Next Game – Norwich City (home)

Paul McVeigh

The won the semi-final against Wolves over two legs with a 3-2 aggregate having at one point been three goals up but lost out in the Cardiff final to Birmingham and then only on penalties having drawn the final 1-1.

Last season certainly saw them surprise many, they were without doubt the surprise success having ended the 2000/01 season in 15^th place, a season that saw the Clarets take all six points from them. During that season they changed manager when Bryan Hamilton left to be replaced by his assistant Nigel Worthington the former Blackpool boss.

Worthington made a number of signings during the summer of 2001 and they never looked back. Although many experts expected them to drop out of the promotion race they hung in there and made the top six.

And if anyone thought that was a one off they have certainly carried that form into this season and only Portsmouth and Leicester are above them and they have lost just three games.

As is the case with most clubs they were hit by the collapse of ITV Digital but they raised a significant amount via a rights issue and are now one of the more secure clubs in the division. And they are able to make more money than most with catering although that could have something to do with the presence of Delia Smith.

It didn’t allow Nigel Worthington to go and make massive additions to his squad though and the only incoming player during the summer was left-back Paul Heckingbottom from Darlington on a Bosman free transfer. Heckingbottom had been strongly linked with a move to Burnley before last season ended.

Mark Rivers

Last season they got underway with a 4-0 defeat at Millwall but this season they turned that round and won 4-0 on the opening day of the season at home to Grimsby.

Until the last Saturday in October they had only been beaten once and that was at Carrow Road against Sheffield United but they have since been beaten twice more, these coming in their last two away games at Bradford and Franchise where they have played particularly badly.

The only other defeat was a surprise one when they went out of the Worthington Cup in the 1^st round with a surprise 3-0 reverse at Cheltenham.

They have though won two successive home games since their last league defeat without conceding a goal, the last of which was last Saturday against Crystal Palace. It was a very even game and Palace were considered unlucky not to have collected at least a point although they were thankful to Clarets’ keeper Nik Michopoulos for two excellent saves.

The second Norwich goal came just three minutes from the end of the match and came after a sustained spell of pressure from Palace that looked as though it could have brought about an equaliser.

The Norwich team was: Robert Green, Craig Fleming (Malky Mackay 31), Darren Kenton, Adam Drury, Steen Nedergaard, Phil Mulryne, Gary Holt, Mark Rivers (Nicky Southall 83), David Nielsen (Zema Abbey 88), Paul McVeigh, Iwan Roberts. Subs not used: Paul Crichton, Ian Henderson.

They have scored a total of 33 league goals so far and that is just 6 more than the Clarets. Leading scorer is Paul McVeigh and he has netted 10 of those. Behind him come David Nielsen with 6 and Iwan Roberts with 5.

This will definitely be a tough game for the Clarets against a side who have now proved themselves to be one of the better teams in the division for over a year.

Click HERE to see all Norwich’s results this season.

It is one of the players that Benson persuaded to go to Carrow Road that we focus on and a natural born Claret in Micky Phelan.

Nelson born Micky joined the Clarets as an apprentice in the summer of 1979 at the age of 16 and he had to wait just a season and a half to make his first team debut as a substitute for Billy Rodaway at Chesterfield. The week after he made his first start, partnering Martin Dobson at the back in a 1-0 home win against Exeter.

He became a regular in the side almost from the start and in his first full season, 1981/82, won a 3^rd Division Championship medal although he missed the run in after suffering a fractured cheekbone at the hands of Wimbledon at Plough Lane.

He was outstanding in the following season as Burnley fought a losing battle against promotion despite having great cup runs that took us to the semi-final of the League (Milk) Cup and the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. He went on to win just about every one of the Supporters’ Clubs’ Player of the Season Awards.

His form continued as John Bond came in and the new Burnley manager recommended him for England Under 21 recognition. With Vince Overson fit again the two of them soon saw off the likes of Joe Gallagher and Malcolm Waldron and were our defensive partnership throughout that season and then the ill fated 1984/85 season that saw us drop into the 4^th Division.

It was then that Micky, out of contract, chose to leave Turf Moor and he signed for Norwich City after their new scout, the recently sacked John Benson, recommended him. The fee went to a tribunal and the Clarets received just about £70,000 for him which was way below his value.

At Norwich he was converted into a midfield player and for some time he was linked with a number of other clubs, mainly Everton. And when he did move it was back to the North West but he joined Manchester United and this time the fee was £700,000.

He stayed there until the summer of 1994 and signed for West Brom despite an offer to return to the Turf following out play off win over Stockport. His stay at The Hawthorns was short and he played very few games because of injury.

He wanted to stay in the game and returned to Norwich as youth team coach and was there during the short time that St. Megson was manager. When Megson took over at Blackpool he took Micky as his assistant and the two of them then moved on to Stockport.

When Megson was sacked at Edgeley Park he was overlooked for the manager’s job, it went to Andy Kilner, and so he moved on yet again and this time returned to Old Trafford to become reserve team coach.

Last year he was promoted to first team coach when Steve McClaren left for Middlesbrough. After a short spell back with the reserves he has now returned to first team duty. He will be back at the Turf shortly for the Worthington Cup tie but when pressed Micky will still tell you that he is a Claret.

We started really well and Gareth Taylor gave us an early lead with a header from some distance out. Former Burnley goalkeeper Paul Crichton, in for the injured Robert Green looked as though he should have done better but it was just what we needed.

It was the sort of start we had been looking for but then came the incident that overshadowed the whole afternoon. Glen Little and City’s Darren Kenton challenged for the ball but Kenton actually kicked Glen in the head.

Glen was out cold and the game was held up for almost ten minutes before he was finally stretchered off hidden by numerous medical people. Not surprisingly our performance went flat after that with thoughts very much with Little. As it turned out he was OK but even after being given that good news at half time we never were able to hit the form we had shown at the beginning of the game and it came as no real surprise when the Canaries did equalise through substitute Marc Libbra.

Norwich were much the better side in the second half and in the end we could count ourselves somewhat fortunate to earn a draw.

It was a game though when both Chairman and Manager turned on the fans. In his programme notes for the game Barry Kilby said the antics of some of the Burnley fans (those booing at the end of the previous home game against Birmingham) had left a bitter taste in his mouth whilst after the match Stan turned on them and said he was naffed off with them. "They’ve got champagne tastes on beer money", he said.

But he pointed a finger at the pitch for the poor quality of the game, "Pele couldn’t pass on that surface", he added.

The teams were,

Burnley: Marlon Beresford, Dean West, Steve Davis, Arthur Gnohere, Lee Briscoe, Glen Little (Ian Moore16), Paul Weller, Kevin Ball, Alan Moore (Brad Maylett 75), Robbie Blake (Gordon Armstrong 57). Subs not used: Paul Cook, Dimitri Papadopoulos.

Norwich City: Paul Crichton, Malky Mackay, Craig Fleming, David Nielsen (Mark Rivers 87), Phil Mulryne, Gary Holt, Iwan Roberts (Marc Libbra 23), Darren Kenton (Daryl Sutch 60), Steen Nedegaard, Andy Roberts, Trevor Benjamin. Subs not used: Arra Lee-Barrett, Clint Easton.

Referee: Peter Jones (Lougborough).