This just popped up on my YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gExhC6Xyno

What a day this was in my first full season watching Burnley .... Probably not the best first season as we didn't score for about 5-6 games at home !

I remember my Granddad at the start of the season being very happy with the Waddle appointment and confident we would be up the top end come the end of the season.

He also told me to keep an eye out for a player called 'Glen Little' .... who was nowhere to be seen until the turn of the year !

first away game at Oldham too .... Tasty as a young teen !

Bad memories for the club but great memories for me walking up the steps to the turf and only ever upwards from that moment !

UTC

The Shire Claret wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 26, 2025 11:23 am

This just popped up on my YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gExhC6Xyno

What a day this was in my first full season watching Burnley .... Probably not the best first season as we didn't score for about 5-6 games at home !

I remember my Granddad at the start of the season being very happy with the Waddle appointment and confident we would be up the top end come the end of the season.

He also told me to keep an eye out for a player called 'Glen Little' .... who was nowhere to be seen until the turn of the year !

first away game at Oldham too .... Tasty as a young teen !

Bad memories for the club but great memories for me walking up the steps to the turf and only ever upwards from that moment !

UTC

Whilst I was 9 at the time its also around the same time of my earliest memories, and probably around the time I got my first season ticket although I had sat in the Cricket field stand and stood on the long side as well before this.

I could name every player and reserve team player in those days as I'd memorise the program list every week, I was obsessed with Burnley at that age and watched any Burnley video footage I could in a morning before school like 'Burnley are back' 'Sherpa Van final' 'Div 2 play off final' etc I could voice over the whole videos.

Every party I went to was at the old gym, every school holiday was soccer school at Gawthorpe, every Birthday and Christmas present was from the club shop. I'd even get a new Burnley pin badge for my hat every week and wait for autographs.

I do miss those days and how special Burnley was to me as a child.

The away following at Oldham a few nights earlier was huge.

We ended up giving up on the stand behind the goal and went in the stand down the wing as it was packed and loads more still coming in.

Swapping Barnes for Payton that January and having him and Cooke as a front 2 massively saved us that season.

claretonthecoast1882 wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 26, 2025 11:31 am

The away following at Oldham a few nights earlier was huge.

We ended up giving up on the stand behind the goal and went in the stand down the wing as it was packed and loads more still coming in.

Swapping Barnes for Payton that January and having him and Cooke as a front 2 massively saved us that season.

I remember that when the fans got put in the stand across the goals and some of the burnley fans and oldham fans started throwing hands ...

Blew my little mind... never seen out like it at the time

Burnley1989 wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 26, 2025 11:30 am

Whilst I was 9 at the time its also around the same time of my earliest memories, and probably around the time I got my first season ticket although I had sat in the Cricket field stand and stood on the long side as well before this.

I could name every player and reserve team player in those days as I'd memorise the program list every week, I was obsessed with Burnley at that age and watched any Burnley video footage I could in a morning before school like 'Burnley are back' 'Sherpa Van final' 'Div 2 play off final' etc I could voice over the whole videos.

Every party I went to was at the old gym, every school holiday was soccer school at Gawthorpe, every Birthday and Christmas present was from the club shop. I'd even get a new Burnley pin badge for my hat every week and wait for autographs.

I do miss those days and how special Burnley was to me as a child.

I was exactly the same lol

Burnley Curtains ... Burnley Bed Sheets , Burnley clock ... all the posters from the programs on my wall ...

Good times

A win despite Waddle with a huge away following from Plymouth.

Was only 13 myself but can remember the miserable car ride home from Oldham thinking we were done. Just about the only good thing Waddle did was swapping Payton for Paul Barnes that January, just about kept us up.

Main thing I remember of the day was the faces of the Plymouth fans as we walked past their coaches on the way home.

What a season that was. I went on for the friendly between us and Man City Bradbury had put City 2-0 up in 10minutes and think we lost 3-0 or 4-0. At the time I said City are going to have a great season with that team and if not we are in for a very bad season.
City were dumped into Division 2 for 98-99 season and we almost ended up back in the bottom flight. Waddle was thought to be the one to turn us around but I dont think we won one of our first 10 games.

