JOE JAKUB 

Date and Place of Birth 7th December 1956 - Falkirk   Transfers to and from Burnley youth from summer 1972 to Bury - 8th October 1980 from Chester City - 1st August 1989 released May 1993   First and Last Burnley Games Coventry City (h) - 24th April 1976   Exeter City (h) - 17th April 1993   Other Clubs Bury, AZ Alkmaar, Chester City ---------------------------------------- Chester City, Wigan Athletic

Burnley Career Stats

Profile by Tony Scholes

After winning the Fourth Division in 1992, Burnley kicked off the following season with a home game against Swansea City, a game we won 1-0.

Seven long years had come to an end meaning this was a special day for everyone connected with Burnley Football Club, but for Joe Jakub it was a very special day for two reasons.

Captain John Pender was in contract dispute and so manager Jimmy Mullen handed the captaincy to Jakub who led the side out. Not only that but on that day he became just the second player to play for Burnley in all four divisions.

We go back almost twenty years before that day when Jakub first arrived at Turf Moor from his home town of Falkirk. Although born Yanek he was always known as Joe at Burnley, he had played as a junior with Airdrie before being spotted by the Burnley scouts and the 16-year-old signed an apprenticeship in 1973.

He was a midfielder and progressed through the reserves, but Burnley were riding high in the First Division during his first two years and with midfielders of the calibre of Martin Dobson, Geoff Nulty, Peter Noble and Brian Flynn it was always going to be tough winning a place in the side.

Having had their relegation confirmed in 1976 he replaced Flynn in the side for the last game of the season against Coventry City at home. He became the last player to make his debut for Burnley in the top flight for over 33 years and this was to remain his only ever appearance at that level.

It took him almost another four years to claim a regular place in the side and by then we were heading down again. His progress had been halted by a badly broken leg that kept him out of football for some considerable time, but it was only in the second half of the disastrous 1979/80 season that saw him become a first choice.

At the end of that season, with the Clarets now down in the third tier of English football, he opted not to sign a new contract and instead joined Bury where he eventually became club captain.

He played well over 250 games for Bury in a six year spell that culminated in them winning promotion from the Fourth Division in 1985. There was a real claret and blue flavour to that team. Managed by Martin Dobson, with Frank Casper as coach, the team also boasted other former Clarets in Leighton James, Terry Pashley and Kevin Young alongside future Clarets Wayne Entwistle and Winston White.

Two years in Holland followed with AZ Alkmaar before he returned to England to sign for Chester City in the summer of 1988. He was there for just a year before Casper snapped him up to bring him back to Turf Moor to play alongside another new recruit John Deary in the midfield.

Jakub was an ever present over the next two seasons during which he scored all his nine Burnley goals. Rumour has it, that after one particularly poor away defeat when the fans had a go at the players, he went on to call the fans cabbages. From that day Cabbage became his nickname on the Longside.

As Burnley made the final push to get out of the basement division in the 1991/92 season he moved from the midfield to left back and that move proved to be a success as we stormed through to the title.

That takes us to him completing the set of four divisions for Burnley, but it did prove to be his last season at Turf Moor. In what was his 500^th game in the Football League, he was sent off at Mansfield, but when Jimmy Mullen signed Paul Wilson from Halifax he took Jakub's place at left back and in the summer of 1993 he was on the move again after being released by Mullen. He'd played over 250 games for Burnley in his two spells.

He returned to Chester where he helped them win promotion. After a year there he signed for Wigan where he played sixteen league games before ending his league playing career.

He enjoyed a time coaching, firstly with Preston and then with Dave Jones at both Stockport and Southampton, but now works as a journalist for the Press Association whilst doing some scouting for Preston North End.

At times he came under some criticism from the Burnley fans but overall, in his second spell, he proved to be a success. And he can always claim, alongside Billy Rodaway, that he played at all four levels for Burnley.

His debuts at those four levels came as follows:

First Division v Coventry City (h) 24^th April 1976
Second Division v Hereford United (a) 4^th September 1976
Fourth Division v Rochdale (a) 19^th August 1989
New Second Division v Swansea City (h) 15^thAugust 1992