May 1983: Burnley relegated from the Second Division (equivalent to today's Championship) on the last day of the season,together with Bolton and Rotherham. In a tight,multi-cornered survival scrap,44 points from 42 games (in a 22-club division) wasn't quite enough to save the Clarets. The previous month they played in an FA Cup quarter-final. Brian Miller's first spell as manager at Turf Moor comes to an end as rambunctious former Manchester City boss John Bond is brought in to replace him. This move ultimately proves to be a disastrous one,not least because of the catastrophically short-sighted decision to scrap the youth setup that had been the lifeblood of the team. Burnley come half way down the Third Division,then teeter towards the lower reaches. Bond quits,and as happened at City his assistant John Benson is unable to steer the ship away from the rocks. Burnley turn to former Manchester United player Martin Buchan without success. Tommy Cavanagh is left to try to pick up the pieces. May 1985: Burnley come fourth from bottom and are relegated to the Fourth Division for the first time in their proud history,by a margin of one point as financially-stricken Swansea narrowly avoid a third straight relegation though it's only a temporary reprieve. Lancashire rivals Preston,another of the founding dozen fallen on hard times,are also relegated to the Fourth Division for the first time in their history. This happens against a background of English football's darkest hour with the horror of the Bradford fire and,at the end of that month,the Heysel disaster. The Thatcher government get on the case and demand local authorities get tough on safety at football grounds. Entire stands and sides of many grounds up and down the country,having been found to be in a neglected,decrepit state,are closed pending repair or replacement. I don't believe Turf Moor was one of the grounds badly affected by this. The 1985-86 season that followed was English football's nadir,with record low attendances. Beginning the process of "turning their backs on the outsiders who had come in and done so much harm",Burnley reappoint Brian Miller as manager. Presumably the youth setup had been revived at some point,though I'm not sure when,but the damage done was deep. TV shows 18-year-old Clarets youngster Ashley Hoskin dribbling the ball through what appears to be almost the entire opposition team to score an astonishing solo goal in one match but Burnley finish below halfway in the Fourth Division. The Football League vote to introduce the promotion play-offs we all know and love today from the 1986-87 season onwards. They also vote,after years of protest from ambitious,well-run non-League clubs at being shut out in favour of the most ailing,badly-run established Football League clubs,to scrap the long-esrtablished re-election system and introduce automatic promotion and relegation between the team coming last out of the 92 in the Football League and the champions of non-League's pinnacle competition the Conference for the first time. Who would become the first team to drop out,and who would replace them? Perennial stragglers like Rochdale,Hartlepool,Halifax and Crewe appeared to be inn the greatest danger,having got away with it som often,but 1986's wooden spoonists were Torquay,with Preston of all teams coming - unthinkably until it happened - last but one.
As the 1986-87 season kicks off,attendances across the Leagues start to show the first uptick from their all-time low of the previous season. The earliest green shoots of some kind of recovery. Some stands are repaired and reopened,other edifices - a few of them much-loved but beyond saving - have been demolished. Some grounds like Molineux remain half-closed off. One end of Bolton's Burnden Park has been invaded intrusively by Normid as they kick off a campaign that end in them becoming the latest once-proud Lancashire giant to fall into the Fourth Division. Saturday 20th September 1986: Burnley win 1-0 at also-all-at-sea Wolves,who have joined them in the Fourth Division following three straight relegations and the closure of two sides of a crumbling Molineux. A week later,Burnley beat Halifax 3-0 and are 5th in the table with one defeat in their opening seven matches. Saturday 18th October: It's Stockport who appear to be stuffed,their 81-year-old residence in the Football League apparently heading for the exit. Burnley beat the bottom-of-the-table Cheshire team 2-0 and sit just inside the top half. Stockport collect a meagre 6 points from their first 15 matches by midway through November and appear doomed. Everyone else in the division,apart from perhaps Torquay and Rochdale,are sufficiuently far away from danger to wipe their brow and say "phew! we're safe from potential catastrophe." Saturday 22nd November: Burnley beat Lincoln and are 13th. The runaway leaders are a super-fit,attack-minded Northampton side,while the division's best defensive record was the foundation for Preston putting their recent woes behind them to join the promotion chase. A certain Steve Bull starts scoring for Wolves in the league,but not before they'd been humiliated 3-0 in an FA Cup second replay (no penalty shoot-outs yet back then) at non-League Chorley. Burnley fared little better,dumped out by the