This season will be the historic best. But 1987 was the most important. I am surprised that so little is written about that season. Contributions from those involved. I realise that the manager and assistant are no longer with us, but many of the players are.

Here are the home gates from that "ahem" historic season. Average 3,364. If you take out The Orient Game, then the average home attendance was 2,803. Honourable mention for our lowest ever home league gate of 1,696 (Colchester). How times have changed! UTC!

Scunthorpe 3,008
Hartlepool 2,465
Swansea 2,775
Halifax 3,296
PNE 5,974
Stockport 2,410
Peterboro 2,229
Colchester 1,696
Lincoln 2,177
Cardiff 1,717
Crewe 2,560
Rochdale 4,217
Hereford 1,961
Wolves 2,947
Tranmere 2,394
Exeter 1,792
Northampton 2,691
Aldershot 2,690
Cambridge 1,874
Torquay 2,718
Wrexham 4,090
Southend 3,991
Orient 15,696

By far the most important for the club and historic, for the wrong reasons.

For the Orient game it would have been only 15,695 if I had not have gone to the game

And for me it was the most pressurised and most important game I have ever been to.
I was a bag of nerves

Also the year I was born. An excellent year all round.

Orient was my first game, fell asleep during the second half.

I went to every game that horrible season. I felt that then they really needed my support

I didn't feel it right to celebrate at the end. I walked off the Bee Hole End and just went home.

We were awful and as delighted as I was to see us drag our sorry asses over the line, I couldn't raise a glass or a cheer at that final whistle.

I cheered like everyone else when we scored, but patting mediocrity on the back and celebrating like we'd just won promotion seemed hypocritical at the time.

I have cheered up somewhat since then though lol.

We were in the play off spots after beating Halifax on the last Saturday in September but the first sign we were in trouble came when Preston hammered us 4-1 a week later.

Being so long ago I can't remember when it become apparent that relegation to the Conference was a real possibility. Maybe the Hereford 0-6 debacle.

One match in the first half of the season that turned out to be vital was the home game with Lincoln. We'd lost at Telford in the cup the week before and Brian Miller gave three youngsters their debuts, Peter Leebrook, Jason Harris & Phil Murphy. We won 3-1 not realising at the time how important it would be.

I've got the program from that Colchester game in the loft somewhere, the 2nd game I ever went to.

To be honest, I had no real idea how bad we were then as a kid, just enjoyed going to a game. All I can really remember is You Win Again playing on the tannoy, the flaky green paint everywhere and the fag smoke. There was next to no coverage in the national media, no telly highlights and obviously no internet. Hard to believe any of us got hooked on that. It's another world to what my lad has seen in the last 5 years.

Zom Zom wrote:
I cheered like everyone else when we scored, but patting mediocrity on the back and celebrating like we'd just won promotion seemed hypocritical at the time.
.

I think you're missing the point somewhat. The players weren't just mediocre, they were a patched up assortment of ageing / injured players, and apprentices, with just a few players who would have got a game with most of the teams above us.
In most cases that season, they weren't found wanting for honest endeavour, (Brian Miller wouldn't allow it), they simply weren't good enough, but on that May day, spurred on by that crowd, they just found enough to get over the line.
In that sense they were all heroes.

Orient 15,696, to this day I still think that's complete rubbish, to my young eyes there were more than that on the Turf

Away end was empty

We'd been gradually doing downhill over a few years prior to 1987. I can't personally look further than those three games early 1987 when we shipped 14 goals in 3 consecutive home games. Rochdale, Hereford and then Wolves. I don't think we ever fully got over those. Although I went on almost all the home games. I couldn't bring myself to go on the Orient game. I sat driving around listening to the game on Radio Blackburn.

UpTheBeehole wrote:Away end was empty

I wouldn't say that, they were still fighting for a playoff spot and brought a respectable number...maybe 1,000.

Big contrast between the concentration of fans in the home and away ends

THERE WILL ONLY BE ONE IAN BRITTON

"I am surprised that so little is written about that season."

