Next Game – Leicester City (home)

Muzzy Izzet

Leicester have had a traumatic season as they struggled to come to terms financially outside the Premiership and after going into administration were rescued by a consortium led by former player Gary Lineker.

They got off to a bad start by trying to change the name of the club back to Leicester Fosse but soon forgot that when the fans showed they were much against it. So it is still Leicester City that we will be playing.

Despite the financial problems it has somehow not had much of an effect on the players and throughout they have been able to keep close to the coat tails of Portsmouth at the top of the table.

They have never been top, that has been reserved for Portsmouth since late August, but apart from a short spell in late October they have occupied second place since early September.

They look almost certainties to go up with Portsmouth and returning to the Premiership at the first time of asking and are currently ten points clear of third place Reading with nine games to go although Sheffield United could get within six points if they were to win their games in hand.

It has all been done with an inability to bring in new players because of a transfer embargo and their last signings were Nicky Summerbee and Billy McKinlay at the beginning of the season. They both signed on free transfers after a period of playing for expenses only.

They have though been able to keep the squad together and there has been no sale of a player since Matt Piper moved to Sunderland in August.

They are, if reports are to be believed, in their worst run of form so far this season. Don’t you believe it, a 3-2 defeat at Gillingham in mid January was their last league defeat. Since then, in an unbeaten run of eleven games, there have been five wins and four draws.

James Scowcroft

Saturday saw them play Preston at the Walkers Stadium in a match televised live and having trailed 1-0 they came back with two Brian Deane goals to win the game 2-1.

Leicester started the game well but after failing to take an early lead allowed Preston into the game. It was during this period the visitors took the lead with a superb goal from Eddie Lewis.

But Leicester fought back to get themselves level before half time and once in front in the second half there was only going to be one winner and they came close to adding another couple of goals.

They lined up: Ian Walker, Andy Impey, Matt Elliott, Gerry Taggart, Callum Davidson, James Scowcroft, Billy McKinlay, Muzzy Izzet, Jordan Stewart, Brian Deane, Paul Dickov. Subs not used: Nicky Summerbee, Frank Sinclair, Paul Murphy, Jonathan Stevenson, Trevor Benjamin.

Paul Dickov is their leading scorer this season with a total of 16 league goals although 7 of these have come from the penalty spot. Brian Deane has scored 12 and James Scrowcroft 9 and they are from a total of 63 league goals.

Burnley have a good record over the past three seasons against clubs just down from the Premiership and with five played this season remain unbeaten with three won and two drawn. A win would also see the Clarets pick up their third double of the season.

Click HERE to see the preview for the away game and HERE to see Leicester’s results this season.

He played for both

Neil Grewcock scores the first goal against Orient

He made his league debut when just 16 and scored in the game against Cardiff but he played just 8 league games for them before moving on to Gillingham on a free transfer in the summer of 1982.

Although he played 34 of the 46 games in the 1982/83 season for the Gills he was released at the end of his first season and dropped into non-league football with Kettering Town and then Shepshed Charterhouse.

But he was out of the Football League for only a year when he was snapped up by John Bond for the Clarets and made an initial impact with the Burnley fans with some excellent performances early in the season by which time Bond had gone and been replaced by his assistant John Benson.

He couldn’t prevent relegation though and he had a stop/start time under Cavanagh before establishing himself in the side again as we fought against relegation out of the Football League. He scored some important goals that season including one in each of the last two home games. Along with Ian Britton he will always be remembered for the opening goal against Orient at the Cricket Field End just before half time.

He missed the Sherpa Van Trophy Final the season after through injury that he had received in a previous round against Halifax. It was an awful tackle and kept him out for some time.

After that he was never a regular in the side but still played over half the games in the 1990/91 season that saw us reach the play offs. He and Ray Deakin had been the mainstays of the team during the club’s most traumatic period but both were released in the summer of 1991 and retired from league football.

Neil Grewcock played over 200 league games for the Clarets and scored 27 goals. Many of those were important goals but 26 of them will always pale into insignificance compared to his 22^nd scored on 9^th May 1987 against Orient.

Click HERE for a complete list of the games played between Burnley and Leicester which dates back to the 1897/98.

Last Time in the League

Burnley 2 (Steven Taylor) Leicester City 4 (Lineker Lynex,pen Smith,2) – Football League Division 2, Saturday 11^th December 1982

The match had six goals, three penalties (two of them missed by the Clarets). four goalkeepers and two sendings off. But it still brought no points for beleaguered Burnley who were rooted to the bottom of Division Two.

Burley boss Brian Miller admitted to being baffled, "I still cant believe it," said Miller, "I thought we were the better side by miles."

The problem was that the referees had been ordered to send off players for professional fouls and Mr. Tyson followed the letter of the law, but only when it suited him.

Burnley won a penalty when Eddie Kelly kept out a goal bound shot with his hand but Tyson failed to send off Kelly, in fact he didn’t even speak to him. Brian Laws’ penalty was saved by Mark Wallington.

We were soon in front though with a goal from Trevor Steven who turned in a cross from Steve Taylor shortly after the missed penalty. We dominated and Leicester were reduced to ten men when Paul Ramsey was sent off for a second booking. Leicester scored though a few minutes before half time with a goal from Gary Lineker and it was all square at half time with the main fun still to come.

On 50 minutes we were back in front when Billy Hamilton knocked down a cross for Taylor to hit home but four minutes later came the main controversy. Lineker run onto a bad header from Martin Dobson and rounded Alan Stevenson but the Burnley keeper brought him down.

Penalty said Tyson and rightly so but he also applied the law he hadn’t applied earlier and sent Stevenson off. Paul McGee went in goal for the penalty, it was scored by Steve Lynex and McGee promptly came out again to be replaced by Laws.

Then McGee broke through and was clear before being brought down by Larry May just outside the penalty area. Again Tyson didn’t even speak to the Leicester player.

Alan Smith then scored twice for Leicester before the Clarets won another penalty. With Laws having missed and then gone in goal it was this time the turn of McGee who had been in goal and he missed too with Wallington saving for the second time.

The Burnley Express at the time called the whole thing an injustice and said Burnley had been punished twice. "Goalkeepers are a special case and should be treated so," said Sports Editor Peter Higgs.

Peter hasn’t got his way though and over twenty years later we had exactly the same situation at Walsall on Saturday with James Walker receiving a red card.

Peter rightly awarded Steve Taylor the Man of the Match. As he said, he made one, scored one, hit the post and won two penalties.

The result left Burnley in 20^th place in the First Division with 15 points from 18 games, just a point clear of Derby and Cambridge.

The teams were,

Burnley (4-3-3): Alan Stevenson, Brian Laws, Martin Dobson, Micky Phelan, David Holt, Trevor Steven, Tommy Cassidy, Brian Flynn, Steve Taylor, Billy Hamilton, Paul McGee. Sub not used: Derek Scott.

Leicester (4-4-2): Mark Wallington, Paul Ramsey, Larry May, John O’Neill, Norman Leet (Dave Buchanan 66), Steve Lynex, Eddie Kelly, Kevin MacDonald, Ian Wilson, Alan Smith, Gary Lineker.

Referee: George Tyson (Sunderland).