|
Burnley are one of the founders of the Football League, they formed in 1882 and have since had many ups and downs. In the decade of 1890-1900 we were fairly successful. In fact every year we seemed to climb up the league one place, from 8th in the 1890/1891 season to a 5th place position in the 1893/1894 season. Towards the end of the 1890/1891 season we recorded our first victory over Preston, who had won the league in its first two years. If beating Preston was good news, then beating Blackburn Rovers soon after was even better. 3-0 was the score, the goals coming from Nicol, Billy Bowes and Hugh Galbraith. In 1914 came Burnley lifting the FA Cup for the first time, beating Liverpool in the final 1-0.
It is now 20 years since our club almost died, we found our selves right at the bottom of the Football League, needing a win against Leyton Orient to save ourselves from crashing out. The team for that match was Joe Neenan, Peter Leebrook, Peter Hampton, Billy Rodaway, Joe Gallagher, Ray Deakin, Neil Grewcock, Phil Malley, Leighton James, Phil Devaney, Ian Britton. Sub: Ashley Hoskins. Turf Moor was packed with fans, every space was full. The game started off well for the Clarets, Neil Grewcock opening the scoring with a fierce shot just before half-time. then Grewcocks free-kick early in the second half was headed in by the smallest man on the field. Ian Britton. The crowd went mad, but then Comfort scored for Orient to steady things up. But we held on for victory and saved ourselves from crashing out of the league. The manager of Burnley at this time was 50 year old Brian Miller. Since then Burnley have managed to progress up the league to the position we are in now. Many great players have played at Burnley including, Ian Wright, Jimmy McIlroy and Martin Dobson.
|