same score at Telford United. And at the foot of the table Stockport claim only their second win of the season and start to revive. As Christmas approaches,Burnley slump down the table but end the year in 16th after walloping Crewe 4-0 at Turf Moor. Sadly,two home matches in late 1986 and a further couple in early 1987 fail to attract 2,000 spectators. Stockport climb off the bottom at Rochdale's expense. New Year's Day: A gate of 4,200 shows up at Turf Moor for the Lancashire derby against back markers Rochdale,but are left with a growing sense of gloom as the vistors win 0-3 and get off the bottom briefly,replaced there by Torquay. Saturday 3rd January: Burnley lose 2-1 at Lincoln,who are sitting pretty in 7th place and presumably eyeing up those new-fangled play-offs and a quick return to the Third Division they dropped out of the previous spring. Saturday 24th January: The alarm bells go off big time at Turf Moor as the shellshocked Clarets fold 0-6 (!) at home to mid-table Hereford. That calamity drops Hereford into the bottom four,which in any previous season would - if they stayed there - mean having to fall on the mercy of their peers going cap-in-hand through the re-election process after the season's end. But things were different now. Saturday 14th February: With Steve Bull and company scoring for fun,reviving Wolves crush Burnley 2-5 at Turf Moor. Aside from this the Clarets put together a run of scoring draws that include four 2-2s and stayed 21st. Rochdale are the ones whose days as a Football League club look numbered,while Torquay and Stockport also remain beneath the Clarets. Friday 13th and Tuesday 17th March: Burnley pull off vital back-to-back victories - first,crucially,it would seem,against Stockport and then 2-1 over a Northampton side already nailed-on for promotion as champions having accrued over 80 points with a dozen fixtures still to play! Preston were out clear in 2nd and heading for promotion,too. Burnley's last engaement of the month was a 2-1 defeat watched by 10,643 at Deepdale,one of a string of narrow defeats as the rot set back in. Badly as the season was going for Burnley,it was only once April arrived that the unthinkable prospect of falling through the trapdoor out of the Football League entirely loomed,and the potential oblivion that could have gone with it. All of a sudden,the league table made stark reading. The gaps between the bottom teams were closing up in the desperate fight for survival,and it was also dragging in other teams who must have felt comfortable before,such as Tranmere and Lincoln. With a number of sides in peril,the closing weeks promised to provide a dramatic finale at the foot of the Fourth Division when it had seemed so clear cut for almost the entire first half of the season. Tuesday 14th April: Kicking off just a point aboive bottom pair Rochdale and Stockport,the Clarets ended their run of crisis-deepening defeats but were held 2-2 by Torquay at Turf Moor. Crucially,they won 2-0 at Rochdale the following Saturday to earn some respite. Easter Monday 20th April: Stockport beat Lincoln and complete their against-the-odds escape,having bdeen back in last place only four weeks previously. Just over 4,000 come to Turf Moor to watch Burnley draw with Wrexham and stay 22nd,two points above Rochdale and Torquay and two points beneath still-not-safe Lincoln and Tranmere. The Clarets then round off their April with a pair of narrow away defeats,taking the crisis into the penultimate weekend. Saturday 2nd May: Leighton James and Neil Grewcock score Burnley's goals in their penultimate home match to beat a Southend side set to join Northampton and Preston in gaining automatic promotion. Monday 4th May: Hopes of clinching safety before drinking at the Last Chance Saloon were dashed as the Clarets lost their penultimate fixture 1-0 at Crewe. For the first time ever Burnley were 92nd and last in the entire Football League,with just one match remaining in which to try to save themselves. Worse for them,Rochdale followed up lifting themselves out of last place when scoring five against Halifax with a 2-1 victory over already-safe Stockport two days later,and ensured their survival. And so it was down to four left in peril. Friday 8th May: On the eve of the season's finale,Tranmere did what they had to in defeating Exeter at Prenton Park to follow Stoxkport and Rochdale in clambering to safety. Saturday 9th May: And so the scene was set. Do or die for Burnley at home to Leyton Orient. They started on 46 points and had to win or otherwise face not only life outside the Football League but perhaps extinction according to much of the talk. Their fate was out of their hands if the other two sides still at risk were to win. Torquay,aimed to avoid the wooden spoon for the second year running,were a point above them on 47 as they prepared to host Crewe down in Devon. The other team still involved were Lincoln,who had gone into February riding high in 9th place but only won three matches since beating the Clarets 2-1 at SincilmBank at the start of January as they rode the big snake down the board while others found ladders to climb. In their hour of greatest need,the fans flocked back en masse at last to Turf Moor to back Burnley in their last-ditch bid for survival.
