Aug 23rd: It's hard to take for the Rovers fans

[ClaretTony]

There are a lot of games to get through that were played on 23rd August and nowhere better to start with the first game after a promotion.

That promotion had come in 1947, the first full season after the end of World War II. No one could have known that Burnley would be kicking off a first division run that would last 24 years. It got off to a good start too at Fratton Park against Portsmouth. We didn't have to wait long for the first goal either as Harry Potts gave us a 2nd minute lead. That was enough, we won 1-0 and had made a good start on our return to a division we'd left in 1930.

Sunderland were our opponents two years later. We'd beaten Arsenal on opening day at Highbury but we couldn't make it two wins out of two in a game that ended 2-2 with all the goals in the first half. Ray Harrison opened the scoring but Sunderland came back to lead with goals scored by Dickie Davis and Len Shackleton. Right on half time we were awarded a penalty which was converted by Reg Attwell to give us a point.

It was opening day in 1952 but not a happy one for Burnley. Neil Mochan scored the only goal of the game for Middlesbrough to give them a 1-0 win at the Turf and in 1954 a 1-0 home win against Cardiff was followed by a Monday trip to Chelsea and this was another 1-0 defeat, Eric Parsons scoring for the home side some quarter of an hour from the end.

If you want to kick off a season in style then make sure you do it for the full ninety minutes and that must have been the motto in 1958. Manchester City were visitors to Turf Moor for the first game of the season and by half time we'd already gone 3-0 up. Ray Pointer scored early, got a second and three minutes before the break we got that third from Brian Pilkington.

I can only imagine the comments from the glass half empty Burnley fans by the end. Joe Hayes got one back early in the second half and then Bobby Johnstone pulled another one back with 19 minutes remaining. When Johnstone got his second to level things with nine minutes to go we thought we'd have to settle for a point but we didn't even get that, Hayes got his second in the very last minute and we'd kicked off the season with a 4-3 defeat.

What a start we'd made to the 1966/67 season. We'd beaten Sheffield United 4-0 at home in the first game and on the Tuesday night Fulham went home having suffered a 3-0 Turf Moor defeat. Andy Lochhead scored for us in the first half with Northern Ireland duo Willie Irvine and Alex Elder both scoring in the second half, Elder's coming from the penalty spot.

What an amazing game at Liverpool in 1969. Predictably at Anfield we trooped in at half time behind, 2-0 behind to be precise with the first coming from a very dubious looking penalty award. It was sensational stuff in the second half for the Clarets when Dave Thomas, Frank Casper and Martin Dobson all scored within a thirteen minute period to give us the lead. Unfortunately we couldn't hold on; Liverpool equalised but a point from a 3-3 draw was still an excellent result.

We were in front at half time at West Ham in 1975 through Leighton James and when they equalised after the break we quickly restored our lead with Peter Noble on the mark. It wasn't our day though, West Ham scored two late goals to beat us 3-2.

Things weren't looking good in 1977. Having lost the first game at home to Bolton we suffered a crushing 3-0 defeat at Sunderland in game 2, a result that overjoyed their manager Jimmy Adamson and some of his former Burnley players.

We created history in 1980, we won for the first time ever in the third division. It hadn't started too well with just one point from the first two games but we picked up two points at home to Chesterfield with Dobson scoring a penalty to give us a 1-0 win and the two points.

Edgeley Park was out of action in 1985 so we switched the fixtures and played them at home on the Friday night. Having been 3-0 up against Northampton in the first game and then left hanging on at 3-2, there was still confidence that Martin Buchan's team would be right up there and winning promotion. This one was an eye opener. We were beaten 1-0 by the now non-league outfit.

They talk about long days out, this one in 1986 was in that category to kick off what became a long, hard season for us. It was August Bank Holiday weekend and our opening day fixture was at Torquay. The Supporters Club's travel expert Brian 'Box Car' Lucas decide that we'd go at 11:30 p.m. on the Friday to avoid the Bank Holiday traffic. Brilliant idea, until Torquay shifted the game to a 7:15 p.m. kick off. We arrived in Torquay some 14 hours before the scheduled kick off time.

It was at least a good day on the English Riviera until the heavens opened at tea time and the match wasn't much to write home about either until Derrick Parker, who had scored our last ever first division goal ten years earlier, gave us the lead ten minutes from the end. That didn't even win it with Torquay equalising just as we were getting ready for the final whistle. Billy Rodaway and Leighton James were back at Burnley while Joe Gallagher was forced to come out of basically two years retirement. Two loan players also made debuts that day, one was Wayne Entwistle, the other, significantly, Ian Britton.

Taking a break from the league, we went to York in our hundreds in 1994. We might not have come home as champions but at least we'd gone through in the League Cup. We'd taken a 1-0 lead up there but they scored first on the night to level things. The prolific Liam Robinson and John Gayle turned things our way although York did pull one back to make it 2-2 on the night. The programme shows the referee as John Brandwood but I'm convinced this was the night that Uriah Rennie yellow carded Chris Vinnicombe twice but didn't send him off.

No change in 1997, a third game and still no goal. This time it was a 1-0 defeat at Southend with Jeroen Boere scoring their goal early in the game. Did we look as if we might equalise? Not once from my recollection. I love going to away games; this was very definitely not one I'd wish to recall too often.

