Alternative History

It was following the dissolution (in the acid Northern rain) of Burnley Rovers rugby team, in 1881, that the members of the club continued playing the oval ball game for one year before coming to their senses and opted to turn to football at a meeting at the Bull Hotel in the town during the year of 1882. Their strip was the claret and blue that has stayed with them throughout their history, but the pale blue arms had to be added after the claret material run out making the body of the tops.
Burnley became a founder member of the League in 1881 and ten years into the new venture won the Second Division title. In 1914, they beat Liverpool at Crystal Palace to take the FA Cup and then built on that victory to win the Championship of the First Division in 1921. Like Adolf Hitler, World War II ended with Burnley going through a period without much success. The arrival of Bob Lord as chairman, who had revolutionary ideas of his own, saw a revival of fortunes with an excellent season in 1946-7, when they only let in 32 goals in 52 games. The stubborn defence was obviously drilled into the players during their time in the army.

Trophies eluded them, until they came back with the 1st Division trophy again in 1960 and they lost out in the 1962 FA Cup final to Tottenham 3-1. The Burnley captain at the time, Jimmy Adamson, became England’s assistant manager for the 1962 World Cup finals after he turned the recently vacated hot seat down following Walter Winterbottom’s departure.

The club became well known for producing young talent in the 60’s and 70’s, but although the Division 2 championship was won in 1973, their policy of having to sell off the best players ended up with them having a fantastic stadium at Turf Moor, but a team that would be playing in the top divisions no more. One of the club’s favourite sons is Frank Casper, who played a bit like Martin Peters, but was always genial - earning him the nickname “The Friendly Ghost” . Some of the youngsters didn’t appear to be so, take balding Ralph Coates, for example. But Ralph’s hair wasn’t the only thing that was thin on the ground in Burnley. A Third Division championship in 1982 didn’t stop the rot and only a last day win against Leyton Orient prevented them from slipping into the Conference in 1987. This shocked the once great club into life and they became the 4th division champions in 1991-2. However, threats of violence against a couple of their recent former managers lead to the appointment of Chris Waddle for the 1997-8 season. Only a last day win secured their Second division status.

The first ground Burnley played at was Calder Vale, but myths and legends of witches in the area created great fear amongst visiting teams and Burnley were forced to quit the pitch for a new home. That was turf Moor. It was merely a piece of turf on the moors surrounding Burnley in those days. The development of the ground saw a visit to a football match by a royal for the first time - Prince Albert attending in 1886 and the club were dubbed “the Royalites” for a while (a name later assumed by a Philly soul band back in 1975). The wind often whips through the ground and once was so strong, a goal-kick was blown back off at the same end of the pitch for a corner to the opposition !! How did Ralph ever manage to keep his hair flat ??

Having taken on an aging ex-England striker, they snuck into the automatic promotion place to go up to Division One on the last day of the 1999-2000 season. This proved to be no fluke as they established themselves in the top half of the table in their return to Div. 1 and look set to stay there for a while to come. Perhaps they surprised themselves and their fans by getting to the Promotion play-off final at Wembley in 2009 and beat Sheffield United to go up to the Premier League for the first time, where they hoped to transfer their cup form against the top teams into regular league form. There was a bit of yoyo-ing, but the team under Sean Dyche looked equipped to cope with the top flight despite lacking a huge budget.

FAMOUS PLAYERS : - Tommy Boyle, Trev Moore, George Beel, Jerry Dawson, Jimmy McIlroy, Steve Kindon, Peter Mellor.

FAMOUS FANS : - Alistair Campbell (Former Secretary to Prime Minister - Tony Blair), Colin Buchanan (Actor - Dalziel and Pascoe); Johnny Briggs (Actor - Mike Baldwin in "Coronation Street"); Ted Heath (former Prime Minister); John Kettley (TV Weatherman).

Formed	1882
Turned Professional	1883
Became a Limited Company	1897
Former names	Burnley Rovers = 1881-1882
Previous grounds	Calder Vale = 1881-1882
Nickname	"The CLARETS"
Club Colours	HOME : Shirts - Claret body with blue sleeves Shorts - White Socks - White AWAY : Shirts - Blue Shorts - Claret Socks - Blue
Record Football League Win	9-0 v Darwen Division 1 9.1.1892
Record Football League Defeat	0-10 v Aston Villa Division 1 29.8.1925 0-10 v Sheffield United Division 1 19.1.1929
Record Cup Win	9-0 v Crystal Palace FAC R2r 10.2.1909 9-0 v New Brighton FAC R4 26.1.1957 9-0 v Penrith FAC R1 17.11.1984
Record Fee Paid	£15,000,000 to Leeds United for Chris WOOD (21st August 2017)
Record Fee Received	£25,000,000 from Everton for Michael KEANE (3rd July 2017)
Record Football League Appearances	552 - Jerry DAWSON (1907-28)
Record goal-scorer in a season	35 - George BEEL Division 1 (1927-28)
Record all-time goal-scorer	178 - George BEEL (1923-32)
Most goals in a match	6 - Louis PAGE v Birmingham City Division 1 10.4.1926
Record Attendance (all-time)	54,775 v Huddersfield Town FAC R3 23.2.1924
Record match receipts	-
Record total of goals in a League season	102 - Division 1 1960-61
Record League points total	3 points for a win : 93 - Championship 2013-2014; 2015-16 2 points for a win : 62 - Division 2 1972-73
Most Capped player while at club	Jimmy McILROY 51 (Northern Ireland)

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