No fun at Fulham as Jimmy Chin scores winner

Share this page :

Fresh from the 8-0 win against Nottingham Forest a week earlier, the Clarets travelled to Fulham on this day in 1959 to try and get a first away win since the victory at Newcastle in mid-September.

It was miserable weather in town but the water shortage was still very much a talking point and now townsfolk of Burnley were concerned at how the probe into the reasons were all hush hush. Despite pleas from prominent councillors to make the meetings public the first of them went ahead behind closed doors in a private room with no press admitted. The committee put together did say that a full statement MAY be made next month, no promises, just may.

Still at least those people in Burnley fortunate enough to have a flush toilet could keep them working and there were even tips locally for how to keep them clean said one advertisement. A shining white bowl is not enough – it may still contain thousands of germs. Use DOMESTOS the brushless lavatory cleaner – it kills all known germs in one hour. I always wondered at the time just who it was that had worked it out how it took an hour and indeed how they knew when all the germs were dead. I’m still wondering.

Still at least we knew how to get our clothes clean after being tipped off that it was all in the action. Beware of wishy washy paddle action insist on Hoover and its pulsator boiling action. It really is the only way to get clothes really clean – quickly and gently. Clean clothes then, but this was generations before millions were even able to contemplate going to America with Hoover.

Christmas was getting closer and the Co-op as always were in with their offers. Watch out for their dressing gown offer next week, their advert revealed but for the current week you could get a boys famous duffle coat with hood for just £2 5s whilst stocking up there were Christmas puddings, all in foil, for anything up to 4s 8d. In a special offer they were selling large jars of mince meat for 2s 9d, two tins of pineapple chunks for 1s 6d and jellies at 9½d or three for 2s.

How would people pay for these things? The answer was always cash, but now the Burnley and District Chamber of Trade were discussing the possibility of people in Burnley being paid their wages by cheque instead of cash. They questioned whether people would get used to this advanced way of being paid and suggested there could be long queues at the banks with people waiting to cash them. The Chamber of Trade were shocked when the two bankers involved said it would cause a lot of trouble.

What was causing trouble was the lack of parking in town and the Borough engineer Mr A. G. Mitchell said there was no chance of increasing parking spaces in Burnley without creating multi-storey car parking. Whatever next, surely Burnley wouldn’t go the way of some of the big cities. Back with the Chamber of Trade and they were excitedly discussing the possibilities of the first helicopter service from Burnley’s ‘SKYPORT’ (not Sky Sports). They were envisaging a regular service to Paris from Burnley.

There are always nice things happening in town and you had to take your hats off to the committee members of the Rose & Thistle club, and in particular the treasurer Mr C. Shephard, for ensuring all their elderly members were able to go to the annual dinner at the Co-operative Cafe. Special coaches and even taxis were laid on and Mr Shephard said: “If a member was not bed-ridden, then we made sure he or she could get there.” They were entertained by Irene, Al and Martini with Alice Healey at the piano and with the fundraising having gone so well there were even gifts for all the guests. Each male member received £1 whilst the lady members were presented with 10 shillings.

Before looking at the football we’ll head to court again where there were some familiar faces from previous weeks. Again F Lord & Sons Butchers were facing the magistrates, this time on twelve charges of supplying meat not of the quality agreed to the Lowerhouse and Rosegrove School canteens. Mr Robert William Lord and his advisors threw accusations at the prosecution, suggesting they’d either switched the meat or doctored it. Incredibly, with such conflicting evidence all twelve charges were thrown out. Now to the lad who was remanded recently for stealing £266. He’d been at it again, this time stealing a radio and two suitcases from his parents’ home. He refused to speak and so he was remanded again with the warning that they hoped he’d have more to say when he next appeared on how he intended to shape his life in future. The bench asked for medical and psychiatric reports.

A few weeks previously PC F. Settle brought to task a man involved in a hit and run accident that had killed a pedestrian. The ever alert PC had gone for another walk and this time saw a man punch his wife and then grab her by the throat. In he stepped and the man was sent to court on charges of hitting his wife whilst being drunk and disorderly. He was fined a whole £2 for his misdemeanour and I have to say I know quite a few people who would consider it worth it if it was only going to cost a couple of quid.

The week had started well for Burnley Football Club. Just two days after the demolition of Nottingham Forest the reserves stepped out onto Turf Moor for their opening game in the Lancashire Senior Cup against a Manchester City side that included future Liverpool boss Joe Fagan and Lancashire cricketer Jack Dyson. We had no problems at all. Billy White and Ronnie Fenton gave us a 2-0 lead before Lister pulled one back for City. They didn’t come close to getting back into it though and we ran out 5-1 winners with the other goals coming from Ian Towers, Andy Lochhead and Gordon Harris.

