Replay needed after League Cup draw in Wales

Last updated : 11 July 2015 By Tony Scholes

It seemed that the main news in Burnley at this time always seemed to centre on the twin town of Vitry-sure-Seine and their unwillingness to accept invitations to visit. We'd even had the mayor on BBC television claiming the relationship between the two hadn't been good enough for fourteen years.

The latest suggestion to surface came from Alderman Desmond Parkinson who told the Burnley Express that they might just not be able to afford the association.

He said: "When one considers the size of Vitry, it is only a suburb of Paris and not so very long ago only had a population of about 7,000. and taking into account that it has THREE twin towns, the question of cost must come into it."

So, Vitry were collecting twin towns, while Burnley were now seriously looking at alternatives and there had been a suggestion that we should twin with the Spanish village of Arbucias, the scene of the air disaster in 1970 that had taken the lives of several Burnley folk.

Parkinson said of that option: "I can appreciate and understand why anyone who had relatives involved in the disaster should want us to twin with Arbucias, but I don't think the place is big enough. If you leave out the emotive side and consider that Arbucias is only a tiny mountain village, you will realise what I mean. It is nowhere near the size of Burnley and I don't think they can afford to twin with us.

"I agree they behaved marvellously after the tragedy, and they lavish great care on the communal grave, but if you look at the original idea behind twinning, the exchange of ideas and visits by various organisations and cross-sections of communities, and so forth, you will appreciate that such a small place would present difficulties."

Mrs Irene Montgomery, who lost her mother, father, aunt and uncle in the disaster, did not agree at all. She'd visited in each of the past three years and had already spoken to them about twinning which received a positive response.

An argument was brewing over plans to include a licensed bar in the new Temple Street Centre for the elderly and handicapped. Some were in favour and some were against.

Local industrialist Mr George Clarkson was very much in favour. He told a meeting of over forty people that a sub-committee had been set up to deal with the licensed facilities but was still to meet. He warned that one organisation, which he wouldn't name, was likely to be a big user of the centre and they might not do so unless licensed facilities were available.

It had well and truly kicked off in the Rose Room which led to four teenagers receiving fines of £40 each. All four had pleaded guilty to using threatening behaviour.

The court were told that the police were called and on arrival they saw one of the defendants, Martin McGuinness, standing amid a state of utter chaos swinging his fists at people going up the stairs. McGuinness told the court: "I'm sorry, I won't go in there again."

Once in there they witnessed a second of the youths, Trevor Coffey, punching and kicking a man on the ground, shouting: "I'll have him. Come on, I'll have you all." He apologised for the inconvenience.

Sgt. Settie from Blackburn police turned up at the Lane Ends pub in Lowerhouse to give a talk to members of Burnley and District Junior Chamber of Commerce and told them that in 1938 only three people in Great Britain had been convicted of smoking cannabis.

He said it was a frightening thought that there were now a larger number taking this drug in several parts of Burnley every night. He did tell the members that we'd had drug problems for over 8,000 years with the use of plants such as opium and hemp, but it was only in more recent years that addiction had begun to create a big problem.

The talk was given in a light hearted manner, was well received by the members and left them on a real high as they made their way down Kiddrow Lane after the end of the meeting.

Meanwhile, I was on my way to complete the three nations tour watching Burnley with a third match in six days in three different competitions in a third different country.

Having won at East Fife in the Texaco Cup and then recorded a league victory at West Ham, we were now off to Wales for this second round tie in the League Cup against Cardiff City.

Burnley made one change for the game in terms of personnel. Billy Ingham came into the midfield with Geoff Nulty dropping into the left-back position when Keith Newton was passed unfit because of a heel injury. It left us, in effect, without a substitute with Newton taking his place on the bench.

It was the first time Newton had missed a game for the Clarets since signing for the club in the summer of 1973 and even then was close to playing with Jimmy Adamson suggesting he was 95% fit.

It looked very much as though it was going to be a third successive away win until Cardiff earned a replay with a late equaliser to force a 2-2 draw.

Peter Higgs wrote: "The one consolation to be drawn from that was to give Burnley the chance to put the record straight and suitably demonstrate the vast difference between the two teams when they meet in the replay at Turf Moor next Tuesday night."

It wasn't the best of nights. We started the game badly, recovered to twice take the lead, but then had centre-half Colin Waldron, the goalscorer at West Ham, sent off 13 minutes from time.

There was less than a minute gone when Waldron sustained a back injury. He continued but was in some discomfort and that, coupled with Newton's absence, certainly had an effect on the Burnley back line.

Burnley's first goal from Leighton James

For the first 30 minutes of the game we didn't seem to have a clue where we were and Cardiff quickly gained the upper hand. Had we conceded during that period then we could quite easily have been facing a heavy defeat against the Second Division club.

Then, out of the blue, we took the lead with what was only our second shot all night and it was a brilliant goal too.

