Burnley v Exeter City, March 1987

[randomclaret2]

I remember we took about 2,500 fans to Crewe that night and ending up being given half of the home terracing down the side of the pitch as well as the usual pile of cinders behind the goal.As others have said it really felt like we were done for..

[steve1264b]

Great pictures.

I have two overwhelming memories before the orient game (crewe already mentioned, silkyskills were we sat in the same car!!).

Torquay at home 2-2 tuesday night at home lashing down,James with a very late penalty. As i remember it with about 20 to go the crowd suddenly rose from its slumber and really got behind the team. Without that point we would not have rallied like we did. Nearly doubled the attendance for the next home game. My dad went into the Gannow Wharf threw his program on the pool table and demanded to know who was going on the next home game.

Secondly the away game at Scunthorpe, again tuesday night. Malley scored in the first couple of minutes in front of us, as they say its the hope that kills you, lost 2-1. That was a very long drive back.

My daughter is 24, season ticket holder, only known good times.

My dad got to see some of the Dyche era, he rose like lazarus to come for a pint after we beat leeds at home in the championship. Saw the great years but the he pleasure he got from our rise back to the big time was a flicker of light for him.

Good things be better? Am i a happy clapper?

Yes and Yes, but i am proud to say i am one of our fans who will always say its much better now than it was and i am grateful for that.

Ive never met the manager but we should be naming a stand after him or erecting a statue.

[DasCudband]

My 1st season also. Only thing I remember from that game was trudging off the Longside and around the Beehole 5 minutes before the end through the thick snow.

It was a strange season with occasional flashes of real fight for example a 2-1 win against runaway leaders Northampton interspersed with total garbage. There is lots made of losing 6-0 to Hereford but I think we also lost 5-2 to Wolves and my memory is that Wolves could have scored double figures easily they just blew us away 2nd half. Bull and Mutch had an absolute field day.

[cricketfield73]

So much (false) hope in the build up to the Crewe match that this could be the game where we finally awoke from this nightmare, yet at the end, I just could not see any other outcome than that on Saturday I would be watching the Clarets play for the very last time. I can still picture the exact spot where I was stood that evening at Gresty Road and it's not a fond memory.

[Tricky Trevor]

Ahhhh yes indeed TT , now didn't travel myself but one lad said it just got worse as the game went on , now the fans were under cover it's the players that took the weather hit .

I’d wondered if you were on.

[Silkyskills1]

Great pictures.

I have two overwhelming memories before the orient game (crewe already mentioned, silkyskills were we sat in the same car!!).

Torquay at home 2-2 tuesday night at home lashing down,James with a very late penalty. As i remember it with about 20 to go the crowd suddenly rose from its slumber and really got behind the team. Without that point we would not have rallied like we did. Nearly doubled the attendance for the next home game. My dad went into the Gannow Wharf threw his program on the pool table and demanded to know who was going on the next home game.

Secondly the away game at Scunthorpe, again tuesday night. Malley scored in the first couple of minutes in front of us, as they say its the hope that kills you, lost 2-1. That was a very long drive back.

My daughter is 24, season ticket holder, only known good times.

My dad got to see some of the Dyche era, he rose like lazarus to come for a pint after we beat leeds at home in the championship. Saw the great years but the he pleasure he got from our rise back to the big time was a flicker of light for him.

Good things be better? Am i a happy clapper?

Yes and Yes, but i am proud to say i am one of our fans who will always say its much better now than it was and i am grateful for that.

Ive never met the manager but we should be naming a stand after him or erecting a statue.

I imagine that the 'mood' in our car was replicated many times over on the M6 that night. Looking back I,too, naively thought that this nightmare was surely destined for a happy ending because we were a club that had graced the first division, won it and played across Europe. It had to come good. But we weren't at the bottom of Div.4 after 44 games because of who we once were. Did we create a chance that night? I genuinely can't remember because as soon as David Platt put them one up I think I spent the rest of the game in a total state of non-belief. The team that beat us that night we now needed to turn up again 250 miles away five days later after celebrating their great escape. Just couldn't see it happening, could you?

[ralphdpomeroy]

Its fair to say it was a long season ...

Scunthorpe away when we suddenly turned out in an all White kit ..took the lead and lost ... I was behind the goal too ... away wins at Stockport and Rochdale earlier in 1987 surely we'd be okay ... mmm .... then Crewe totally depressing....what a drive home that was...its seems so long ago now thankfully ...

Hartlepool away was a sickener from memory 2-0 up and frozen to the bone we drew 2-2 ...

[todclaret]

Superb pics but heartbreaking to see the ground so empty for a first team game. At the time, we just got used to it being like that.

Tony - wasn't this Exeter game the one where the pies were still frozen at half time?

[aclaretinstevenage]

Pan left in that photo of the CFS and I would have been sat there. Which year was the game that I think was against Exeter and there was one extremely hardy individual stood on the Bee Hole? Similar weather to this game too.....

