From Everton to Burnley - a 500 Milestone for Unsie

Last updated : 13 February 2008 By Tony Scholes
Despite the 3-1 win over Cardiff three days earlier it had been a very bad week for me, and I almost gave Brunton Park a miss. In the end I was persuaded to make the journey and I got there a couple of hours before kick off, just about in time to find a parking space before fans started abandoning their cars on the motorway slip road.

The point meant that only three heavy defeats in our three remaining games, coupled with a massive win for Mansfield in their one remaining game against Rochdale could stop us going up. We'd done it just about, and got ourselves out of that damn basement.

I've set the scene, and I did feel a little bit better on the way home than I did on the way there, but this is not about our point at Carlisle, nor the promotion, nor at the time Burnley Football Club.

Can you remember any other results from that day, click HERE and take a look at them. There were certainly some of interest in what was the last season with Divisions One to Four. Luton beat Aston Villa in a First Division game, Cambridge hit Port Vale for four in Division Two and in Division Three Birmingham just about overcame Shrewsbury whilst Stoke were beaten by Chester.

Cardiff won the all Welsh clash against Wrexham in our league and Barrow held Yeovil in the Conference. Back in the top league and Spurs were 3-0 up at half time against Everton only for the Toffees to come storming back in the second half to earn a point, and that is exactly where we start, at White Hart Lane.

Paul Allen gave Spurs the lead and that was doubled by young debutant Jeff Minton. It was one of only two league appearances for Spurs for the young striker who spent most of his career with Brighton. A good start for him nevertheless. Burnley fans please note, Paul Stewart was the next goal scorer, giving Spurs that half time lead and surely the points.

Not the case, they'd not counted on Peter Beardsley and a young 18-year-old Chorley lad sat on the Everton bench. The mercurial Beardsley scored twice and to cap it off the young lad had a brilliant day, coming on and crashing home a third to gain Everton a point.

Just like Minton he was making is debut and just like Minton he scored. Unlike Minton he didn't have to drop down the divisions to get a regular game and for much of a long career this young lad was to play at the highest level of English football. Welcome to first team football David Unsworth.

Howard Kendall was the manager who gave him that debut, replacing left back Iain Jenkins in an Everton side that lined up: Neville Southall, Robert Warzycha, Iain Jenkins, Alan Harper, Gary Ablett, Matt Jackson, Pat Nevin, Peter Beardsley, Stuart Barlow, Mark Ward, Peter Beagrie.

A week later he got his first start, in front of the Everton fans at Goodison and the following week in what was the last game of the season, Everton ending it with a 2-1 win over Chelsea. The youngster now had two games under his belt and good judges of the game were suggesting there might be more to come.

There were, but it took a while and in the next couple of season his appearances were few and far between. Things changed in the 1994/95 season when manager Mike Walker gave him his chance and by the end of the season he was looking back on what was probably the best season of his career.

Joe Royle replaced the struggling Walker. He took Everton, and Unsworth, to Wembley and an FA Cup Final win over Manchester United and just to make the season complete Unsworth made his England debut in the Umbro Trophy win against Japan, a game that also saw Gary Neville, John Scales and Stan Collymore make their international bows. Two wins at Wembley, but it proved to be his only cap.

For the next two seasons he was a regular in the Everton side but in August 1997 he moved to West Ham in the most bizarre of moves. Kendall had returned to Everton with Adrian Heath as his number two. That led to Chris Waddle arriving at Burnley and also to Unsworth departing Goodison.

Kendall wanted Danny Williamson from West Ham and so was his keenness to get him that he paid the Hammers £1 million plus Unsworth for him. Now they say Harry Redknapp is a good negotiator and this business was just as good as getting £1.2 million from Southampton for Wayne Thomas.

He had a good season with West Ham but couldn't settle in London and wanted to move back north and that led to two transfers in one summer. John Gregory, then Aston Villa manager, paid £3 million for him but before he'd had chance to unpack he jumped at the opportunity to return to Goodison two months later with new manager Walter Smith paying the same amount for him.

It was where Unsworth wanted to be and he had another six years with the club with whom he started his career before he was released by David Moyes. That led to three years of a somewhat nomadic existence. Again he signed for Redknapp, by now at Portsmouth, but it didn't quite work for him and he spent the second half of that season on loan at Ipswich where once more he played for Joe Royle.

Portsmouth let him go in the summer to allow him to make the move to Ipswich a permanent one but instead he chose Sheffield United. This move meant led to Jon Harley signing for Burnley with Neil Warnock opting to play Unsworth at left back.

My memory of him at Bramall Lane was playing left back against us when Nathan Dyer was in our side. I'm sure Dyer remembers it to this day as Unsworth gave him a 'welcome' early in the game that had an effect on his performance for the rest of the afternoon.

I'm not sure how popular Unsworth is now at Bramall Lane, he left to go to Wigan in January last year and returned on the final day of the season to score the vital penalty that kept Wigan up and relegated the Blades.

Last week he described the FA Cup Final as his best moment in the game and his release from Wigan last summer as his lowest. That decision by Wigan was good news for us because it enabled Steve Cotterill to bring him in just after the start of this season.

He's won his place in the side and on Saturday in our home game against Colchester he reached two massive milestones, one of which has been widely publicised whilst the other went unnoticed.

It was his 500th game in first team club football, a brilliant achievement. Of those 438 are league appearances of which exactly 400 are starts.

Well done Unsie (or Rhino, whichever nickname you prefer), a fantastic achievement. I'm sorry I didn't notice your debut almost sixteen years ago but I had a lot of other things on my mind that day, including our promotion from Division Four, and to be honest I considered that John Francis goal more important at the time. In any case, we were all about to go to York in our thousands.

I know about it now though, and I know about your first goal, one of 51 you have scored in those 500 games, with more games and goals to come I'm sure.