Oldham was a memorable game. Unreserved seating so loads flooded to the front and got moved into the side stand.

Change of weather seemed to mirror our performance.

jrgbfc wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 26, 2025 11:48 am

Was only 13 myself but can remember the miserable car ride home from Oldham thinking we were done. Just about the only good thing Waddle did was swapping Payton for Paul Barnes that January, just about kept us up.

Take your point but nothing compared to the car journey home from Crewe just 11 years earlier at a similar time of the year.

So many memories from that season.

The 'coup' of the Waddle appointment. Everyone talking about my team.
Gerry Creaney
7-2 against York
Swapping Barnes for Payts
Glen Little being fit enough to lace Waddle's boots
20 goals for Cooke
Selling Marlon and replacing him with our GK coach (who played a huge role)
Gerry Harrison bossing games
Neil Moore, last minute at PNE
Oldham away - throwing it away in a torrential downpour
Weller's goal
Full house in what was essentially a survival play-off final
Plymouth fans in tears, 4 years after we'd last broken their hearts

Good times in hindsight!

The Shire Claret wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 26, 2025 11:23 am

Bad memories for the club but great memories for me walking up the steps to the turf and only ever upwards from that moment !

UTC

No explanation is there? I couldn’t have realised it when my dad and granddad first took me but I’ve wanted to be there ever since.

ClaretTony wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 26, 2025 12:43 pm

No explanation is there? I couldn’t have realised it when my dad and granddad first took me but I’ve wanted to be there ever since.

The magic of football indeed

The Shire Claret wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 26, 2025 12:48 pm

The magic of football indeed

And the quote from Sir Bobby Robson


at is a club in any case? Not the buildings or the directors or the people who are paid to represent it. It’s not the television contracts, get-out clauses, marketing departments or executive boxes. It’s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city. It’s a small boy clambering up stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father’s hand, gawping at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love.

jrgbfc wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 26, 2025 11:48 am

Was only 13 myself but can remember the miserable car ride home from Oldham thinking we were done. Just about the only good thing Waddle did was swapping Payton for Paul Barnes that January, just about kept us up.

And selling Beresford to Middlesboro and replacing him with Chris Woods. It was the first full season after I had moved to London and Watford, Southend, Brentford all came earlyish in the season, all easily accessible from my new home and all returned empty handed. The same fate befell a trip to Craven Cottage, a meeting with an old work colleague, a seat in the Fulham stand and following Al Fayed and his bodyguards out of the ground at full time.

I drove up to the Turf on the morning of the Plymouth game, up the M40/M5/M6 so passed a few Argyle coaches. I made sure I had my Burnley scarf out of the sunroof to give the coach travellers the best view. Thankfully we managed to win the game and break Plymouth hearts for the second time in 4 years.

Silkyskills1 wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 26, 2025 12:39 pm

Take your point but nothing compared to the car journey home from Crewe just 11 years earlier at a similar time of the year.

Never been as low with my team as that night.

ClaretTony wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 26, 2025 1:15 pm

And the quote from Sir Bobby Robson


at is a club in any case? Not the buildings or the directors or the people who are paid to represent it. It’s not the television contracts, get-out clauses, marketing departments or executive boxes. It’s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city. It’s a small boy clambering up stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father’s hand, gawping at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love.

Don't think there is any better way to describe it

mdd2 wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 26, 2025 1:16 pm

Never been as low with my team as that night.

Horrendous journey home and one I’ll never ever forget

Herts Clarets wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 26, 2025 1:16 pm

And selling Beresford to Middlesboro and replacing him with Chris Woods.

I remain convinced we’d have gone down with Beresford. He was costing us so many points.

3-1 up at Oldham with not long left and against 10 men you could see the dark clouds rolling in and I swear as Oldham made it 3-3 a torrential downpour making it impossible to play on a waterlogged pitch and our fate looked sealed as we were soaked in the side paddock that's my memory of the game or is my memory playing tricks?

Link to Oldham highlights here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RZ4xrPT1qA

Plymouth here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gExhC6Xyno

I remember the Oldham game, must have had half the attendance or more supporting Burnley that day. Nice goal from Weller.