Those of us that remember it have been trying to block it out.

nil_desperandum wrote:I think you're missing the point somewhat. The players weren't just mediocre, they were a patched up assortment of ageing / injured players, and apprentices, with just a few players who would have got a game with most of the teams above us.
In most cases that season, they weren't found wanting for honest endeavour, (Brian Miller wouldn't allow it), they simply weren't good enough, but on that May day, spurred on by that crowd, they just found enough to get over the line.
In that sense they were all heroes.

I get it, all of what you are saying, but it's not how I felt at the time which is the point I was trying to make.

I see it different now, and even feel proud to say I saw a lot of that season at first hand. I guess at the time, with the steady decline of what was served up at Turf Moor, I may have just felt it wouldn't improve the following year and we'd have to go through it all again.

Travelled up for the midweek game v Colchester where I was unfortunately living.A rare win for us and a rare defeat for Colchester who were flying .Back home at 5am just in time to shower and set off to work.56 Colchester fans in the away end.The gate of 1696 !This was really the bad old days ending on that marvellous day v Orient. I often see older fans who went through these dark days and we are still watching our team.Good to revisit the past but I am happy to be where we really belong and looking forward to a Europeanean tour

2947 v Wolves, I went to that game. Think it was 5-2. There was a decent following of Wolves which probably put the home gate below 2000.

I was 14 so didn't really have a great concept of the amount space there must have been.

The home gate against Wolves was near 5000,many of the quoted figures above are incorrect

gtclaret wrote:The home gate against Wolves was near 5000,many of the quoted figures above are incorrect

I took the numbers from the old site. Someone also posted a page from an old football year book which gave almost exactly the same average gate I came up with. Make of that what you will. UTC

They probably used the same figures.

Missed, I think, 8 of those home games that season.
Went to a few away games also.
But think that night, coming back from Crewe was quite possibly the worst I've ever felt after a footy match.
I was quietly distraught. Really thought we'd blown it losing there.
Then the numbness set in and lasted, more or less until the ref blew time against Orient.

Let's just hope we never, ever get ourselves into that position again.

15, 695 might have been the announced attendance for the Orient game, but it was obviously a lot more than that (maybe twice that figure). You couldn't find an open space in the Burnley sections, and masses were allowed in free in order to alleviate the crowding at the turnstiles. I'm guessing that it was closer to 30,000.

There is no way the gate was only 15,000 that day,the long side and bee hole were nearly full + Bob Lord & cricket field were nearly full.Ground capacity was 42,000 then taking off 4,000 for away fans + the 500 too 800 Leyton orient brought.

paulus the woodgnome wrote:Here are the home gates from that "ahem" historic season. Average 3,364. If you take out The Orient Game, then the average home attendance was 2,803. Honourable mention for our lowest ever home league gate of 1,696 (Colchester). How times have changed! UTC!

Scunthorpe 3,008
Hartlepool 2,465
Swansea 2,775
Halifax 3,296
PNE 5,974
Stockport 2,410
Peterboro 2,229
Colchester 1,696
Lincoln 2,177
Cardiff 1,717
Crewe 2,560
Rochdale 4,217
Hereford 1,961
Wolves 2,947
Tranmere 2,394
Exeter 1,792
Northampton 2,691
Aldershot 2,690
Cambridge 1,874
Torquay 2,718
Wrexham 4,090
Southend 3,991
Orient 15,696

Christ!how the **** did we survive?

We almost didn't.

I've always wondered if we would have gone out of existence if we had been relegated.. Thank phook it didn't come to that..

4:20 wrote:Orient was my first game, fell asleep during the second half.

It must have been about 4.20 when we scored our second goal.

S27bfc wrote:There is no way the gate was only 15,000 that day,the long side and bee hole were nearly full + Bob Lord & cricket field were nearly full.Ground capacity was 42,000 then taking off 4,000 for away fans + the 500 too 800 Leyton orient brought.

Cricket Field was nowhere near full.

paulus the woodgnome wrote:I took the numbers from the old site. Someone also posted a page from an old football year book which gave almost exactly the same average gate I came up with. Make of that what you will. UTC

I remember the attendance being announced at the Wolves game and the Crewe home game which was at Christmas. We were talking whilst leaving that game about the crowd being higher than normal, we had just won 4-0.It was over 3500.
I realised that you had taken the figures from somewhere

I was in the Bob Lord stand and before the game started I saw Brian Miller right near me being interviewed by someone.

