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They ended last season with 86 points and that kept them three points above the play offs. Rob Hulse was their top scorer with 22 league goals but he has since moved on to West Brom for a £750,000 million fee and that sort of money Gradi can only dream about.
A number of other players left during the close season, notably Rodney Jack who chose to drop down a division when a better financial offer came in from Rushden & Diamonds. Dave Walton also turned down a new contract offer and moved to fellow 1st Division club Derby County.
With John Miles and Colin Little both moving on to Macclesfield and Efe Sodje (Stan’s friend from Macc) signing for Huddersfield it has left Gradi with a smaller squad.
He brought in Adie Moses from Huddersfield and Justin Cochrane from Hayes on free transfers before the start of the season an also added Bolton’s Jonathan Walters on a loan deal.
Since the big kick off former Watford striker Allan Smart has signed on a free transfer after turning down Barnsley and this week he has actually paid out a transfer fee to sign 23 year-old full back Anthony Tonkin from Stockport.
They have made a reasonably good start to the season and have won both home games to date against Ipswich and Walsall both by a 1-0 scoreline although away from home they went down to Franchise on the opening day of the season 3-1 (their only defeat) and drew 1-1 at Millwall.
The last of those games was the Walsall win on Bank Holiday Monday, a game they won with a goal midway through the second half from Steve Jones although there was some debate as to whether it was an own goal. The ball was bundled in after a Kenny Lunt effort hit the bar.
They had to survive an early onslaught from Walsall side for whom Paul Merson failed to shine but overall Crewe were the better side and fully deserved the win.
Gradi said after the game, "It was a terrific game of football by two excellent sides, who played the game in a skilful and clever way.
"They played well but I thought we deservedly won the game because we created the better chances."
The win leaves Crewe in 11th place in the league with seven points.
Crewe lined up: Clayton Ince, Chris McCready, David Vaughan, Adie Moses, Stephen Foster, Kenny Lunt, Dave Brammer, Justin Cochrane, Ben Rix, Steve Jones, Dean Ashton. Subs not used: Ademola Bankole, Allan Smart, Lee Bell, James Robinson, Richard Walker.
Past Results in the last 20 years
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
a | |||||
1983/84 | LC | a | 0-1 | 3,043 | |
h | 3-4 | 5,659 | Flynn(2) Wharton | ||
1984/85 | LC | h | 1-2 | 3,043 | Grewcock |
a | 3-0 | 3,067 | Overson Hird Grewcock | ||
1985/86 | 4 | h | 0-1 | 1,988 | |
a | 1-3 | 1,998 | A Taylor | ||
1986/87 | 4 | h | 4-0 | 2,560 | Murphy Hoskin James Malley |
a | 0-1 | 4,175 | |||
1987/88 | 4 | h | 0-0 | 5,408 | |
a | 1-0 | 3,720 | Gage(og) | ||
1988/89 | 4 | h | 1-0 | 5,677 | Hardy |
a | 0-4 | 3,597 | |||
1991/92 | 4 | h | 1-1 | 9,657 | Francis |
a | 0-1 | 5,530 | |||
1995/96 | 2 | h | 0-1 | 9,153 | |
a | 1-3 | 3,393 | Winstanley | ||
1996/97 | 2 | h | 2-0 | 9,459 | Nogan Matthew |
a | 1-1 | 4,734 | Barnes | ||
2000/01 | 1 | h | 1-0 | 13,189 | Cooke |
a | 2-4 | 6,994 | Branch Cook(pen) | ||
2001/02 | 1 | h | 3-3 | 13,964 | Taylor Payton(2 1pen) |
a | 2-1 | 6,458 | Taylor A Moore |
One from the Past
Burnley 4 (Murphy Hoskin James Malley) Crewe 0
Football League Division Four – Saturday 27th December 1986
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The club nearly went under during the summer when a rights issue brought in very little but it did see the board increase by three with the co-opting of Bernard Rothwell, Bob Blakeborough and Clive Holt.
Under new manager Brian Miller things had started brightly enough but a poor run of form saw us go into Christmas in 19th place although there was no cause for great concern. This Burnley side wasn’t going to go up and was already nine points clear of Stockport so this new idea of relegating the bottom club into the Conference would be of no great concern – or so we thought.
Christmas brought some cheer though and on Boxing Day we picked up a point in a 2-2 draw at Wrexham and just 24 hours later we returned to Turf Moor to take on Crewe and were far too good for them and recorded a 4-0 win.
The Boxing Day point had come as a result of a real battling performance but we took a poor Crewe side to the cleaners.
We were a goal up after just 16 minutes and although it was a tap in from Phil Murphy after a goalkeeping error the move leading up to it had been excellent as Leighton James turned the defence inside out before setting up Ashley Hoskin.
We were 1-0 up at half time but could have been further in front. It didn’t take long though and just two minutes into the second half we doubled the lead and this time Hoskin found the net himself with a delicate chip.
Crewe were under siege now and they went a further goal behind following a piece of magic from James who went on a mazy run before hammering in an unstoppable shot from 20 yards into the bottom corner.
The scoring was complete when Crewe defender Steve Davis (he would become a Claret the following year) misdirected a header straight onto Phil Malley’s head and he made no mistake from close range.
A delighted Brian Miller said, "We didn’t allow Crewe to play and this is the sort of form we need to move us into the top half of the table."
Sadly it would be mid-March before the Clarets won again but at least they gave us a good Christmas.
The teams were,
Burnley: Joe Neenan, Peter Leebrook, Darren Heesom, Billy Rodaway, Phil Malley, Ray Deakin, Ian Britton, Derrick Parker, Phil Murphy, Leighton James, Ashley Hoskin. Sub not used: Jason Harris.
Crewe: Rob Powner, Wayne Goodison, Ian Macowat, Geoff Thomas, Steve Davis, Peter Billing, David Platt, Peter Bodak (Dave Pullar 70), John Gannon, Terry Milligan, Gary Blissett.
Referee: Joe Worrall (Warrington).
Attendance: 2,560.