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First County Visit:	Tuesday 29th January 1985
Competition:	Freight Rover Trophy – ( Northern Round 1 – 1st Leg)
Result:	Burnley 5 – 1 Stockport County
Attendance:	1,432
Away Trip:	35
Away Day:	106
County Line-up	1 Mike Salmon; 2 John Rutter; 3 Steve Sherlock; 4 Dean Emerson; 5 Tommy Sword; 6 Andy Thorpe (12 Nigel Smith); 7 Mike Power (14 Steve Buxton); 8 John Kerr; 9 Paul Hendrie; 10 Andy Crawford; 11 Clive Evans
Scorer:	Dean Emerson
Manager:	Eric Webster
County Visits:	19

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NEVER ANY LOVE LOST UP THE M66

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Some of my first memories of football were of the team that Harry Potts created, featuring the likes of Jimmies Adamson and McIlroy; Ray Pointer; Alex Elder and many others.  Then they rode high in the First Division, even winning the thing in 1960. They played in the very first FA Cup Final I remember seeing on TV – losing 3-1 to Spurs in 1962. Burnley was also a nice little jaunt up the Rossendale Valley from where I lived at the time, so it wasn’t un-natural to think about a mid-week trip if nothing else took the fancy.

I probably first went there around 1969 and 16 years later, on my first County visit, the ground had changed not a jot.  A ground born of its mill town background, but with the initial vestiges of a modern day approach undoubtedly instilled by the autocratic leader of the Club, local butcher Bob Lord.  A traditionalist to some he was responsible for replacing a couple of old structures, (the Main Stand, (aka Brunshaw Road Stand) and the Cricket Field Stand). 

The latter of the two incorporated for the first and only time, to my knowledge, and the scope of my research, the installation of underfloor central heating.  A brilliant idea, because in mid-winter the foothills of North East Lancashire are never the warmest. Indeed if truth’s known I been in warmer places in mid-winter than Turf Moor in early August.  It was switched on but the once, with Lord then deeming it ludicrously expensive to run, and nearly 50 years later the plant is no doubt still in place but entirely redundant.

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A traditional terrace – the loss of which must be mourned. A creator of atmosphere unlike the sanitised all-seater grounds today

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The rest of the ground was old school, and all the better for it.  Along the touchline was the Long Side,  A largish covered terrace, dark and glowering it seemed.  Frankly, in these days of the sanitised grounds the disappearance of this type of stand is a grievous loss.  Side terraces, be they at places like Maine Road and Leeds Road amongst many others were where the real supporters were found.  The humour; the bitterness; the irony and the unfailing ability to call things right.  They produced the atmosphere at grounds, and the nature of the construction was key to this.  Containment; echoing and amplification of crowd noise was a natural product. 

Covered side terraces were a must.  I despair at their disappearance.  And the one at Turf Moor certainly fitted the bill.  Filling almost the length of the touchline it contained the vociferous element of the home support, and at one point was sub divided to allow for away standing.  That arrangement certainly produced some, shall we say, tense moment!!

Behind the goal was the open Bee Hole End, (pictured below). It was a decent size terrace.  I’ve seen it well occupied as Burnley enjoyed better days up the football hierarchy, but by the time County made their way up to the mill town the crowd, and temperature, generally meant it had an unloved; almost unoccupied feel to it.  But it did give a decent view.  I sampled it from the top on one non-County trip and there could be no arguing about the aspect

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Both the Long Side and the Bee Hole End are gone now as Burnley have climbed back up the ladder and now enjoy the riches at the premier league table.  It’s almost difficult to think that within the last 20 years or so they were the bitterest of enemies, with our battles, both metaphorical and literal, being fought in the basement of English League football.  Now 5 divisions and over 100 places separate us.  But let’s reflect back to the days when we made what seemed regular trips.

The first trip was in the Freight Rover Trophy.  County’s record in this competition had been little less than appalling.  The competition had started the previous season and seen Crewe come to Edgeley Park; draw 2-2 after extra time and then triumph in a penalty shoot out.  Triumph is perhaps overstating matters.  It took them just three shots on target as County’s three efforts flew high into the Railway End.  I know that for a fact as I caught one of them stood at the very back!! 

It’s hard to believe that within a few years this competition would be a staple diet of the success that Danny Bergara brought to the Club.  But January 1985 saw a continuation of the form which had seen that exit to Crewe. The previous league game had seen a 4-2 win over Northampton, so disappointment was the order of the day, not only at a loss but the size of it as we went down 5-1.  Maybe it was the enforced break.  January 1985 must have been a harsh month – the game at Turf Moor was exactly 4 weeks after the Northampton fixture.  It rendered the second leg rather futile, but true to form, at that time anyway, County managed to lose that as well, but this time by just the single goal.

