Burnley seemed to have very good teams on paper over these two seasons (and proved they were decent with the league cup performances in 82/3)

So what the hell went wrong in the league?

Thanks in advance.

Trevor Steven got kicked out of the game most weeks and Alan Stevensons skills were declining. When they were good they were very good but generally they were meh!!

We only just went down too, didn't we?

82/83. Overson was injured, Stevo was getting past it and we gave away too many soft goals.

83/84. Reeves got injured but it wasn't just that: too many first division has-beens who couldn't mix it in the away games.

Claretforever wrote:We only just went down too, didn't we?

Last match of the season was away to CP. We needed a win but were deservedly beaten 2-0.

Only patchy recollections of that season (82/83) - last game of the season was a relegation decider at Selhurst Park - winner stayed up as I recall. We'd given ourselves a chance with an heroic 0-0 draw at (already promoted) Leicester the Saturday before. Remember Lineker playing up-front for them, Billy O'Rourke and Lee Dixon having standout games for us.

Narrow 1-0 defeat at Palace sent us down amidst some fairly full-on crowd trouble.

Earlier in the season Brian Miller relieved of his duties on the morning of the League Cup QF win at Spurs.

As already pointed out much of the season was mundane and underwhelming but two fantastic cup runs.

Earby Claret has it spot on.

We had 2 teriffic followings at Palace that season, one of which was a night game, the other was an FA Cup tie which we drew.
There was a special train from Burnley to Selhurst for that game.

I was at both games and I seem to recall there was quite a bit a crowd trouble at both games

Alan Stephenson cost us relegation in the 82/83 season, he was poor all season. Trevor Stevens was not strong enough physically, and needed to play along side a Dean Marney type to protect him.

We had some decent players in the early 80s, but the club was run by a bunch of clowns at board room level, who were completely out of there depth.

minnieclaret wrote:Last match of the season was away to CP. We needed a win but were deservedly beaten 2-0.

It was 1-0 in a game when Vince Overson, coming on as a sub, had our only shot at goal.


Promoted in 1982 but straight back down - some reasons given already.

1. No investment allowed in squad after promotion when Brian Miller had Danny Wilson, Glenn Cockerill & John Aldridge lined up followed by Peter Reid.
2. No central defender with Vince Overson's injury and played with Martin Dobson & Micky Phelan at the back for the bulk of the season, forcing us to switch from the successful sweeper system.
3. Alan Stevenson was no longer fit for purpose and cost us a lot of points.
4. Couldn't score enough goals away from home. Only one of Billy Hamilton's league goals was away from Turf Moor although that had also been the case in the promotion season.

Following season

1. Reeves injury just as the team had gelled, were playing some superb football and winning by big margins.
2. Agree with there being too many older players but would only really fit Tueart & Gow into that category, certainly not Hutchison.
3. Poor away form in that we didn't win away until December and only recorded four away wins all season.

ClaretTony wrote:It was 1-0 in a game when Vince Overson, coming on as a sub, had our only shot at goal.

brain freeze. I was on with ColburnClaret but have always thought they scored a second to put the nail in the coffin. We were never in the game but at one down there's always hope.

minnieclaret wrote:brain freeze. I was on with ColburnClaret but have always thought they scored a second to put the nail in the coffin. We were never in the game but at one down there's always hope.

I think the first goal was the final nail - we'd gone to defend and try to catch them on the break but they didn't even need to win, a draw kept them up. We played two full backs in the wide midfield positions, had a central defender as our only substitute while Kevin Young, Steve Taylor & Paul McGee all sat in the stands.

Awful performance.