Not only that it was revealed that former player Bob Kelly, considered by many to be the greatest ever Burnley player, had visited Turf Moor and seen the 8-0 win against Forest. It was even better as hospital patients heard him speak along with injured current players Colin McDonald and David Smith via the running commentary broadcast that was much appreciated.

Having scored 16 goals in their three last home games, Burnley needed to improve their away record if they were to provide a challenge for championship honours. The task was made the more difficult by the visit to Craven Cottage where Fulham were one of the contenders for end of season bonus money. It was no surprise to see Burnley name the same team with Billy White this time named as twelfth man for the trip to London for what proved to be a fruitless trip.

The fascination, and exasperation, of football is partly due to the unexpected, not only in results but in match moments. While it is essentially a team game, the human element gives it a quality in which so much depends on the ability of the participant to accomplish the simple things with accuracy and expedition.

Particularly does this apply to the all important one of scoring goals. It looks easy enough for the professional player to kick or slide, or glide or slip a ball into a few vacant yards or goal from six yards out, but just ask Burnley forwards about it after this brief encounter with Fate and Fulham. Some said it was the pitch, others said it was bad luck.

Simply Burnley should have won this game hands down but when the chances came Burnley missed them. It seemed unbelievable. Surely a goal must come. It did, and at the wrong end. A breakaway, a centre and Jimmy HILL nodded it up in the air, the ball dropped just under the bar with Adam Blacklaw, who had a brilliant game, touching it but just failing to turn it over.

It proved to be the only goal and Burnley were beaten. Burnley should have won, they paid for their misses but as for Fulham, one can only refer to their chairman Tommy Trinder and say, “You lucky people!”

The defeat saw Burnley slip to sixth in the table and the new leaders were Preston who held a four point advantage over us. They’d gone top after previous leaders West Ham took a 7-0 hammering at Sheffield Wednesday. Down at the bottom, Birmingham were out of the bottom two on goal average with Leicester now in the relegation positions with Luton.

The teams at Craven Cottage were;

Fulham: Tony Macedo, George Cohen, Jim Langley, Alan Mullery, Derek Lampe, Eddie Lowe, John Key, Jimmy Hill, Graham Leggatt, Johnny Haynes, Trevor Chamberlain.

Burnley: Adam Blacklaw, John Angus, Alex Elder, Bobby Seith, Brian Miller, Jimmy Adamson, John Connelly, Jimmy McIlroy, Ray Pointer, Jimmy Robson, Brian Pilkington.

Referee: Mr W. Clements (West Bromwich).

Attendance: 29,582.

The reserves were winners at home. Having won that Lancashire Senior Cup tie against Manchester City five days earlier the two teams met again at Turf Moor, this time in the Central League. This time we won 1-0 with Fenton getting the only goal of the game.

First Division Results

28th November 1959

Arsenal 2 West Brom 4
Blackburn 2 Birmingham 1
Blackpool 2 Tottenham 2
Bolton 3 Leicester 1
Everton 2 Manchester United 1
Fulham 1 Burnley 0
Luton 1 Preston 3
Manchester City 3 Newcastle 4
Nottingham Forest 4 Leeds 1
Sheffield Wednesday 7 West Ham 0
Wolves 3 Chelsea 1

League Table

Pos	Team	pld	w	d	l	f	a	ga	pts
1	Preston	19	12	3	4	40	29	1.38	27
2	Tottenham	19	9	7	3	41	22	1.86	25
3	West Ham	19	11	3	5	37	30	1.23	25
4	Wolves	19	11	2	6	55	39	1.41	24
5	Fulham	19	11	2	6	39	40	0.98	24
6	Burnley	19	10	3	6	44	32	1.38	23
7	Blackburn	19	10	3	6	35	30	1.17	23
8	Bolton	19	8	4	7	25	20	1.25	20
9	Sheffield Wed	19	8	3	8	31	22	1.41	19
10	West Brom	19	7	5	7	36	30	1.20	19
11	Manchester United	19	7	5	7	44	39	1.13	19
12	Arsenal	19	7	5	7	33	33	1.00	19
13	Chelsea	19	8	3	8	37	39	0.95	19
14	Manchester City	19	8	1	10	40	42	0.95	17
15	Newcastle	19	7	3	9	36	38	0.95	17
16	Nottingham Forest	19	7	3	9	22	31	0.71	17
17	Everton	19	6	4	9	32	37	0.86	16
18	Blackpool	19	5	5	9	26	32	0.81	15
19	Birmingham	19	4	5	10	24	36	0.67	13
20	Leeds	19	4	5	10	28	46	0.61	13
21	Leicester	19	4	5	10	27	45	0.60	13
22	Luton	19	3	5	11	16	36	0.44	11

Follow UpTheClarets:

Share this page :