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Date and Place of Birth 19th October 1972 - Blackpool
Transfers to and from Burnley youth from summer 1989 to Preston North End - 23rd December 1994 (£55,000)
First and Last Burnley Games Wrexham (h) - 11th May 1991 sub: replaced David Hamilton
York City (a) - 23rd August 1994 sub: replaced Warren Joyce
Other Clubs Halifax Town (loan from Burnley), Chester City (loan from Burnley) ---------------------------------------- Preston North End, Wigan Athletic, Rochdale |
Burnley Career Stats
| Season | League | FA Cup | League Cup | Others | Total | |||||
| apps | gls | apps | gls | apps | gls | apps | gls | apps | gls | |
| 1990/91 | 0(1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 0(1) | - |
| 1991/92 | 9(16) | 8 | 2(2) | 1 | - | - | 3(3) | 1 | 14(21) | 10 |
| 1992/93 | 2(1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2(1) | - |
| 1993/94 | 0(1) | - | - | - | - | - | 0(1) | - | 0(2) | - |
| 1994/95 | 0(1) | - | - | - | 1(1) | - | - | - | 1(2) | - |
| Total | 11(20) | 8 | 2(2) | 1 | 1(1) | - | 3(4) | 1 | 17(27) | 10 |
Profile by Tony Scholes
I don't think any player could have made a more sensational start to his first team career at Turf Moor than Graham Lancashire, but unfortunately for the Blackpool born striker it was all somewhat short lived.
Lancashire joined the Clarets as an apprentice in the late 1980s and made good progress through the junior teams, and was proving to be something of a goalscorer. He and Danny Sonner were proving to be a successful partnership and by the end of the 1990/91 season both of them had made their first team debuts.
For Lancashire it was in the last league game of the season against Wrexham as the Clarets prepared for the play offs. Ron Futcher was suspended and both Lancashire and Sonner were included. Sonner got his first ever start and Lancashire came on as a substitute for David Hamilton.
He was still on the fringes of the first team at the start of the following season but that was soon to change as Frank Casper's team were hit by injuries to the forwards. John Francis and Mike Conroy were both ruled out of our game at Scarborough and Lancashire was given his chance.
It wasn't a good day for Burnley. We lost 3-1, it brought about an end to Casper as manager, but for Lancashire it was a goalscoring first start. What followed was incredible, the youngster just couldn't stop scoring goals.
In the next game, his home debut against Carlisle, he scored in a 2-0 win under caretaker manager Jimmy Mullen, and he did Mullen's chances of getting the job a power of good the following week when he scored a hat trick at Wrexham.
Mullen got the job and Lancashire continued, scoring again in the next game, a 2-0 win against Walsall on his 19th birthday. A week later he scored at Lincoln, and then having failed to net at Halifax he was back on the scoresheet as we beat York at home.
That was eight goals in seven games but that was to be it as far as the league was concerned. He scored in the 2nd round of the FA Cup against Rotherham whilst his next league goal, and ultimately his last for Burnley, came at Aldershot but was wiped from the records when the Shots failed to complete their fixtures.
The initial burst was over, and with Conroy and Francis back fit, and Roger Eli in the side, his chances were more limited.
Such were the lack of opportunities that he went out on loan to Halifax in the following season and then in 1993/94 season he went on another loan to Chester where he scored seven goals in eleven games, making a major contribution to their promotion.
He returned to Burnley and was on the bench at Wembley for the play off final against Stockport but he'd played so little first team football for the Clarets it came as no surprise when he was sold to Preston in December 1994 for £55,000.
He lost his place in his first full season at Deepdale and enjoyed a loan spell with Wigan, and the Latics finally signed him permanently in a £35,000 deal at the start of the 1996/97 season. Again he was involved in a promotion, scoring nine times in a prolific partnership with Graeme Jones but just over a year later, having helped win that promotion he was sold to Rochdale, his last league club for £40,000.
He spent four years at Spotland, scoring 23 goals for them in 83 appearances, before bowing out of league football. He moved to Hednesford Town where his playing days came to an end.
Currently, he's working as a gardener in Nelson and his football involvement sees him back at Turf Moor where he works with the club's Centre of Excellence.
That fantastic start lasted little more than a month, but he too quickly was lost from the side as the injured players came back to fitness and wasn't really given enough opportunity. It seemed a strange decision at the time to leave out someone who was scoring goals, and today still does. Who knows, had he been kept in the side there could have been so many more goals to come and his Burnley career might have been so much different.