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For that first game Harry Potts saw fit to leave out Alex Elder, Jimmy Adamson, Brian Miller, Jimmy McIlroy and Brian Pilkington but we won 4-0 with a Gordon Harris hat-trick and one from John Connelly.
For the next round at Brentford we fielded a complete reserve team and forced a replay with an Andy Lochhead goal. That meant time to bring back the first team but even so we only scraped through 2-1.
We eventually won through to the semi-finals which were to be played over two legs. We were drawn against Aston Villa and drew 1-1 at home and then 2-2 at Villa Park before going out in an Old Trafford replay 2-1, the game being played on the Tuesday after the season had ended. Villa went on to become the first winners, seeing off Rotherham United in the final.
That was it for us and for the next four years we didn’t enter as the competition failed to take off but in 1965 we were back with the promise of Europe for the winners and a suggestion that the two legged final could be scrapped and a one off Wembley game be played.
Suddenly the competition was popular and all the big clubs were in it. We reached the quarter-final on our return but then hit our first League Cup disaster when we didn’t just lose at Peterborough but found ourselves hammered 4-0 at London Road.
To put that result into perspective we had won 4-0 at Sunderland on the previous Saturday to go top of the league, and that was top of the First Division and we were a point clear of Liverpool and Leeds, whilst Peterborough were 10th in Division Three.
We were though just three years away from another good run that started with a 1-1 draw at Grimsby. Besides earning us a replay we were also so impressed with the Grimsby midfielder Doug Collins that we signed him. A 6-0 win in the replay was followed by a 1-0 win a Workington.
The club then went on a run of eight successive wins with two of these coming in the League Cup against Leicester and Crystal Palace. For the second time we were semi-finalists and this time the opposition was to be 3rd Division Swindon Town.
Disaster struck though as a very physical Swindon side came to the Turf and inflicted a number of injuries on our players and went away with a 2-1 win. A week later though and we clawed our way back into the tie with a 2-1 win at Swindon and that took it into a replay.
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The night proved to be a sad one for Arthur Bellamy and he brought Swindon back into it with an own goal. The had looked a beaten side but this gave them the confidence to come back at us and they went on to win it 3-2. Peter Noble, playing for Swindon, got a goal somewhere along the way and was in the Swindon team that beat Arsenal at Wembley in the final.
The 1970s saw some less than illuminating times in the competition with defeats at Aston Villa (they were then two divisions below us), at home to Plymouth and even at Torquay. Our best season during this period was our last First Division season in 1975/76 when we reached the last eight before having to turn out an injury stricken side against Middlesbrough at the Turf and losing 2-0. The highlight of that run had to be the 3rd Round when we beat Liverpool 1-0 on the Turf after drawing 1-1 at Anfield. We were the better side in both games too I can assure you.
The 70s came and went and after a two leg hammering at the hands of West Ham and an embarrassing exit to Tranmere the 1980s looked to be going the same way, that was until the 1982/83 season.
By now we were having to play in the 1st Round and that season saw us take on and beat Burnley 8-4 on aggregate with our goals coming from eight different players including an own goal. A 3-2 home win over Middlesbrough followed and then a 1-1 draw in the second leg when we fought to keep them at bay with ten men after Billy Hamilton was sent off.
That was only the warm up though, the best was definitely still to come. On every occasion afterwards 2nd Division Burnley were drawn against 1st Division opposition and how we gave them a scare.
Without Billy Hamilton we found ourselves a goal down early at Coventry in Round 3 but then turned in a magnificent performance. This had to be Trevor Steven’s finest hour in a Burnley shirt and the 2-1 win, with Paul McGee getting both our goals, did not do us justice. We simply outplayed Coventry.
It was Birmingham next at home and another exciting game that finally saw us go through to the last eight with a 3-2 win. Another own goal here and another from McGee with Steve Taylor also scoring and it was White Hart Lane in Round 5.
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Not on your life, as we turned in one of the most incredible displays I have ever seen from a Burnley team. There were more own goals as Graham Roberts obliged twice and there were two from Billy Hamilton as we stormed through 4-1 and a semi-final date with the country’s top club Liverpool.
Quite how we lost 3-0 at Anfield I will never know. We were magnificent and with any luck whatsoever would have come away with a draw. Yes we missed our chances from Derek Scott but we didn’t get fair play from the referee. A blatant penalty was turned down when Steven was brought down and the referee clearly missed the Souness foul on Brian Flynn before the first goal. In fact the referee seemed to miss all the nastiness from Souness that night.
We got some consolation with a 1-0 second leg win and Derek Scott deservedly got the goal as the Clarets turned in another superb performance but it was to be a third semi-final exit.
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There have been some very embarrassing defeats as we have gone out to the likes of Crewe, Rochdale, Carlisle and Rushden & Diamonds. Yes there have been glorious failures at White Hart Lane and Anfield that allowed us to recall the last good run in this competition but not once have we made the last 32 of this competition in twenty years of asking.
It is about time this changed and there is no time like the present, the club needs a good cup run and now is the time to start. Hopefully soon we could be reporting on another journey to the semi-final and even beyond.