Leighton JAMES gave his countrymen something to remember by sidestepping two defenders and crashing an unstoppable shot into the far top corner of the net from fully 20-yards.

James has a liking for Cardiff very similar to the one I hold for Blackburn, so there is absolutely no doubt that he would have enjoyed that goal just that little bit more.

Cardiff, despite the goal, remained the better side but it took them until 12 minutes into the second half to get an equaliser and no one could suggest it wasn't deserved.

Johnny Vincent, who had an outstanding game for the home side, put through a long pass to Derek Showers. The centre-forward took the ball and turned to send a 20-yard shot wide of Alan Stevenson. The ball cannoned against the upright and Andy McCULLOCH was there to put the ball into the empty net.

Alan Stevenson is beaten but the ball comes back off the post for Andy McCulloch to equalise for Cardiff

Incredibly Burnley responded and were soon back in front. It started with James who burst clear past the half way line before pushing a pass through to Ray Hankin. The young striker sent Paul Fletcher clear on the left. He took the ball to the goal line and centred low for JAMES to race up and push the ball into the net from close range.

That goal demoralised Cardiff and Burnley looked to be progressing to victory until an incident on 77 minutes saw us reduced to ten men.

Waldron broke up an attack in his own penalty box and set off on a run down the right wing. McCulloch gave chance and stopped Waldron with a bad challenge just as he played the ball forward. Waldron reacted with a retaliatory flick with his leg and referee Peter Walters sent him to the dressing room.

He'd become the first Burnley player sent off for almost five years and he'd been the previous one, dismissed in a 2-0 win at Leicester, along with Leicester's Allan Clarke, in October 1968.

Fletcher dropped back to play centre-half and we still looked comfortable, that was until the very last minute of the game. We cleared a ball in from the right but only as far as VINCENT on the edge of the box and his left foot shot screamed into the net via a deflection.

We'd come close to victory but this was not one of our better performances by some distance and we were probably grateful, given that performance, to have won a replay with the news coming through that the winners would be at home to Plymouth in the next round.

The team were;

CARDIFF CITY: Billy Irwin, Phil Dwyer, Gary Bell, George Smith, Peter Morgan, Leighton Phillips, Gil Reece, Andy McCulloch, Derek Showers, Johnny Vincent, Bobby Woodruff.

BURNLEY: Alan Stevenson, Peter Noble, Geoff Nulty, Martin Dobson, Colin Waldron, Jim Thomson, Billy Ingham, Ray Hankin, Paul Fletcher, Doug Collins, Leighton James. Sub not used: Keith Newton.

REFEREE: Mr P. Walters (Bridgewater).

ATTENDANCE: 8,775.

Waldron was now facing a three match ban but had ten days to decide whether to lodge an appeal. If he didn't, he would be ruled out of the Texaco Cup match at Hearts, the home game against Man United and the League Cup 3rd round tie should we get through.

Football League Cup 2nd Round Results

ARSENAL 0 TRANMERE ROVERS 1
BLACKPOOL 1 BIRMINGHAM CITY 1
BOURNEMOUTH 0 SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 0
BURY 2 CAMBRIDGE UNITED 0
CARDIFF CITY 2 BURNLEY 2
CHESTERFIELD 1 SWINDON TOWN 0
COVENTRY CITY 5 DARLINGTON 1
DERBY COUNTY 2 SUNDERLAND 2
EVERTON 1 READING 0
GILLINGHAM 1 CARLISLE UNITED 2
HALIFAX TOWN 0 WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 3
IPSWICH TOWN 2 LEEDS UNITED 0
LEICESTER CITY 3 HULL CITY 3
LUTON TOWN 1 GRIMSBY TOWN 1
MANCHESTER UNITED 0 MIDDLESBROUGH 1
MILLWALL 0 NOTTINGHAM FOREST 0
NEWCASTLE UNITED 6 DONCASTER ROVERS 0
NORWICH CITY 6 WREXHAM 2
ORIENT 2 BLACKJBURN ROVERS 0
OXFORD UNITED 1 FULHAM 1
PLYMOUTH ARGYLE 4 PORTSMOUTH 0
QUEENS PARK RANGERS 1 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 0
ROCHDALE 0 BOLTON WANDERERS 4
ROTHERHAM UNITED 1 EXETER CITY 4
SCUNTHORPE UNITED 0 BRISTOL CITY 0
SOUTHAMPTON 3 CHARLTON ATHLETIC 0
STOCKPORT COUNTY 1 CRYSTAL PALACE 0
STOKE CITY 1 CHELSEA 0
WEST BROMWICH ALBION 2 SHEFFIELD UNITED 1
WEST HAM UNITED   LIVERPOOL 2
WALSALL 0 MANCHESTER CITY 4
YORK CITY 1 ASTON VILLA 0