Which stand was everyone else in?

The numbers I came up with were pretty close to this (posted by aggi on another thread). UTC

I see the boycott was on at Ewood !

Lots of low gates throughout the league coincided with topless darts being introduced on grandstand.

Two teams averaging less than 10k in the top flight and only six teams averaging more than 10k in the second division.

What dreadful times for English football.

RocketLawnChair wrote:I see the boycott was on at Ewood !

It was, but that was the case everywhere, look at the averages in the top flight, hooliganism had turned many fans away and it wasn't really till Italia 90 that the buzz returned to the English game.

Look at the godawful clubs with higher attendances than us back then:

Southend
Peterborough
Northampton
York
Wigan
Shrewsbury
Blackburn

Just think - all that dross could fit in Turf Moor at the same time these days.

And Preston had more than DOUBLE our average attendance!

Rowls wrote:Look at the godawful clubs with higher attendances than us back then:

Southend
Peterborough
Northampton
York
Wigan
Shrewsbury
Blackburn

Just think - all that dross could fit in Turf Moor at the same time these days.

And Preston had more than DOUBLE our average attendance!

It helps when you're winning

1987 at Turf Moor is a billion years from where we are now.

I thought we had to win the last three games against Southend, Crewe and Orient – we beat Southend, but after losing at Crewe I thought we were in a bit of a mess
Neil Grewcock

we were so lucky to survive that day, amazing when you look back.

Shocking season. Brilliant day.

Everton and Rangers were 2 the big prize winners but it was Burnley on the BBC world service match of the day and the main stories on both BBC and ITV news.

Never forgotten.

I missed it as was away on a school trip.

Most of the rest of my family were there though.

I'm sure we'd have lost if it weren't for the huge turnout.

Dad took me for a walk so we wouldn't know the score until we got home.

Hard to describe today as I was only 13/14 and dad had only taken me to a couple of games but I remember my dads roar of relief when he saw the league table on Grandstand.

Started going a lot more after that, to the extent of saving my pocket money and getting on the train at Lancaster for pretty much every home match when I hit 15 and was allowed to go on my own.

It is an incredible story, to think we were joint top of the old first division just 12 years earlier
The drop to the bottom of Division 4 included one promotion on the way. The build up to the Orient game could have started in 1976
Would make a great book/TV film

There can't be many clubs that have experienced such highs and lows. I think it makes our club all the more special. I was in the fourth lowest crowd on that list with my Dad. Missed the lowest attendance game and the Hereford debacle. Had to make do with the radio for the Orient game which was tense enough. It really does make times like these sweeter.

Anyone around in 1987 NEVER needs reminding of the dire straits we were in, or the attendances of the time - Taffy once said "it was a toss up as to whether we gave out the team changes or the crowd changes today" following a game. As one of the Colchester 1,696 they are memories and times I will never forget, nor look back on with any wistful nostalgia. They were not wistful times, just woeful times.

Nothing like a thread like this to keep your feet on the ground, during these heady days.

I had been working away most of the 80's.
However, I made it up from Brighton for the game.
1/. Driving up I was a mixture of bewilderment, terror and anger!
2/. There was certainly a lot more than 15,000 on. (maybe 23,000?)
3/. A very emotional day. I recall an old man in his 80's near me on the Bee Hole wearing a rosette
from the 62 or even 47 cup final? He was in tears at the final whistle. This set me and my now wife off too.
4/. I watched the scenes of celebrations at the final whistle, and wondered how it had come to this.
5/. I vowed, that wherever I was working, I'd get to as many matches as possible from then on.
6/. Was the piece of paper in the programme or were we handed it as we left, which asked us to buy shares in the club?
7/. I replied to the piece of paper. I did receive a letter from the club thanking me for my interest, but I never heard anything further.
I kept my vow. The next season was brilliant with Wembley and it's been a steady spiral upwards since.
To all Clarets born after 1987, enjoy these times, you never know what is round the corner.