Recall the start of 82-83. Draw 0-0 at home to Bolton but then we started scoring some goals; 5 at Bury in the League Cup and 4 at Boro in the league. A home game to Rotherham(with Emlyn Hughes in their line-up) was a big let down losing 2-1 and we never seemed to gain much momentum after that despite the cup rums

Silkyskills1 wrote:Recall the start of 82-83. Draw 0-0 at home to Bolton but then we started scoring some goals; 5 at Bury in the League Cup and 4 at Boro in the league. A home game to Rotherham(with Emlyn Hughes in their line-up) was a big let down losing 2-1 and we never seemed to gain much momentum after that despite the cup rums

After the 5 and the 4 (with 9 different goalscorers with only David Holt not scoring and Hamilton getting his one away league goal of the season) we hit another 4 at home against Carlisle. But that was followed by 9 defeats in the next 10 games. There was a slight recovery when Casper replaced Miller but then around Easter we lost another 5 on the bounce and the writing was on the wall.

The cup runs masked the dreadful league season we had.

I think my Dads career stats were sent off 13 times and scored 11, goals were very few and far between but he did fluke a couple of belters! He retired mid season and I remember him close to tears when he heard they'd been relegated.

ClaretTony wrote:It was 1-0 in a game when Vince Overson, coming on as a sub, had our only shot at goal.


Promoted in 1982 but straight back down - some reasons given already.

1. No investment allowed in squad after promotion when Brian Miller had Danny Wilson, Glenn Cockerill & John Aldridge lined up followed by Peter Reid.
2. No central defender with Vince Overson's injury and played with Martin Dobson & Micky Phelan at the back for the bulk of the season, forcing us to switch from the successful sweeper system.
3. Alan Stevenson was no longer fit for purpose and cost us a lot of points.
4. Couldn't score enough goals away from home. Only one of Billy Hamilton's league goals was away from Turf Moor although that had also been the case in the promotion season.

Following season

1. Reeves injury just as the team had gelled, were playing some superb football and winning by big margins.
2. Agree with there being too many older players but would only really fit Tueart & Gow into that category, certainly not Hutchison.
3. Poor away form in that we didn't win away until December and only recorded four away wins all season.

Thanks for this. Can I suse yome of these lines in the Brian Flynn bio I'm currently writing? Could I get your full name?

leon_barton@ymail.com if you'd rather email.

Thanks.

Holtyclaret wrote:I think my Dads career stats were sent off 13 times and scored 11, goals were very few and far between but he did fluke a couple of belters! He retired mid season and I remember him close to tears when he heard they'd been relegated.

I knew he wasn't noted for his goalscoring. Amazing to think that one week into the season and he was the only outfield player who hadn't scored.

I found those two seasons very hard to fathom at the time. I think Tony has done a good job there of detailing the specifics around the problems , and I think he ius right to say that certainly for 82/3 , if not so much the following season, a simple lack of investment from the board was the root cause of things, which then led to a downward spiral culminating in the Orient game.

Didn't miss many games over those 2 seasons but the Palace away game in 1983 was a proper let down. We were awful that night and Frank Casper has to bear responsibility for his team selection. There were some tip performances that season - Middlesbrough away in the League, Sheffield Wednesday at home in the League, Spurs away in the League Cup of course, and a 7-1 demolition of Charlton on the Turf - Allan Simonsen and all, where we scored 5 in the last 15 minutes! Set against those were horror displays at Barnsley, Newcastle, Oldham and Bolton - I can still see Jim McDonagh's goal in my mind's eye.

As for 83/4, the season ended for me after an FA Cup defeat at Oxford in January when we lost the services of Kevin Reeves, the division's outstanding player who never appeared in a Claret shirt again. There were a couple of good performances thereafter but the season tailed off badly and set the platform for the following campaign under the appalling management of John Benson.

They were two quite baffling seasons and CT's points are very valid.
In terms of fashion and togetherness though - they were halcyon days.
Some of the games mentioned bring back great memories of camaraderie.

82/83 Later Flynn and Donachie brought in then Donovan

Donachie was an improvement over Wharton

Note the ground capacity was around 25k only nearly reached vs Sheff Wed in the cup Oh and Rovers Boxing day

Brian Miller had Danny Wilson, Glenn Cockerill & John Aldridge lined up followed by Peter Reid.

If only..........guess we would have made the 1st division