Games with Burnley became almost common place.  In the nine year spell from that first meeting in January 1985 until the debacle that was the “Elleray Play Off game” in 1994 we met 27 times in every conceivable competition.  And the famous saying goes that familiarity breeds contempt.  And indeed it did.  Calling the meetings fractious, both on and off the field, would be a gross understatement.  It was more like sheer vitriol, and worse, in the streets surrounding both Turf Moor and EP, and on the pitch over the top challenges were common place as were the resultant red cards.  I can’t say that I ever really enjoyed going up there.  There had to be plenty of “looking over the shoulder” on the walk from the car to the ground.  But even though it might not have been comfortable there were some excellent experiences as well. 

Springing to mind is a Northern Section Final of the Autoglass Trophy in 1992, when a Kevin Francis goal gave us a one goal lead to take back to Edgeley for the second leg – a game which was duly won to give County their first ever appearance at Wembley. There were some grim times as well.  In early January 1996 we went down 4-3 but it marked the first sighting in a County shirt of one of the main architects of the success the following year.  Chris Marsden, rescued from the obscurity of Notts County reserves, made his debut. 

Little were we to know that afternoon, particularly as we went down in what the papers described as a “seven goal thriller”, just what an impact he was to have.  In partnership with Tom Bennett he was to be an integral element of a team which, if it had been kept together, would have challenged for the Premiership.  In just over a season he became a hero to all County fans … and rightly so.

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Eight months later, in the annus mirabilis, we journeyed up the M66 again.  Three days after a triumph in the hostile surroundings of south east London, at the New Den, and on the back of a 6 game winning streak, we went down, and in some style.  Burnley had lashed out £400,000 to Birmingham a few weeks before for the “free scoring”, (or so the press would have us believe), Paul Barnes.  A misnomer, since this goal machine had failed to hit the target since donning claret and blue.  Until that afternoon.  I recall John Aldridge getting 4 against us one night at EP when with Newport County, but Barnes went one better claiming all five of Burnley’s goals.  Sadly County could only reply with two. 

Walking away from Turf Moor was a salutary experience that afternoon, and not one that would bear much repeating.  Of course we had the last laugh.  Six months later promotion was gained and Burnley left to tread water in the then Division 1 for another three seasons.

As we’ve fallen through the leagues there’s a fair few places not visited for many years.  Some of them I miss going to.  Notts County; Hartlepool; Carlisle to name but three.  But Turf Moor will never appear in that list.  And it’s nothing to do with the atmosphere or the antagonism over the years.  Basically it holds no attraction, and even though a return visit in my lifetime is highly unlikely, I don’t think it ever will.

January 2017

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VISITS

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Day	Date	Competition	Tier / Round	Opponents	Res	F	A	Crowd	Away Day
Tues	29/01/85	Freight Rover Trophy	Northern Round 1 – 1st Leg	Burnley	L	1	5	1,432	106
Fri	23/08/85	Canon League Division 4	Tier 4	Burnley	W	1	0	3,909	116
Sat	18/10/86	Today League Division 4	Tier 4	Burnley	L	0	2	2,410	135
Sat	31/10/87	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Burnley	D	1	1	6,642	152
Sat	28/01/89	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Burnley	L	0	1	6,942	167
Sat	26/08/89	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Burnley	D	0	0	6,537	173
Sat	18/11/89 (Highlights)	FA Cup	Round 1	Burnley	D	1	1	8,030	178
Tues	28/11/89	Leyland Daf Cup	Group Round	Burnley	W	2	0	3,352	179
Tues	04/09/90	Rumbelows Cup	Round 1 – 2nd Leg	Burnley	W	1	0	3,910	192
Tues	22/01/91	Leyland Daf Cup	Northern Round 2	Burnley	L	2	3	3,578	202
Sat	26/01/91 (Highlights)	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Burnley	L	2	3	8,946	203
Tues	07/04/92 (Highlights)	Autoglass Trophy	Northern Final – 1st Leg	Burnley	W	1	0	13,259	231
Sat	30/01/93	Barclays League Division 2	Tier 3	Burnley	D	1	1	11,228	251
Sat	12/03/94	Endsleigh League Division 2	Tier 3	Burnley	D	1	1	13,130	275
Sat	13/01/96	Endsleigh League Division 2	Tier 3	Burnley	L	3	4	9,030	316
Sat	05/10/96 (Highlights)	Nationwide Football League – Division 2	Tier 3	Burnley	L	2	5	10,332	333
Tues	04/02/97	Auto Windscreens Trophy	Northern Round 2	Burnley	W	1	0	4,252	346
Sat	14/10/00	Nationwide Football League – Division 1	Tier 2	Burnley	L	1	2	16,107	430
Sat	15/12/01	Nationwide Football League – Division 1	Tier 2	Burnley	L	2	3	15,526	457

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ON MY JOURNEY WITH COUNTY AROUND 180 GROUNDS

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Previously – ANFIELD Next stop – BURNDEN PARK