Oh dear, what a bad start in 2003 and when Wigan came to the Turf and beat us 2-0 it meant we'd played three and lost three to start the season. Wigan scored thirteen minutes from the start and thirteen minutes from the end, Peter Kennedy and Nathan Ellington getting their goals.
It was another League Cup win in 2005, this time at home against Carlisle. Michael Duff gave us the lead with what was his first Burnley goal and Ade Akinbiyi clinched a 2-1 win with a late goal after Adam Murray had equalised. Remember the bench at Manchester City in June this year? We played a full strength side and bench for this game but only Kyle Lafferty was introduced as a substitute. The other four subs were Mark Crossley, Martin Reilly, Marc Pugh and coach Mark Yates.

When you've lost your first two games of the season and, not only that, conceded seven goals in doing so, you probably want a bit of good fortune to go your way. It did. After going in 0-0 at half time at Crystal Palace, we came out for the second half and within seven minutes they'd been reduced to nine men with both James Scowcroft and Shaun Derry sent off by referee Iain Williamson. It didn't help, or maybe it did, maybe we'd have lost against 11 but the game ended 0-0. Still it was a first point of a season that was, at that time, promising precious little.

One year on and the season was promising more than a little when we followed up a win in our first Premier League home game with another. It was 1-0 again, this time Wade Elliott scoring against Everton and once again the opposition failed to score from the penalty spot although this one was a ridiculous award from Phil Dowd for a non-event that he viewed as a foul on Tony Hibbert. Louis Saha took the kick but put it wide of the target. It proved to be the last time Chris McCann played a full ninety minutes on the Turf in a Premier League game; that I always think was his best ever game in a Burnley shirt.

We had another long League Cup night in 2011 but we were through to the 3rd round. Jay Rodriguez and Wade Elliott, with his final Burnley goal, had given us what looked like a commanding lead against Barnet but Steven Kabba pulled one back. In the previous round against Burton, Lee Grant had parried a ball straight to a forward in stoppage time from which they scored an equaliser. He only went and did it again with Ricky Holmes converting to take the game into extra time. The aforementioned McCann scored right at the end of the first half of extra time to take us through.

If only Lukey Juke had scored with that header at Swansea in 2014. It would have given us a first point of the season and would have given him his first Burnley goal, one that never did come. Swansea won with a first half goal from former loan player Nathan Dyer but we really deserved something from the game after our second half performance. if only Lukey Juke had scored with that header.

Two cup games to finish today and both momentous occasions although we did lose one of them. In 2017 we had been drawn against Blackburn for the first ever time in the League Cup. Goals from Jack Cork and Robbie Brady won it for us on a night when we coasted to our 2-0 win.
"It's hard to take for the Rovers fans to see Burnley that far in front of us at the moment," said home boss Tony Mowbray.

Finally, two years ago tonight I was in Greece for our Europa League play-off game against Olympiacos. Having missed the trip in the previous round this was a precious occasion I'll never forget as long as I live, seeing my team play a game away in European competition and I say that with all due respect to Aberdeen.

We had a fantastic, if a tiring, trip with only the result a disappointment. We lost 3-1, got done with a few bad decisions and someone called Ben Gibson, and I'm not sure who he is, was sent off.

[burnmark]

Really enjoyed that League Cup win at Ewood. The only Slight negative was we didn’t convert the large amount of chances we got to reallly put them to the sword and avenge the 5-0. Not complaining though!

[ksrclaret]

The Swansea game in 2014 sort of summed up our season that year. We played quite well on the day, but they got a goal out of nothing really and we couldn't manage one.

I remember Jutkiewicz had been on fire during pre-season, and had just turned in a really impressive performance against Chelsea on the Monday before. If that header from the Tripps cross had been buried, he would surely have taken huge confidence from it.

[BenWickes]

Just had to remind myself of that game at Rovers. Had a few drinkies that night but seem to remember it should have been more convincing than 2-0. Nine shots on target to their nil.

[ClaretTony]

In some ways it was better at 2-0 at Blackburn. We just played with them and teased them. There was never a threat of them coming back and it was relaxing and enjoyable.

Who would have ever thought we’d have been playing in Europe a year later.

[Herts Clarets]

After watching that most comfortable of wins at BollEwood, my comment at the time was 'for the first time in my lifetime, not one single Rovers player would get in thar Burnley side tonight'. That to me was a marker as to how far we have come as a club.

[tiger76]

Good article Tony, you might want to check the West Ham 1975 stats though.

We were in front at half time at West Ham in 1975 through Leighton James and when they equalised after the break we quickly restored our lead with Peter Noble on the mark. It wasn't our day though, West Ham scored two late goals to beat us 2-0.

This doesn't sound right to me, surely it should read West Ham scored 2 late goals to beat us 3-2?

That Blackburn tie was enjoyable in many ways, our superiority was so obvious, and we possibly could have scored a couple more if we'd have wanted too, but I don't recall them having a threat to our goal in the whole 90 minutes, this was of course also the night that the fan invaded the pitch, and attacked Westwood?, and also sadly when Walters was kicked off the park, and I don't know if he ever played for us again, he certainly was never the same player ever again.

[FactualFrank]

23 aint a bad number for us.

[Rowls]

Worth a re-watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaotqSWkOtk