Liam Robinson

Last updated : 30 June 2013 By Tony Scholes

Date and Place of Birth

29th December 1965 - BRADFORD

 

Transfers to and from Burnley

from BRISTOL CITY - 26th July 1994 (£250,000)

released - 31st May 1997

 

First and last Burnley Games

MIDDLESBROUGH (a) - 13th August 1994

 

BLACKPOOL (a) - 25th February 1997

sub: replaced Kurt Nogan

 

Other Clubs

NOTTINGHAM FOREST, HUDDERSFIELD TOWN,

TRANMERE ROVERS (loan), BURY, BRISTOL CITY

----------------------------------------

SCARBOROUGH

 

 

Burnley Career Stats

 

Season League   FA Cup   League Cup   Others   Total  
                     
  apps gls apps gls apps gls apps gls apps gls
1994/95 29(10) 7 5 1 4 2 - - 38(10) 10
1995/96 11(5) 2 - - 0(1) - 0(1) - 11(7) 2
1996/97 3(5) - - - 1(1) - 1 - 5(6) -
                     
Total 43(20) 9 5 1 5(2) 2 1(1) - 54(23) 12

 

Profile by Tony Scholes

 

A 2-1 win against Stockport in the play-off final at Wembley in 1994 gave Burnley a second promotion in two years and lifted us back into the second tier of English football for the first time since 1983. Eleven long years, with seven of them spent in the Fourth Division, had come to an end and that meant a busy summer for manager Jimmy Mullen as he looked to build a squad able to compete at the higher level.

It was common knowledge that a striker would be coming in. Tony Philliskirk had missed the final with injury and John Francis had been forced off in that game and had no chance of being fit for the start of the season.

John Clayton, Burnley's Lord Lucan, had retired, Roger Eli had been released after making only two league starts in two years and neither Graham Lancashire nor Nathan Peel had suggested they were going to establish themselves in the first team. That left Adrian Heath, by now 33, and so a new striker was of the utmost importance.

Very soon the speculation started but no matter which way it turned it always seemed to focus on Ashton Gate and in particular Bristol City's 25-year-old Wayne Allison. The former Halifax and Watford player had been there for five years and was a popular player with the supporters.

Known as 'The Chief' he was considered to be just the type of player we needed and when I spotted the billboards for the then Lancashire Evening Telegraph one day in July confirming the signing of a Bristol City striker I knew who it was, or so I thought. It wasn't Allison it turned out, but his strike partner Liam Robinson.

Bradford born Robinson had started his career with Nottingham Forest as an apprentice. They didn't offer him a professional deal and instead he was signed in January 1984 by former Claret Mick Buxton who was manager at Huddersfield.

In two and a half years at Huddersfield he made occasional first team appearances and also had a short loan at Tranmere in his only full season before moving to Bury in the summer of 1986, signed by another former Claret, this time Martin Dobson.

The next seven years proved to be the best of his career. A massive crowd favourite at Gigg Lane he played over 300 times for the Shakers, scoring exactly 100 league and cup goals. He as a member of the Bury team that suffered relegation back to the bottom division in 1992 and after a 7th place finish in the following season he made the move to Bristol City in a £130,000 transfer.

In his one season there he struggled. He scored only four goals although he was part of the team that beat Liverpool in the FA Cup, winning an Anfield replay after a draw at Ashton Gate.

Given his form there it came as something of a surprise when Mullen moved to bring him to Burnley in a £250,000 deal that smashed our transfer record, and I don't think his form at Turf Moor ever justified that fee.

He played in 39 of the 46 league games in his first season, with ten of them from the bench, but scored only seven times. He was certainly used more in the first half of the season. He started all of the first 27 league games but then added only two more league starts in the remainder of the season.

He did, however, score what proved to be the winning goals in all of our away wins that season. He got the only goal as we won 1-0 at Luton and scored the last goals in the 3-2 and 2-1 wins at Millwall and Charlton respectively.

Probably his most memorable appearance that season was in the FA Cup replay at Liverpool. Trailing 1-0 with nine minutes to go he broke only to be fouled by home defender Neil Ruddock who was promptly red carded by referee Kelvin Morton.

Mullen spoke about the incident after the game, certain that Robinson would have scored an equaliser and taken the game to extra time. "I'd have put my house on him scoring," Mullen said but most Burnley fans there that night believe Mullen might have been left homeless if Robinson had been given the opportunity.

He hardly featured at all in the 1995/96 season, that was until Heath returned to replace Mullen as manager. He won back his place as the season turned into a relegation battle and he scored what proved to be a crucial first goal in a 2-0 win at Wrexham on the next to last Saturday of the season.

It was a wonderful goal of the season contender and our season was saved when Kurt Nogan added a second to secure the win and leave us safe with two games to go.

By now, Andy Cooke was establishing himself and with Nogan favoured there was little room for Robinson. Things got even more difficult too with the signing of Paul Barnes from York and he spent most of his third and last season at Turf Moor in the reserves.

Heath released him at the end of that season and he joined Scarborough who proved to be his last Football League club. Two seasons there brought him just seven more goals and at the end of the 1998/99 season he called it a day at the age of 33.

His last league appearance came in May 1999, a 2-1 win for Scarborough at Halifax. He came on as a late substitute to join a team that included ex-Clarets Tony Parks, Jamie Hoyland and also named Andy Saville as an unused sub.

It wasn't the end of his playing career by any means. He went into non-league football and played for such as Northwich Victoria, Stalybridge Celtic, Stocksbridge Park Steels, Queensbury, Harrogate Railway, Eccleshill United and Rossendale United whilst initially working as a postman before becoming a tree surgeon.

Now, in 2013, and at the age of 48, his football appearances are restricted to turning out alongside old team mates for teams of ex-Clarets.