Hello, I would need to get the record of the Burnley-Leyton Orient match on May 9, 1987, matchday 42 of the Fourth Division, could someone provide it to me??? It would be of great help. Greetings from Spain
Thankyou Ian Britton scored the winning goal that kept us up. R.I.P Ian 💜💙
Brian Miller May his dear dear soul rest in peace a True Claret
I was there, what an atmosphere UTC
THANK G-D IT NEVER HAPPEND UTC LONG LIVE TURFMOOR
May 1983: Burnley relegated from the Second Division (equivalent to today's Championship) on the last day of the season,together with Bolton and Rotherham. In a tight,multi-cornered survival scrap,44 points from 42 games (in a 22-club division) wasn't quite enough to save the Clarets. The previous month they played in an FA Cup quarter-final.
Brian Miller's first spell as manager at Turf Moor comes to an end as rambunctious former Manchester City boss John Bond is brought in to replace him. This move ultimately proves to be a disastrous one,not least because of the catastrophically short-sighted decision to scrap the youth setup that had been the lifeblood of the team. Burnley come half way down the Third Division,then teeter towards the lower reaches. Bond quits,and as happened at City his assistant John Benson is unable to steer the ship away from the rocks. Burnley turn to former Manchester United player Martin Buchan without success. Tommy Cavanagh is left to try to pick up the pieces.
May 1985: Burnley come fourth from bottom and are relegated to the Fourth Division for the first time in their proud history,by a margin of one point as financially-stricken Swansea narrowly avoid a third straight relegation though it's only a temporary reprieve. Lancashire rivals Preston,another of the founding dozen fallen on hard times,are also relegated to the Fourth Division for the first time in their history. This happens against a background of English football's darkest hour with the horror of the Bradford fire and,at the end of that month,the Heysel disaster. The Thatcher government get on the case and demand local authorities get tough on safety at football grounds. Entire stands and sides of many grounds up and down the country,having been found to be in a neglected,decrepit state,are closed pending repair or replacement. I don't believe Turf Moor was one of the grounds badly affected by this.
The 1985-86 season that followed was English football's nadir,with record low attendances. Beginning the process of "turning their backs on the outsiders who had come in and done so much harm",Burnley reappoint Brian Miller as manager. Presumably the youth setup had been revived at some point,though I'm not sure when,but the damage done was deep. TV shows 18-year-old Clarets youngster Ashley Hoskin dribbling the ball through what appears to be almost the entire opposition team to score an astonishing solo goal in one match but Burnley finish below halfway in the Fourth Division.
