A long day out to Methil
With a 7-0 win in the first leg, it was almost a pointless trip to Methil to see Burnley play the second leg of the Texaco Cup clash against East Fife.
Despite suggestions to the contrary, plans continued for the potential new M65 road and it was looking if the Hapton protesters had won the day with the plans to take the road right through the centre of their village with an alternative route now having been proposed, a route put forward by one of the protestors.
Meanwhile, at the Town Hall in Burnley, Labour representatives launched a bitter attack on Government recommendations to cut back on spending. Councillor Michael Noble described the Government document as ridiculous, more so given it came a year after they’d been told to spend. “We have a five-year programme with a lot of schemes in it. Which will you select to defer?” he asked. Councillor Kenneth McGeorge added: “With this cut-back we won’t be able to resurface front streets, never mind the back streets.”
It wasn’t preventing the council from increasing the staff at the Town Hall, claiming there was a shortage of white collar workers.. The plan now was to ask those who had already retired to return to work on a part time basis.
Around two hundred telephone subscribers, and remember not that many homes had phones half a century ago, were cut off during the weekend when a main telephone cable was damaged in the Duke Bar area of the town. Unfortunately, one of the subscribers cut off was Burnley General Hospital. Somehow, they were restored after around four hours by connecting them to a still active telephone box nearby.
I think bus drivers sometimes have far too much to put up with when they are faced with irate passengers but there was no need for the action that landed Yunis Khan in court. He’d been provoked by a passenger so he drew a knife and inflicting a two and a half inch wound in his forehead.
Police Inspector G. Imeson told the court that the incident had occurred on the central bus station in Burnley while the driver was taking fares. Mr N. McNamee (defending) reported that the passenger had abused the driver and assaulted him earlier in the year. He said: “Mr Khan is a peaceful kind of man. He was severely provoked on this occasion.” The court found the driver guilty and fined him £25 plus a police surgeon’s fee of £19.45.
Players and officials of Bayview United Football Club from Abervon in South Wales, had visited Burnley to play two matches against local team Parkside and they were full of praise for the welcome they received from everyone in Burnley. Their club secretary, Mr Vic Rees, wrote to the Burnley Express in which he said: “For many of our party it was their first visit to Lancashire, but the warmth of your folks will be an everlasting memory for all of us.”
Burnley fans were to be offered a collectors’ item for the home game against QPR later in the month. The Post Office were to produce a special commemorative envelope to honour the clash between the two promoted clubs. It would be available from the Turf Moor Development Association office from the week before but for supporters to gain value it had to be posted in a special post box placed at Turf Moor on the day of the match to receive a special frank.
But it was off to Scotland and potentially one of the longest days I’ve ever had out for a football match. We drove to Methil for the game but went via the North East of England with one of our group working in Gateshead at the time.
Jimmy Adamson had confirmed that there would be no let up and that he would field is strongest possible team but for seventy minutes of the game, we allowed our hosts to believe they could actually compete with us although there was never any likelihood of them recovering after we’d won the Turf Moor leg so comprehensively.
East Fife had played with exemplary in the first leg, despite the scoreline, but not here and their approach was disgusting. Some of the challenges were nothing short of a disgrace during the first half with one on Leighton James the worst of the lot.
Burnley had that to deal with and then fell behind when McPHEE hit a vicious, swerving shot that was out of Alan Stevenson’s reach. Geoff Nulty should have equalised soon afterwards but it was 1-0 to the home side at half time.
Half way into the second half, the score remained the same. We won a corner, pushed a lot of players forward and were caught. Hegarty sent RITCHIE away and the forward ran from his own half before hitting a shot into the corner of the net.
Adamson switched Nulty and Peter Noble and within no time we had pulled a goal back when FLETCHER seized on a defensive slip to crack in a shot from the edge of the box, Four minutes later, we were level on the night. Keith Newton went on a run down the left, beat two defenders and crossed for Ray HANKIN to head home.
It was all Burnley now and two minutes from the end we scored our third and winning goal. Hankin flicked on a James corner, Fletcher got it and set up NOBLE to score with a volley.
So, a 3-2 win, a 10-2 aggregate win and a tie against Hearts in the next round, the team who had knocked us out three years earlier when we’d last played in the competition.
The teams were;
East Fife: McClurr, Duncan, Printy, Hamilton, Martin, Rutherford (Dailey 47), Ritchie, McIvor, Hegarty, Love, McPhee.
Burnley: Alan Stevenson, Peter Noble, Keith Newton, Martin Dobson, Colin Waldron, Jim Thomson, Geoff Nulty, Ray Hankin, Paul Fletcher, Billy Ingham, Leighton James. Sub not used: Doug Collins.
Referee: Mr L. Thomson.
Attendance: 1,657.
Texaco Cup First Round Second Leg Results
Monday 1st October
Newcastle 1 Morton 1 (3-2)
Wednesday 3rd October
Birmingham 0 Stoke 0 (0-0) – Birmingham won 5-4 on penalties
Dundee United 2 Sheffield United 0 (2-0)
East Fife 2 Burnley 3 (2-10)
Hearts 0 Everton 0 (1-0)
Leicester 2 Ayr 0 (3-1)
Motherwell 3 Coventry 2 (4-2)
Norwich 1 St Johnstone 0 (3-0)
Second Round Draw
Birmingham v Newcastle
Hearts v Burnley
Leicester v Dundee United
Norwich v Motherwell
Share this page :