MARK WINSTANLEY 

Date and Place of Birth 22nd January 1968 - St. Helens   Transfers to and from Burnley from Bolton Wanderers - 5th August 1994 (£150,000) to Shrewsbury Town - 1st July 1999   First and last Burnley Games Middlesbrough (a) - 13th August 1994   York City (h) - 22nd August 1998   Other Clubs Bolton Wanderers, Shrewsbury Town (loan from Burnley), Scunthorpe United (loan from Burnley), Preston North End (loan from Burnley) ---------------------------------------- Shrewsbury Town, Carlisle United

Burnley Career Stats

Profile by Tony Scholes

Mark Winstanley arrived at Burnley as part of Jimmy Mullen's squad strengthening after promotion in 1994 and left after his inclusion as one of Stan Ternent's 'Gang of Four' left him out in the cold at Turf Moor.

The Clarets had won two promotions, in 1992 and 1994, with a central defensive partnership of Steve Davis and captain John Pender, but Mullen made the decision that the 30-year-old Pender would need to be replaced for Burnley to compete at the higher level.

He turned to Bolton's Mark Winstanley who was Pender's junior by just over four years. Bolton had been Winstanley's only club. He'd come through the youth system at Burnden Park and was just 17 when he made his league debut against Wigan Athletic in March 1986, even before he'd signed a professional deal.

He lined up that day at centre half and also in the Bolton side was George Oghani who would sign for Burnley in the following year, and Steve Thompson who would become a team mate of Winstanley at Burnley.

It took him a couple of years to win himself a regular place at Bolton but once he did he remained first choice for around six seasons. In his first season he scored three times in a run to Wembley that saw them win the Freight Rover Trophy.

A year later they reached the old Third Division play offs before losing in the semi-finals and one year on they reached the final only to lose again, Winstanley missing out at Wembley because of injury.

They did eventually win promotion in the 1992/93 season, beating Burnley 4-0 at Burnden Park and 1-0 at Turf Moor that season following our promotion from Division Four. They didn't need the play offs that year, going up automatically behind Stoke City.

He was still a regular then but once promoted he found it more difficult to get first team games and in the 1993/94 season played less than half of Bolton's league games. That led to his decision to move on and Burnley stepped in with a £150,000 offer that saw him become Burnley's first summer signing.

Winstanley lined up alongside Davis in the centre of defence as our 1994/95 season kicked off with a 2-0 defeat at Ayresome Park against Middlesbrough. It proved to be a tough season for us ending in an immediate relegation but he played all but two of the games alongside Davis in a defence that conceded more goals than any other team in the division.

The result of the relegation was that Davis decided to leave Burnley, signing that summer for Luton Town on the expiry of his contract, and Winstanley found himself a new partner in Peter Swan who was signed from Plymouth Argyle.

The season proved to be another struggle and we were only safe from a second successive relegation on the penultimate Saturday of the season when we won at Wrexham. Winstanley was again a regular, missing just one game all season.

Adrian Heath had replaced Mullen as manager during that season and for 1996/97 he chose to play with three central defenders. Winstanley started and ended the season in the first team but missed a number of games mid-season. It proved to be a better season for the Clarets and for our centre half.

In three seasons he'd played 124 league games for us and there was nothing to suggest things would change very quickly. They did. Chris Waddle replaced the departed Heath and signed his own central defenders - Steve Blatherwick, Lee Howey and Neil Moore.

That left Winstanley fighting Chris Vinnicombe for a place at left back. He just about won that fight and played 27 of the 46 league games that season , making just an occasional appearance in the centre of defence.

He wasn't suited to that position and struggled at times but with yet another change of manager in the summer of 1998 he must have hoped to win his place back at centre half.

Stan Ternent was that new manager and Winstanley's card was marked very quickly following an incident during the pre-season trip to the South West.

When Ternent named his team for the opening day fixture against Bristol Rovers he named Blatherwick and Howey in the central defensive positions and new signing Steve Morgan at left back. With Chris Brass at right back it hardly looked a back four that was likely to achieve much.

We won 2-1 and the defence remained the same for the next three games, a 1-0 defeat at Chesterfield and the two legged exit from the League Cup at the hands of Bury.

For the third league game against York at Turf Moor, Winstanley replaced the woeful Morgan at left back in an otherwise unchanged defence.

York led 1-0 at half time and, for reasons unknown to the supporters at the time, neither Blatherwick nor Howey returned for the second half with young debutants Matt Heywood and Chris Scott replacing them. Soon into the second half Phil Eastwood came on for Michael Williams with Winstanley playing the full ninety minutes in a 1-0 defeat.

Manager Ternent then provided the bombshell, informing Radio Lancashire listeners that none of Blatherwick, Howey, Winstanley and Williams would ever play for the club again, confirming that it was nothing personal but business.

He was true to his word. The Burnley first team never saw any of them again and Winstanley, in his search for some football, went on loan to Shrewsbury Town, Scunthorpe United and Preston North End. He played just eight times for Shrewsbury but failed to get a game at either of the other two clubs.

Thankfully, for him and Burnley, Shrewsbury signed him permanently in the summer of 1999 and he started to get first team football again. He had three more seasons in league football, playing 32 games for Shrewsbury in the first of them and then having two years at Carlisle where he played 62 times.

There was to be just one more year at Southport before he hung up his boots in the summer of 2003 at the age of 34 to pursue other business interests.

Mark Winstanley was one of a rare breed of footballers who reportedly didn't particularly like the game. It was just his job and he did it to the best of his ability but other than that had no real interest in football.

He did OK for us for three years, although I remain mystified as to why John Pender (who played only six league games for us after the Wembley win against Stockport) was discarded so quickly.

Sadly, his last couple of years proved to be disastrous, firstly forced into the left back position and then being left out in the cold as one of the Gang of Four.