The best and worst of
the 1990s... what you thought
January
Paul Stewart is the worst
Burnley player of the nineties - official! He led the field from the off, ending up with
27% of the vote, Michael Williams having come close with 25% after a suspiciously late
surge of voting. Also rans were Alan Harper (17%), Lee Howey (14%), Mark Kendall (13%) and
Chris Waddle (11%). Hats off, Mr Stewart, we salute you - and all from one month's loan!
February
Well, what a surprise. Alan
Harper is King Ugly of the 1990s. He took a whopping 35% of the vote. The magnificent but
cosmetically challenged Ted McMinn came second with 26%. Honourable mentions go to Ian
'Donkey' Bray (13%), Liam 'Spencer' Robinson (11%) and Joe 'Cabbage' Jakub (9%), while you
gallantly allowed current star the great Glen Little to finish last with 5% of the vote.
March
47% of you said that Jimmy
Mullen was the pick of Burnley's six managers of the 90's. it didn't always seem so at the
time. The rest were also rans, with Frank Casper (16%) (shurely shome mishtake) sneaking
second from Adrian Heath (13%). Bringing up the rear were Clive Middlemass and Chris
Waddle, tied on 8%, with current chief Stan Ternent the victim of some tactical voting
around the Ides of March coming last with a measly 7%. But we love him now, don't we?
April / May
We might have got to choose
the new away shirt, but will it be better than the classic first Mitre home design? 52% of
you rated that as the best ever. Their natty yellow and black number that presided over
many a first division away drubbing took 29%, narrowly ahead of that smart Ellgren home
shirt we were wearing when the decade began. Glory Years' current effort won the hearts of
10%, while Adidas are clearly best forgotten, sharing the wooden spoon for the hated
purple and blue quarters (which the club swore were so popular) and that yellow and Claret
number (which clearly only I liked).
June / July
It's settled, then. Our finest
hour and a half of the Nineties was our victory over Stockport at
Wembley, with 40% of the vote. That's fine, it's democratic - but I can't believe you
didn't all pick the game before. If that glorious, ludicrous, joyous night at Plymouth
wasn't the highlight of the decade then what was? Humph. That came joint third
with a 15% vote. I guess not many people were there compared to Wembley, but still... All
right, I'll stop moaning long enough to tell you that the 'Jimmy Mullen's Claret and Blue
Army' spectacular at Derby took silver with 16%, narrowly beating our miraculous
survival in spite of waddle, also against Plymouth, with 15%. York
Away, AKA The York Game, only grabbed 11% - honestly - while our most recent great escape against Champions Fulham came in last
on 6%. Now, going back to that Plymouth game...
August
The people have spoken, and to
no one's great surprise, Steve Davis is far and away the best Burnley player of the
Nineties, taking 40% of the vote. Pretty much everyone else is an also ran. Marlon
Beresford is still fondly remembered in second place with 18%, while John Deary, who has
yet to be adequately replaced, took bronze with 15%. As for the rest, widemen Glen Little
and David Eyres tied on 11% while Andy Payton unfortunately came last in a very high
quality field with 5%.
September
Top striker of the 1990's is the great Andy Payton (48%). His
position in Claret history is already assured, but I suspect there are plenty more goals
yet. Roger Eli (23%) is still fondly remembered in second, while Andy Cooke (11%) has his
supporters. Also ran Mike Conroy and Adrian Heath (both 7%), and last and unforgiven for
messing us about is Kurt Nogan (4%).
October /
November
Hats on for Steve
Harper, whose shaggy seventies perm scooped the honour of most disastrous Burnley barnet
on the 1990s. 37% of you thought so, placing it ahead of - that man again - Paul Stewart's
disgusting tight curls. Adrian Heath, in to make the numbers up with the bad facial hair
of the rotten studenty goatee beard he wore for about two weeks in 1994 obviously made an
impression on some of you, as he came a surprise third with 12%. The rest was dross. Tony
Hancock's horrendous mullet performed disappointingly with 10%, level with 'Rocket' Ron
Futcher's pathetic attempt at a Ralph Coates style cover-up job, while Liam Robinson's
ghastly skinhead languished utterly forgotten, last with a skimpy 4%.
November /
December
Hilariously someone out there
saw fit to fix our goalkeeping poll so that Gavin Ward ran out the overall winner. Perhaps
it was Gavin itself. Quite why someone could be bothered to keep clicking again and again
and again on our little backwater of a site is beyond me, but I reckon they could really
do with getting out more. Anyway, regardless of that, Marlon Beresford was the best
goalkeeper of the 1990s. He just was, really.
Back to
this year's surveys
