They obvious never met my mum because I think she actually did shed a tear.

My favourite player growing up - speaking to a couple of ex players and both of them said he was the best footballer at the club and if only he knew how good he actually was and had more self belief he would have been playing at a much higher level.

Would have helped if the crowd didn't get on his back all the time.

I remember a game when Branch scored a wonder goal and I phoned in to Radio Lancs and promised to stop calling him the twig... I really miss the RL phone in!

yorkyclaret wrote:Would have helped if the crowd didn't get on his back all the time.

Never?? I thought that was Steven Jordan ....and let me think ........

bfccrazy wrote:My favourite player growing up - speaking to a couple of ex players and both of them said he was the best footballer at the club and if only he knew how good he actually was and had more self belief he would have been playing at a much higher level.

I've heard that too. Didn't Stan used to give him whisky before a game to settle his nerves?

Branchy is well sound

Always liked Branchy.

Remember him scoring a great goal on The Turf at the Jimmy Mac end when he did something I've never seen another player do which was push the ball to the left of the oncoming defender, then sprinting to his right the 'wrong' side of the touchline, before collecting the ball again and powering into the penalty box to score!

bfccrazy wrote:My favourite player growing up - speaking to a couple of ex players and both of them said he was the best footballer at the club and if only he knew how good he actually was and had more self belief he would have been playing at a much higher level.

I had heard similar a number of years ago.
Presumably not as a centre back though.

Fretters wrote:I've heard that too. Didn't Stan used to give him whisky before a game to settle his nerves?

Said he just lacked confidence and other players would be amazed by stuff he did ... yet he didn't think he was anything special himself - Stan fined him for doing tricks in training apparently

Didn't he have an iron deficiency that made him weak after sprinting? 10 minutes doing nowt after one.

Brian Miller used to refer to some players as Monday morning players meaning they were brilliant in training and then couldn't do it on a Saturday. Did he fall into that category? We certainly needed better players than Branch in my view.

ClaretTony wrote:Brian Miller used to refer to some players as Monday morning players meaning they were brilliant in training and then couldn't do it on a Saturday. Did he fall into that category? We certainly needed better players than Branch in my view.

Heard multiple players saying Branch and Little were the best players at Burnley (in that era) and branch was the most naturally gifted.

Just that he seemed to freeze a little when it got to game time - they said they wished they could do some of the things Branch could but he just seemed to not know how good he truly was when it was blatant for other players around him.

Ripped Bristol Rovers apart in one of his first games away.Always played to his capacity and gave his best.

bfccrazy wrote:My favourite player growing up - speaking to a couple of ex players and both of them said he was the best footballer at the club and if only he knew how good he actually was and had more self belief he would have been playing at a much higher level.

That was certainly the view from Tranmere when he was there. "Monday morning player" is a more unkind way of saying the same thing, but he was still a fantastic servant to the club - mainly under Stan himself!

Cracking fella as well. My little lad goes to his coaching sessions in the summer hols.

One of my favourites growing up... Wish I could still fit into the yellow away shirt I have with Graham di Branchio on the back