The Football League vote to introduce the promotion play-offs we all know and love today from the 1986-87 season onwards. They also vote,after years of protest from ambitious,well-run non-League clubs at being shut out in favour of the most ailing,badly-run established Football League clubs,to scrap the long-esrtablished re-election system and introduce automatic promotion and relegation between the team coming last out of the 92 in the Football League and the champions of non-League's pinnacle competition the Conference for the first time. Who would become the first team to drop out,and who would replace them? Perennial stragglers like Rochdale,Hartlepool,Halifax and Crewe appeared to be inn the greatest danger,having got away with it som often,but 1986's wooden spoonists were Torquay,with Preston of all teams coming - unthinkably until it happened - last but one.
As the 1986-87 season kicks off,attendances across the Leagues start to show the first uptick from their all-time low of the previous season. The earliest green shoots of some kind of recovery. Some stands are repaired and reopened,other edifices - a few of them much-loved but beyond saving - have been demolished. Some grounds like Molineux remain half-closed off. One end of Bolton's Burnden Park has been invaded intrusively by Normid as they kick off a campaign that end in them becoming the latest once-proud Lancashire giant to fall into the Fourth Division.
Saturday 20th September 1986: Burnley win 1-0 at also-all-at-sea Wolves,who have joined them in the Fourth Division following three straight relegations and the closure of two sides of a crumbling Molineux. A week later,Burnley beat Halifax 3-0 and are 5th in the table with one defeat in their opening seven matches.
Saturday 18th October: It's Stockport who appear to be stuffed,their 81-year-old residence in the Football League apparently heading for the exit. Burnley beat the bottom-of-the-table Cheshire team 2-0 and sit just inside the top half. Stockport collect a meagre 6 points from their first 15 matches by midway through November and appear doomed. Everyone else in the division,apart from perhaps Torquay and Rochdale,are sufficiuently far away from danger to wipe their brow and say "phew! we're safe from potential catastrophe."
Saturday 22nd November: Burnley beat Lincoln and are 13th. The runaway leaders are a super-fit,attack-minded Northampton side,while the division's best defensive record was the foundation for Preston putting their recent woes behind them to join the promotion chase. A certain Steve Bull starts scoring for Wolves in the league,but not before they'd been humiliated 3-0 in an FA Cup second replay (no penalty shoot-outs yet back then) at non-League Chorley. Burnley fared little better,dumped out by the same score at Telford United. And at the foot of the table Stockport claim only their second win of the season and start to revive.
As Christmas approaches,Burnley slump down the table but end the year in 16th after walloping Crewe 4-0 at Turf Moor. Sadly,two home matches in late 1986 and a further couple in early 1987 fail to attract 2,000 spectators. Stockport climb off the bottom at Rochdale's expense.
New Year's Day: A gate of 4,200 shows up at Turf Moor for the Lancashire derby against back markers Rochdale,but are left with a growing sense of gloom as the vistors win 0-3 and get off the bottom briefly,replaced there by Torquay.
Saturday 3rd January: Burnley lose 2-1 at Lincoln,who are sitting pretty in 7th place and presumably eyeing up those new-fangled play-offs and a quick return to the Third Division they dropped out of the previous spring.
Saturday 24th January: The alarm bells go off big time at Turf Moor as the shellshocked Clarets fold 0-6 (!) at home to mid-table Hereford. That calamity drops Hereford into the bottom four,which in any previous season would - if they stayed there - mean having to fall on the mercy of their peers going cap-in-hand through the re-election process after the season's end. But things were different now.
Saturday 14th February: With Steve Bull and company scoring for fun,reviving Wolves crush Burnley 2-5 at Turf Moor. Aside from this the Clarets put together a run of scoring draws that include four 2-2s and stayed 21st. Rochdale are the ones whose days as a Football League club look numbered,while Torquay and Stockport also remain beneath the Clarets.
Friday 13th and Tuesday 17th March: Burnley pull off vital back-to-back victories - first,crucially,it would seem,against Stockport and then 2-1 over a Northampton side already nailed-on for promotion as champions having accrued over 80 points with a dozen fixtures still to play! Preston were out clear in 2nd and heading for promotion,too. Burnley's last engaement of the month was a 2-1 defeat watched by 10,643 at Deepdale,one of a string of narrow defeats as the rot set back in.