Herts, that one hardy soul was Paul Chataway who was one of the guys we used to meet up with on our trips North in days gone by. Not seen Paul for a good while now and not heard anything so hope he is still with us and well.

[ClaretTony]

Tony - wasn't this Exeter game the one where the pies were still frozen at half time?

Can't remember which match it was now but I remember it

[Stan Tastic]

At the end of the Crewe game some of their fans invaded the pitch and were laughing at us, as they were sure we'd had it.

I'd like to think some of them remember that moment when they see us beating the likes of United at Old Trafford.

[Herts Clarets]

Herts, that one hardy soul was Paul Chataway who was one of the guys we used to meet up with on our trips North in days gone by. Not seen Paul for a good while now and not heard anything so hope he is still with us and well.

There is a photo in existence of him. I have tried Google images but not been able to find it anywhere..

[ClaretTony]

At the end of the Crewe game some of their fans invaded the pitch and were laughing at us, as they were sure we'd had it.

I'd like to think some of them remember that moment when they see us beating the likes of United at Old Trafford.

Nothing to do with this match but one morning during our 4th division days, I was parking up for work and there was a woman parking at the same time. I noticed she had one of those little car football kits in her back window and looked to see which club it was. She must have noticed I was looking and she must have noticed my Burnley kit in my car. She told me I didn't need to bother looking, it was Oldham and we'd never be playing them again now they were a big club now.

[dsr]

My 1st season also. Only thing I remember from that game was trudging off the Longside and around the Beehole 5 minutes before the end through the thick snow.

It was a strange season with occasional flashes of real fight for example a 2-1 win against runaway leaders Northampton interspersed with total garbage. There is lots made of losing 6-0 to Hereford but I think we also lost 5-2 to Wolves and my memory is that Wolves could have scored double figures easily they just blew us away 2nd half. Bull and Mutch had an absolute field day.

We were winning 2-1 at half-time of the Wolves match. In the first five minutes of the second half, Wolves scored twice and had two more disallowed. We might as well have stayed in the dressing room for all the good the defence did that five minutes - in fact, it might have been better because they might have been offside more often!

[Somethingfishy]

I was almost certainly on that game. Probably sat behind the goal in the cricketfield stand. Don't remember that game at all though despite the snow. I do remember the game v Torquay being postponed in the January because of snow..and in fact it was one of the coldest days on record at the time. My memory so clear because that day we moved by grandmother into her new sheltered housing flat on Browsholme Avenue..and it was bitterly cold. The Torquay game was rearranged and i remember Leighton James scoring a crucial penalty to rescue a draw late in the season.
I remember the Hereford 0-6 game very well..anyone who was there would do for obvious reasons. Hapless that day but i remember Hereford scoring a couple of worldies in there too that broke our spirits.
A Trevor Matthewson own goal for Stockport early in the season..he slid in and diverted it past his keeper..sat right behind the goal. Beating the runaway champions Northampton too in a rare sparkling performance. How vital was that?
My first more or less full season as an attending supporter. If you had told the 14 year old me that we would be where we are now i'd have laughed at you. It was simply impossible...yet here we are. It was poor football but all we knew and in a strange way it was genuinely enjoyable. A lot of those of us around in the 4th division days see them as fun times..certainly an adventure. I would never use it as a reason not to be ambitious though like some seem to do on here.

[Buxtonclaret]

I'd be on the Bee Hole End for that game, a bit further round towards the Longside.

Great photos.
And as has been mentioned, it was a weird feeling watching a game with so few on.
Its not something I ever got used to.
.... I'm just glad we're a sensibly run outfit now, by fans, who 'Feel' the club.

[Buxtonclaret]

I remember we took about 2,500 fans to Crewe that night and ending up being given half of the home terracing down the side of the pitch as well as the usual pile of cinders behind the goal.As others have said it really felt like we were done for..

They suplimented the turnstiles by opening a big double gate to let us in. Probably on Police advice.
Two blokes with bags were taking the money.
Some of us, (myself and group included) actually paid!
Would you see that sort of thing today?

[Sausage]

There is a photo in existence of him. I have tried Google images but not been able to find it anywhere..

It’s in a pictorial book published in 1988 by the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, edited by Tony Durkin. I’ll wager there’s a copy on CT’s sagging shelf!

[martin_p]

It’s in a pictorial book published in 1988 by the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, edited by Tony Durkin. I’ll wager there’s a copy on CT’s sagging shelf!

This one?

ACFDC69D-0CD3-4452-B8C1-305A2921F4D6.jpeg (137.78 KiB) Viewed 1311 times

[Silkyskills1]

I remember us being prevented from entering the ground at Gresty Rd. because of a fire that needed the presence of the fire brigade and delayed the kick off.

[Sausage]

That’s the one, Martin.