(c) 2007 Clarets Museum Copyright
Welcome to the Worlds First Online Football Museum
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The Clarets had looked into the jaws of hell, and managed to pull
its self clear just in time, and the club looked to build on it's new
found connection with it's faithful supporters.
1987-88 saw a completely new team rebuilt
under the management of Brian Miller, and
sustain it's position in the League comfortably,
and they even managed to win through to the
Final of the Sherpa Van Trophy at Wembley
against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Wolves
had also dropped down the Leagues, but had
just won the Fourth Division Championship.
A record crowd for an all Fourth Division game
of 81,000 saw Burnley beaten 0-2 on the day,
but it seemed like the misery of 12 months
before had already started to be cleaned away.
Burnley stayed in the Fourth Division under the management of Brian
Miller, and although he had steered Burnley out of trouble, the club had
started to look onwards and up wards, Frank Casper was brought in, but
the closest he got was a Play-off semi-final defeat by Torquay in the
1990-91 season.
A little way into the 1991-92 season, and he too was replaced, by Jimmy
Mullen. Instantly form changed, and the Clarets zoomed to the top of the
league, and the Championship was won with a 2-1 win over York City, it
gave Burnley the
title of all four division, and the Clarets became
only the second club in history to complete the
feat (the other team being Wolves in 1988).
Mike Conroy scored over 20 goals that season,
which gave him the honor of being the first
Claret in nearly 30 years to breach that magical
number.
The season was also marred by the tragic loss
of Ben Lee, an apprentice player at Burnley
who tragically lost his life when he fell through
the roof of the Longside, when attempting to
collect lost footballs.
A season of consolidation in the newly formed League two, (this being the
first season of the Premier League) established Burnley as a side to be
reckoned with especially at Turf Moor, and the following season held the
same pattern, with Burnley winning nearly every game at Turf Moor, but
the away form was poor, but a place in the Play-off's was earned. Burnley
had finished in sixth place in the League, and drew Plymouth Argyle in the
semi final, a first leg 0-0 draw at Turf Moor, left supporters down hearted,
as the Clarets away form had been so poor all season. A incredible 3-1 at
home park, with John Francis scoring two vital goals, booked Burnley
fourth trip to Wembley, and it's second in 6 years.
The Play-off final between Burnley and
Stockport County was a scruffy affair,
but it was Burnley who won out with goals
from David Eyres and Gary Parkinson,
giving the Clarets a 2-1 win, but the day
was marred by trouble on the pitch, when
two Stockport players took exception to
Ted McMinn, and both ended up being
sent off, but Burnley ended the day with
their first win at Wembley, and more
importantly a place in the First Division.
It became obvious that the Burnley side of 1994-95 was not good enough
to survive the hardship of the First Division, and one quick season was all
the Clarets got, as they tumbled back down in the second division, things
did not get better and after a poor season back in the Second Division,
Burnley replaced Jimmy Mullen with player manager Adrien Heath.
Adrian Heath managed two seasons at the
helm, where we were never far from
mid-table, and he left the club to take up an
assistant managers appointment at Everton
in 1998.
The club then moved for a big name signing, to show their intent on
making a concerted effort to get out of the Second Division and get into
the First.
Chris Waddle, ex-England and Spurs midfield maestro walked into he club,
and 12 months later, and a battle against relegation, he walked back out
again. Waddle did manage to buy Burnley Born Andy Payton, who was
brought to the club from Barnsley, as part of a swap deal, with Paul
Barnes, a player who had scored 5 goals in a game against Stockport
County, going the other way
The club was on the threshold, they had seen quick changes in
management damage the club internally, and if the next appointment
wasn't the right choice, the club could undo all the hard work of the last
decade.
In came Stan Ternent, ex-Claret, and an
expert in winning promotion on a shoe
string, as he had done at Bury. Stan set
about the squad, and he was never far
from public attention, when he publicly
sacked 3 first team players at a press
conference for poor performances in
the previous game.
Stan's first season, was mediocre, but a change in chairman, was to help
his cause financially. Frank Teesdale, who had see the club through it's
toughest stint in it's history made way for Barry Kilby, a local business man
who wanted to invest heavily in the club. Frank Teesdale, had over seen a
marked change in the club financial balance since 1987, which included
the building of two huge stands, at the cost of 6.5 million pounds, to
replace the Longside and Bee Hole end terraces, and make Turf Moor into
an all seater stadium.
The Claret then proceeded to buy a new team,
with old favourite Steve Davies returning for
a club record £750,000. Even signing
ex-England and Arsenal great Ian Wright for
the end of the 1999-00 season, which ended
up being a masterstroke, as the Clarets
forced their way into second position and
take the remaining promotion spot behind
Preston North End at the expense of
Gillingham, with a dramatic 2-1 over
Scunthorpe on the last game of the season.
Ian Wright to the horror of most Burnley fans decided to hang up his boots
at the end of that campaign, but it was not a sign that the Clarets would
have a tough season ahead, as they took to the First Division as a duck to
water.
If supporters thought that the first season
back in the first Division was a fluke, then
they were rudely awaken by the second,
as Stans team took on all comers, but
sadly a blip at Christmas, which included
a 1-5 defeat by eventual champions
Manchester City saw any promotion
dreams fade away, Stan attempted to
inspired another end of season promotion push when he sign probably the
greatest England player of his generation, Paul Gascoigne, but this time
the gamble did not pay off.
Suddenly though ITV digital, a company that had paid vasts amounts of
money to the Football League for exclusive rights, went bust, and the
financial burden was suffered by the clubs, hardest hit were the smaller
clubs, like Burnley who had gambled on the money in lieu to get to the
promised land of the Premier league.
Quickly, the team was sold off, or off loaded, to bring finances back into
line, and the 2003-04 season was to be Stan's toughest at the club. Huge
losses to Grimsby and Sheffield Wednesday, left Burnley supporters in no
doubt as to the severity of the situation, but Stan pulled it out of the bag in
the end, and kept Burnley in the First Division. Sadly that was Stan's last
season at the club, and the board stated the would not be renewing Stan's
contract at the end of the season.
June 2004 saw the board appoint a promising new manager, Steve
Cotterill. Cotterill was at the club for just over 3 years, and all three
seasons have seen mid-table finishes. He bore the brunt of the cost
cutting exercises by the board, when leading goal scorers Robbie Blake
and Ade Akinbiyi were sold in consecutive seasons, and promising
England under 21 Richard Chaplow was also sold off. When new director
Brendon Flood appear at Turf Moor, a new brush swept clean, and a
casualty of the new direction the club would take, would be manager Steve
Cotterill, and he was replaced by Owen Coyle, from Scottish minnows St
Johnstone. The club then sold top goal scorer Andy Grey to Charlton, and
in the close season young starlet Kyle Lafferty to Rangers for a record
£3.5 million, this then helped the club smash it's transfer record for Martin
Patterson for £1.3 Million from Scunthorpe United
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