Ronnie Fenton

Burnley Career Stats

Profile by Tony Scholes

During the 1950s and 1960s Burnley signed many young players from the north east of England and just looking at the Championship side of 1959/60 you would find five of them were regulars in the side.

Such was the strength of our playing staff during that period that there were good players who struggled to make any sort of impact. Team changes were rare then other than through injury so for Ronnie Fenton, once he'd served his apprenticeship and was ready for first team football, there was a barrier to the first team that went by the name of Jimmy McIlroy.

Fenton arrived as an apprentice at Burnley in 1956 from his home of South Shields. He'd been a good schoolboy footballer and there were a number of clubs interested in signing him. But when Burnley came calling, given the club's reputation, he was soon Turf Moor bound.

The inside forward was soon making an impression and signed a professional deal in the following year. He very quickly established himself in what was a very strong reserve team. In his late teens he was on the sidelines as Burnley lifted the Championship but got his first team debut in the following season.

That debut came in Burnley's first ever League Cup game and was against Cardiff City at Ninian Park, a game we won 4-0. It was in the same competition that he scored his first Burnley goals, getting two in the 4-2 quarter final win over Southampton.

But he couldn't establish himself in the side because of the quality players ahead of him. He made eleven league appearances during that 1960/61 and the following 1961/62 season and scored just the one goal against Bolton.

With the 1962/63 season three months old, and without a first team appearance all season, he made the decision to leave Turf Moor and signed for West Brom in a £15,000 deal. Ironically just three months later McIlroy departed Turf Moor and that could have just opened the door for Fenton.

He'll be remembered more by those who watched our powerful reserve team of the time. He won a Central League winners medal and was in the side that lifted the Lancashire Senior Cup in three successive seasons from 1959/60 to 1961/62. That team attracted good crowds to Turf Moor, sometimes going above 10,000.

Fenton spent just over two years with West Brom and was a regular in the side. Not only that he proved his worth as a goalscorer, something seen of him in that Burnley reserve team, and he netted no fewer than sixteen league goals for them.

At the beginning of 1965 he moved again to Birmingham City but it didn't prove to be the best of moves and in three years at St. Andrew's he never fully established himself as a first team player.

That led to a move to Brentford where he spent two years before ending his playing career, although his football career was far from over. He joined Notts County as a coach working under manager Jimmy Sirrel. When Sirrel left for Sheffield United in 1975 Fenton was appointed manager.

He was in the hot seat for two years but was replaced by the returning Sirrel and he made the short move across the River Trent from County to Forest where he became Brian Clough's right hand man.

That stay at Forest was a long one and ended only with Clough's retirement in 1993 and he then worked with Terry Venables with the England set up before moving out to Malta to coach.

It all ended badly for Fenton though when he was charged by the Football Association and Robert Reid QC, heading the enquiry, concluded that he and Clough had taken cash from transfers although because of ill health charges against Clough were dropped.

But as a football Ronnie Fenton was unfortunate at Burnley, he came to the club at the wrong time when we had probably the best group of players the club has ever had. At any other time he might just have become a regular first team player. But that's something that could be said of a good number of players who were with us at that time.

Ronnie Fenton sadly passed away on 25th September just days after his 73rd birthday.

Links

Former Claret Fenton passes away (26/09/13)