ClaretTony wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 26, 2025 1:15 pm

And the quote from Sir Bobby Robson


at is a club in any case? Not the buildings or the directors or the people who are paid to represent it. It’s not the television contracts, get-out clauses, marketing departments or executive boxes. It’s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city. It’s a small boy clambering up stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father’s hand, gawping at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love.

Exactly how it was for me aged 7 in 1963. A perfect summary.

It's amazing how such a thoroughly terrible season has so many fun memories for me, a lot listed further up. I would have been 10 and 11 during the season and the players were still heroes to me in spite of the dirge they were mainly putting out. I'll never forget seeing Chris Brass in his little hatchback at the roundabout by Mecca Bingo after a game that season and going mental shouting "Dad, it's Chris Brass!" with both my Dad and Brassy laughing their heads off at how I was acting as if I had just seen Arnold Schwarzenegger or similar. It was the start of better things by the end of it with Glen cementing himself as our magic man, and Payts coming in to eventually fire us to promotion a couple of years later. That game against Plymouth was as big as it had gotten for me since I had become a regular attendee, still remember Damian Matthew dancing on the pitch at full time (decent player I thought).

Watford away first game of the season sticks in my mind. Really high hopes for a good season - remember we were very poor in that game, and as it turned out wasn't to get much better throughout the season!

NickBFC wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 26, 2025 4:15 pm

Link to Oldham highlights here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RZ4xrPT1qA

Plymouth here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gExhC6Xyno

I remember the Oldham game, must have had half the attendance or more supporting Burnley that day. Nice goal from Weller.

One thing I had totally forgot about Bruce Grobbelaar in goal for Oldham

The blue shirt Andy Cooke is wearing when the players come back out to greet the crowd is still hanging up in my wardrobe.

What folk may have forgotten on that 2nd May 1998 is that we were relying on Brentford not winning at Bristol Rovers.

A brilliant end to a dreadful season with the home stands packed for the first time since the two new ones went up, so an incredible atmosphere for that game as well as afterwards in town. But obviously it could have ended so, so badly with the trap door yawning and a return to basement football beckoning, which would have been tragic after all the efforts of the team of '92 and all the hard work that had gone into pulling us out of said basement/doldrums. It was (another) extremely pivotal game in our history.

Dazzler wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 26, 2025 6:33 pm

What folk may have forgotten on that 2nd May 1998 is that we were relying on Brentford not winning at Bristol Rovers.

And I think B.Rovers went down to 10 men too.

18 at the time a fantastic day and then night out. Town was absolutely heaving before the match that day. Also went to Oldham on the Tuesday with what was a ridiculous away following. Think the torrential rain in the second half was a blessing for the Oldham police.

Reading through this thread and it reminded me that I went to a fair few away games that season.

Watford away first up, played on the hottest day in human history, full away end all high on pre-season Waddle-induced optimism... which started to deflate when we saw a line-up including (from memory) Phil Eastwood as a lone striker in an utterly dreadful performance. Followed by a journey back up the motorway in what felt like an oven and one of the strangest 'turns' I've ever seen at The Coaching House when we just made it back for the last hour.

York away, where Beresford was so stunned at us scoring our first goal of the season he seemed to almost immediately give York one back with a comically inept clearance.

Brentford away where Mark Ford scored what I think was his only Burnley goal and almost, for one brief shining moment, looked like an actual footballer and not just someone who had the same number of legs as one.

And the final home game of the season where I spent pre-match watching my mate pace up and down his front room because he was so nervous, Radio Lancashire abandoned their usual anodyne musical nonsense for "Waiting For The Man" by The Velvet Underground and after the match we had the surreal sight of people in Bootleggers cheering every time the Ceefax lower-league tables page clicked round to Page 2/4 and you could see Burnley just above the line that PLymouth were just under.

Strange days, indeed.

Enola Gay wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 26, 2025 7:20 pm

you could see Burnley just above the line that PLymouth were just under.

With Brentford squeezed in the middle of them.

Do I remember Gerry Creaney playing for us this season too ?

Feel like he scored every time he played

How bad was the challenge on Gerry Harrison at the end, two footed lunge and not even given as a foul!

