Burnley secure revenge win at Hearts
Having beaten East Fife in the Texaco Cup, Burnley had drawn Hearts in the quarter-final, the team who had knocked us out in the competition’s inaugural season three years earlier.
This was the week we learned that the town’s council chamber was going west, literally, all the way to Los Angeles in California. The chamber was being gutted in a highly professional way to house the 54-strong new Burnley District Council and the old oak panel wall panels and furnishings had been sold to a US company who wished to remain anonymous.
The firm of Herbert Sutcliffe were stripping the walls and they specialised in selling antiques to the American Market. Mr Ralph Sutcliffe, on behalf of the company, explained: “It is to be used in a bar restaurant which is being developed on the lines of the old English pub in Los Angeles.” One piece of furniture not heading to America was the Mayor’s chair, which had been placed on an elevated dais in the chamber, that was on its way to Towneley Hall.
While the fittings and furniture were heading west, Burnley MP Dan Jones was heading east. He was on his way to Moscow to take part in a world peace project where the Middle East situation was to be discussed. He would be there for the full ten day congress.
It’s to be hoped neither were going by road with news that a start on the M65 motorway would be delayed by about two years. The earliest possible start date was now April 1975, Mr Cranley Onslow, the Junior Trade and Industry Minister, told the House of Commons.
Half a century ago, hardly a week went by without mention of our twinning with Vitry-sur-Seine and in this week we heard that people in Vitry were very emotional and very angry at reports that the twinning might be coming to an end. It all came via a letter from representatives of the swimming clubs at the two towns, the one area where it all did seem to work. Was the twinning set to sink?
You don’t expect to land yourself in trouble when you attend your dad’s wedding but that’s exactly what happened to 17-year-old Christopher Hilton who had too much to drink and that led to him punching and headbutting a police officer. He was subsequently fined £30.
I know bills were high last year given the cost of electricity and gas but back in 1973 Anderson’s Chemist in Lyndhurst Road had all your winter requirements under one roof to help keep the costs down. That included infra-red lamps, hot water bottles and flasks. Bob Anderson owned the shop for many years; today his grandson James is an England test bowler.
In the 1970/71 season, Burnley beat Hearts 3-1 in the first leg of a Texaco Cup tie at home but lost the second leg 4-1. This time the Clarets were determined to make up for that and try to land a place in the semi-finals of the competition.
The team travelled up on the Monday ahead of this Wednesday night fixture, one which I was forced to miss as I had the one three years earlier. Despite both Peter Noble and Paul Fletcher nursing injuries sustained at Everton, just twelve players travelled with a substitute goalkeeper, permitted in this competition, to travel in time for the game.
Jimmy Adamson promised to play his strongest team. He was already without Mick Docherty and Frank Casper with long term injuries and Colin Waldron was serving the second of a three match suspension. His only change in personnel was to bring in Billy Ingham for Doug Collins while there was a positional change with Geoff Nulty moving to right-back, allowing Peter Noble to play in midfield.
We hadn’t been at our best in recent weeks but the fine flowing cohesive football that had made Burnley one of the country’s leading teams returned in style at Tynecastle which demonstrated the vast gulf between the best of Scottish and English football.
Apart from the first ten minutes, Hearts were rarely in this game. They huffed and they puffed and ran themselves into the ground but it got them nowhere against Burnley’s cool controlled play. The Burnley team was unrecognisable from that which had lost at Everton and returned to the form that earned them such victories at Spurs and Wolves earlier in the season.
It was in midfield where Burnley really too command. Noble’s move was a great success and he used his influence all over the pitch but was proving to be most effective in the box. Three times during the goalless first half he was close to giving Burnley the lead with shots and headers and he finally opened out account some six minutes into the second half.
We had a scare at the start of the half when Alan Stevenson was forced to make a wonderful save to deny Drew Busby who had broken clear, but finally that deadlock was broken. Leighton James crossed from the right but Noble’s header through a crowd of players was blocked. The ball dropped back for NOBLE who stroked it into the empty net.
Ten minutes later we doubled the lead. Keith Newton started it with a move down the left. He switched the ball to Martin DOBSON who took two paces before hitting an unstoppable shot home from fully 20-yards.
The game was won and right at the end we added a third which would surely make the second leg a formality. Fletcher pushed the ball through and gave James the chance to demonstrate his electrifying speed in a run from inside his own half. Where other players might have been forced out to the wing, the Welsh international was so quick he cut inside before the defence could cover. Once clear JAMES slotted the ball home and Burnley were 3-0 winners.
The teams were;
Hearts: Kenny Garland, Ian Sneddon, Dave Clunie, Jim Cant, Alan Anderson, James Brown, Kenny Aird, Donald Ford, Drew Busby, John Stevenson, Bobby Prentice (Neil Murray 68)
Burnley: Alan Stevenson, Geoff Nulty, Keith Newton, Martin Dobson, Jim Thomson, Billy Rodaway, Peter Noble, Ray Hankin, Paul Fletcher, Billy Ingham, Leighton James. Subs not used: Jeff Parton, Doug Collins.
Referee: Mr J. Gordon (Newport-on-Tay).
Attendance: 21,824.
Texaco Cup Second Round First Leg Results
Monday 22nd October
Birmingham 1 Newcastle 1
Tuesday 23rd October
Norwich 2 Motherwell 0
Wednesday 24th October
Leicester 1 Dundee 1
Hearts 0 Burnley 3
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