Badly as the season was going for Burnley,it was only once April arrived that the unthinkable prospect of falling through the trapdoor out of the Football League entirely loomed,and the potential oblivion that could have gone with it. All of a sudden,the league table made stark reading. The gaps between the bottom teams were closing up in the desperate fight for survival,and it was also dragging in other teams who must have felt comfortable before,such as Tranmere and Lincoln. With a number of sides in peril,the closing weeks promised to provide a dramatic finale at the foot of the Fourth Division when it had seemed so clear cut for almost the entire first half of the season.
Tuesday 14th April: Kicking off just a point aboive bottom pair Rochdale and Stockport,the Clarets ended their run of crisis-deepening defeats but were held 2-2 by Torquay at Turf Moor. Crucially,they won 2-0 at Rochdale the following Saturday to earn some respite.
Easter Monday 20th April: Stockport beat Lincoln and complete their against-the-odds escape,having bdeen back in last place only four weeks previously. Just over 4,000 come to Turf Moor to watch Burnley draw with Wrexham and stay 22nd,two points above Rochdale and Torquay and two points beneath still-not-safe Lincoln and Tranmere. The Clarets then round off their April with a pair of narrow away defeats,taking the crisis into the penultimate weekend.
Saturday 2nd May: Leighton James and Neil Grewcock score Burnley's goals in their penultimate home match to beat a Southend side set to join Northampton and Preston in gaining automatic promotion.
Monday 4th May: Hopes of clinching safety before drinking at the Last Chance Saloon were dashed as the Clarets lost their penultimate fixture 1-0 at Crewe. For the first time ever Burnley were 92nd and last in the entire Football League,with just one match remaining in which to try to save themselves. Worse for them,Rochdale followed up lifting themselves out of last place when scoring five against Halifax with a 2-1 victory over already-safe Stockport two days later,and ensured their survival. And so it was down to four left in peril.
Friday 8th May: On the eve of the season's finale,Tranmere did what they had to in defeating Exeter at Prenton Park to follow Stoxkport and Rochdale in clambering to safety.
Saturday 9th May: And so the scene was set. Do or die for Burnley at home to Leyton Orient. They started on 46 points and had to win or otherwise face not only life outside the Football League but perhaps extinction according to much of the talk. Their fate was out of their hands if the other two sides still at risk were to win. Torquay,aimed to avoid the wooden spoon for the second year running,were a point above them on 47 as they prepared to host Crewe down in Devon. The other team still involved were Lincoln,who had gone into February riding high in 9th place but only won three matches since beating the Clarets 2-1 at SincilmBank at the start of January as they rode the big snake down the board while others found ladders to climb. In their hour of greatest need,the fans flocked back en masse at last to Turf Moor to back Burnley in their last-ditch bid for survival.
Saturday 9th May 1987
I still get wet eyes when I see this Thank G-d it never happend UTC Longlive Turfmoor
Hello, I would need to get the record of the Burnley-Leyton Orient match on May 9, 1987, matchday 42 of the Fourth Division, could someone provide it to me??? It would be of great help. Greetings from Spain
Burnley team: Joe Neenan; Peter Leebrook,Peter Hampton,Billy Rodaway,Joe Gallagher,Ray Deakin,Neil Grewcock,Philip Malley,Leighton James,Phil Devaney,Ian Britton
Leyton Orient team: David Cass; Tommy Cunningham,Kevin Hales,Mark Smalley,Terry Howard,John Cornwell,Henry Hughton,Shaun Brooks,Chris Jones,Kevin Godfrey,Alan Comfort
Attendance: 15,781
Burnley 2 (Grewcock,Britton) Leyton Orient 1 (Comfort)
Half time: 1-0 to Burnley.
Source: Rothmans Football Yearbook 1987-88.
Have you got the full video available to upload? Would be great to watch it.
+LongevityMUFC Yes, most of it anyway - I've uploaded it now.
UTC
Utc