim got himself in the way of the shot. It was then Davis' turn to hit the bar, with a header from a Joe Jakub free kick. Finally we won it with two goals in a minute. Jakub's corner was nodded on by John Pender, and this time Conroy couldn't miss with a header by the post. Adrian Randall then got in on the action with his first Burnley goal. It was a curious affair, stemming from some truly horrible defending by Gillingham. Under vague pressure from Harper, a Gillingham player played the ball straight to Randall's feet. He skipped past the ever wayward Lim and passed it to Francis, inviting him to shoot. I think he did, but his shot was so wide of the mark it came straight back to Randall in an inadvertent one-two. Randall finally took matters into his own hands and scored.
Towards the end, Conroy took advantage of more poor positioning from Lim for a smart goal. Jakub played a good ball into the box, and Conroy, with a defender close by, took it on his chest, turned, and placed it into the space where the goalkeeper should have been.
It had been an odd sort of game, in which we'd dominated, missed chances, but finally got the win we deserved. And this was an important result after Blackpool. We needed the win. As a bonus, it took us back to the top of the table.
It was after the match that Jimmy Mullen was stopped by the police for drunk driving. He was arrested on the M55 on his way home, and charged to appear before Lytham magistrates for drink driving and driving without due care and attention.
Team: Pearce, Measham, Jakub, Davis, Pender, Farrell (Randall), Harper, Deary, Francis, Conroy, Lancashire (Yates).
Burnley scorers: Conroy (8, 65, 83), Randall (66).
Attendance: 8,908.
21 January
Burnley v Scarborough (abandoned), Autoglass Trophy First Round
Brr. This is a game I can remember for only one thing - the cold. It was absolutely freezing cold that night. Most people had sensibly opted to stay in the warmth, and there were few at Turf Moor for this one. The huge Longside terrace on which we shivered was an eerie place when deserted, pervaded by a cool blue light. The game itself was a farce. Both sides slid about on the icy pitch and from an early stage it was clear that the only priority of the players was to keep their feet and avoid injury. I'd love to know who the referee was who sanctioned this one. After 90 minutes of non event, the scoreline stood at 0-0, which was a fair reflection of play. Autoglass games were settled on the night, so we were anticipating a further frozen 30 minutes of extra time, and after that a potential penalty shoot out. Then the teams trooped off, doubtless to their relief, and we were told that the match had just been abandoned. A second cup game had therefore been called off, although this time the referee’s capitulation to the weather wasn't much of a cause for celebration. That said, I was just pleased to be released from this test of endurance. After a while I might begin to feel my feet again. It had, however, been a uniquely futile night. There can’t be many games that are abandoned after 90 minutes. The pitch can’t have been more frozen at the end of the game than it was at the start. It should never have kicked off.
Oh well, we’d have to come back for another 90 minutes now. It’s still the coldest game I’ve ever been to.
Team: Pearce, Measham, Jakub, Davis, Pender, Farrell, Harper, Deary, Francis, Conroy, Lancashire. Subs not used: Monington and Yates.
25 January
Derby County 2 Burnley 0, FA Cup Third Round replay
So on Fourth Round day we finally lost our Third Round tie. In a disappointingly ramshackle Baseball Ground – I’d expected better of a side much higher than us – Derby did the professional, expected job that they’d been doing before they’d been so rudely interrupted by the fog. We were somewhat fortunate to go in 0-0 at half time, but then, after Pearce had lost the ball again and after a free kick had deflected in, they were 2-0 up and cruising. We were duly heading out of the cup.
But the scoreline was the least interesting thing about the day. In fact, the game was gloriously irrelevant. This match will be remembered forever by those who were privileged to be there not for the football, but for an outstanding show of support. The Burnley supporters were magnificent this day. I was proud to be one of them.
It started shortly after Derby scored their second goal. A chant began, grew louder, and carried on. It was a familiar one by that season, and one that had been sung many a time by then: Jimmy Mullen's Claret and Blue Army. The difference this time was that the chant just grew and grew. It didn't stop. We barely paused for breath. For the rest of the match, the game wasn’t important. Keeping the chant going, that was the thing.
It was a brilliant but a bit weird. Events on the pitch didn't matter. Whether it was a Burnley move petering out or a Derby attack coming close, the song stayed the same. I realised that, without the crowd reacting to it, what happens on the pitch has no meaning. The only time we broke up the chant was when, somehow, word got round to those of us in the lower tier behind the goal that our hero of the early months, loan keeper Andy Marriott, was watching from the upper tier. We turned round to salute him – turning our backs on the game – and seamlessly broke into his song of 'Swing Low Sweet Marriott'. Then, with due acknowledgement made, we slipped straight back into 'Jimmy Mullen's Claret and Blue Army'. We knew by now that we must keep this going through to the end.
We got to the end, and didn't let up. The final whistle was paid as much as heed as anything else that had happened since the chant began. We simply ignored it, and carried on. The Derby fans cheered their team. The teams applauded their supporters and trooped off. The home fans started to disperse. We stayed, and in an emptying ground, continued the chant. While we kept going you could see the police and stewards trying to figure out what to do with us. As supporters of a beaten, lower division side, we would have been expected to clap our team and then walk away. They might even have been prepared for bother. They didn’t get any. And it's a sad fact, but as a supporter of a side which has often struggled in the lower divisions, I've taken part in one or two demos in my time. Here, though, was something different: a demo of faith and commitment, a demonstration for, rather than against, something, and a loud and long expression of support for the club and manager. I’ve never seen or heard anything like it.
This went on for an age, and eventually the team came back out for a moment of mutual admiration. You sometimes wonder whether the players care like we do. Not this day. A bond was forged, and I believe it proved to be an important one in the forthcoming months of battle for promotion.
We left, finally, knowing we’d taken part in something important. People who were lucky enough to be on that away end won’t forget it. The most extraordinary thing about it, looking back, is that most matches you remember because of something the team, or a particular player, did. Here, I can recall pretty much nothing about the actual match. This game goes into folklore purely because of us, the supporters. We did it. We made our own history. Even though this was a defeat, this will always be one of the moments I was proudest to be a Claret.
Team: Pearce, Measham, Jakub, Davis, Pender, Farrell, Harper (Eli), Deary, Francis, Conroy, Lancashire (Yates).
Attendance: 18,374.
Following the emotional high of Derby, and the positive press coverage it attracted for the club, the month anticlimaxed with minor transfer business. Rumour had it that, still desperate for a goalie, we had bid £150,000 for Matt Dickins, Lincoln's young keeper, but if we had, we didn't manage to sign him. We did splash out a tenth of that on Paul McKenzie, a 22-year-old winger and postman from Peterhead, of the Highland League in Scotland. He looked like one for the future. One who wasn't was Jason Hardy, our sort-of-defender, who went to Halifax on loan, pending a possible permanent transfer.
Meanwhile, Mullen appeared in court at Lytham and duly picked up a driving ban. In his defence, he said he’d been drinking with sponsors after the Gillingham match and celebrating Conroy’s hat trick.
And now, with the cup out of the way, it was time to get back to the serious business of getting on in the league. After Derby, we just had to do it.
Firmo
January 2002
Part eight - February 1992
The 1991/1992 season
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