The Shire Claret wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 26, 2025 9:27 pm

Do I remember Gerry Creaney playing for us this season too ?

Feel like he scored every time he played

Yes was on loan.

NickBFC wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 26, 2025 5:40 pm

Watford away first game of the season sticks in my mind. Really high hopes for a good season - remember we were very poor in that game, and as it turned out wasn't to get much better throughout the season!

We had the whole end behind the goal sold out.. it was an insane turn out

And Plymouth had more drama on the final day the following season, losing 2-1 to Carlisle with a last minute goal from Jimmy Glass.

Woodleyclaret wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 26, 2025 11:47 am

A win despite Waddle with a huge away following from Plymouth.

No more than 2,000 of them.

A nailbiting end to the Waddle season . Did we actually relegate Plymouth on that day ? Seem to to remember them ripping a few seats up chuck at the celebrating Burnley fans on the pitch . Though don’t remember a “ huge following “ from Plymouth ? Maybe 1500 ish ?
Always remember the opening Watford game , it was sweltering hot and seemed to be 1000’s of BFC fans . I was literally swigging pint after pint to cool down, with a predictable outcome …

AlargeClaret wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 27, 2025 10:26 am

A nailbiting end to the Waddle season . Did we actually relegate Plymouth on that day ? Seem to to remember them ripping a few seats up chuck at the celebrating Burnley fans on the pitch . Though don’t remember a “ huge following “ from Plymouth ? Maybe 1500 ish ?
Always remember the opening Watford game , it was sweltering hot and seemed to be 1000’s of BFC fans . I was literally swigging pint after pint to cool down, with a predictable outcome …

Yes. Had they scored right at the end - they missed an open goal - they would have stayed up and relegated us. I agree. Not a massive following, given the circumstances. I seem to remember half a dozen of them standing their ground as Burnley swept across the pitch, most of them legging it.

One thing I do remember from this day after watching the highlights was my dad telling me to calm down at the final whistle. Brentford hadnt finished and there was a chance we could still go down. Think it was a 4 or 5 minute wait for that game to finish

Looking at both games it's amazing how far we have come both on and off the pitch, the Turf now is superb, more like a bowling green.
Still had some cracking players at the time though, Little, Welker, and Gerry Harrison surprised me,I'd forgotten what a tough midfielder he was.

Dazzler wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 26, 2025 6:33 pm

What folk may have forgotten on that 2nd May 1998 is that we were relying on Brentford not winning at Bristol Rovers.

They kicked off a point above us so had they won, we'd have gone down no matter what we did.

Rowls wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 26, 2025 6:56 pm

And I think B.Rovers went down to 10 men too.

Gary Penrice sent off after 15 minutes in that game.

Quicknick wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 27, 2025 10:51 am

Yes. Had they scored right at the end - they missed an open goal - they would have stayed up and relegated us. I agree. Not a massive following, given the circumstances. I seem to remember half a dozen of them standing their ground as Burnley swept across the pitch, most of them legging it.

Think they might have had guests from a northern club with them.

My Brother was on the pitch (15 years old) and he witnessed a Burnley fan get cracked with a chair ..... Everyone helped him up but bet he had a headache for a few days !

Player called Earl Jean (who had scored a hatrick against us for Rotherham that season) I’m sure was the one who missed the sitter at the end. Probably about 2000 from Plymouth. An author wrote an account of the day which finished along the lines of ‘had Plymouth won the police would still be figuring out how to get them out of Burnley’.

ClaretTony wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 27, 2025 1:41 pm

Gary Penrice sent off after 15 minutes in that game.

CrIkey! After 15 mins....I don't remember that.....I tried finding highlights of it after Rowls' post, but all there is of that match is Hayles' late winner to put Bristol Rovers in the play-offs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF3gh2OjmGU

shame nobody brought a book out about this season

bigdavethemaddog wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 27, 2025 5:07 pm

shame nobody brought a book out about this season

Paul Wellers book has quite a bit of detail on this season and the training methods under Waddle

Been a while since I read it but I’m sure all the players went to Frank Teesdales house on Wednesday's and got pi$$ed playing snooker or something if the sort

Stan sorted that out !