NICKY WALKER 

Date and Place of Birth 29th September 1962 - ABERDEEN   Transfers to and from Burnley from HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN - February 1992 (loan) returned - March 1992   First and Last Burnley Games BLACKPOOL (h) - 22nd February 1992   MANSFIELD TOWN (a) - 21st March 1992   Other Clubs LEICESTER CITY, MOTHERWELL, RANGERS, FALKIRK (loan), DUNFERMLINE (loan), HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN ---------------------------------------- PARTICK THISTLE, ABERDEEN, ROSS COUNTY INVERNESS CALEDONIAN THISTLE

Burnley Career Stats

Profile by Tony Scholes

He was an unknown to most Burnley supporters when he arrived on loan in February 1992 just in time to make a debut against Blackpool in the Fourth Division. He made just six league appearances for us but is a player that, over 20 years on, is still talked about regularly and affectionately by those supporters.

Joseph Nicol Walker, or Nicky Walker to Burnley fans, was signed by Jimmy Mullen on loan from Hearts and became the fourth of five goalkeepers used in what proved to be our promotion season from the basement division.

He was 29 years of age and hadn't had the best of careers at the time after starting his professional career in England with Leicester at 17 at a time when the midlands club were managed by Jock Wallace. Walker played six times for them but never settled in England and, apart from a month at Turf Moor, spent the rest of his career in his native Scotland.

His return to Scotland was to Motherwell in 1981 and in two years there he made 30 first team appearances before landing himself a move to Rangers and for a while he was first choice goalkeeper.

However, he lost his place when England goalkeeper Chris Woods signed. He had a short loan at Dunfermline, where he played once, and eventually, in 1989, opted for a move to Hearts in a £125,000 transfer.

At Tynecastle he found himself vying for the first team jersey with Henry Smith. It was Smith who came out on top and that led to Walker's loan at Burnley.

His debut against Blackpool ended in a 1-1 draw but he kept four clean sheets in his remaining five league games against Cardiff, Barnet, Halifax and the big promotion battle at Mansfield. His remaining league appearance was a 3-0 defeat at Gillingham.

Mullen was keen to keep him and the fans certainly did. Earlier in the season Andy Marriott had been with Burnley for three months. We missed out on him and so it proved with Walker who returned to Edinburgh after just one month.

In the year after his return he followed Smith into the Scotland team, making a debut against Germany in March 1993 at the home of former club Rangers. Scotland lost the game 1-0 with Karl-Heinz Reidle scoring for the Germans after 19 minutes.

He left Hearts in 1994 and moved to Partick Thistle where, over the next two years, he had the best period of his career. During this time he won a second cap for Scotland, this time against the United States of America as a substitute. He played for just eight minutes after coming on for Jim Leighton.

Partick were relegated in 1996 but Walker was playing so well that there was no lack of opportunity to remain in the top flight. He decided to sign for his home town club of Aberdeen but things didn't quite work out and a year later he was on the move again to Ross County.

In four years there he was first choice and on leaving, and had one more year in the game with Inverness Caledonian Thistle before hanging up his professional gloves just a few months short of his 40th birthday.

His last appearance came in April 2002 in a home game against Clyde which ended 1-1 with Walker beaten for the last time just a minute from the end of the game.

Walker continued to be involved in the game in the Highlands but he was forced to devote more time to the family business, Walkers Shortbread, a company founded in 1898 by his great grandfather.

Our former goalkeeper is now the production director for the family firm who are biscuit suppliers by Appointment to Her Majesty the Queen.