Our chairman of ten years

Last updated : 31 December 2008 By Tony Scholes
That EGM was to approve a rights issue to bring the club much needed money, but it was more than that. A year earlier, one shareholder had called chairman Frank Teasdale a liar after he'd said there had been no offers for the club, but the shareholder in question had been part of a bid.

A day later came news of a bid from America from an unknown potential buyer who turned out to be Ray Ingleby. It was always clear that the board were doing all they could to keep him out, but he was buying up shares and getting publicity via the Radio Lancs phone in.

Then came Peter Shackleton - he was almost promising to make us the richest club in England. He pressed the button for the first £1 million which over ten years later I believe still hasn't arrived.

He was given the all clear by the board to go ahead with the purchase, but with no money coming in from him and no sign of it things got difficult as they continued to try to hold off Ingleby. Then in October 1998 arrived a saviour for Teasdale's administration when Blackburn businessman Barry Kilby stepped in.

He bought out directors Bernard Rothwell and Doctor David Iven and was immediately given a seat on the board. By the time the meetings came along he'd dipped into his pocket to make it possible for manager Stan Ternent to bring in Paul Crichton, Ally Pickering and then, right at the end of the year, both Steve Davis and Graham Branch. Davis cost us a club record £750,000.

It was a lively evening with former directors John Jackson and Basil Dearing, a star of a previous AGM, turning on Bernard Rothwell in no uncertain terms. Teasdale, in the chair, came out with his tired old joke of young fans thinking he was called 'Teasdale Out' and blatantly refused to refer to Ingleby by name.

The rights issue was passed and that signalled Teasdale's end as chairman after thirteen and a half years. After those meetings the new director Barry Kilby took over.

Unlike Ingleby, and the hideous Shackleton, I'd actually heard of the new chairman. A friend of mine knew him well and the name Kilby was one I knew very much from my early days of travelling to away games. That was Roy Kilby, one familiar face who could always been seen at away grounds, and I'd learned Barry was his son.

Peter Shackleton - he pressed the £1 million button
Roy had sadly passed away all too prematurely some years earlier but his son was still flying the flag for the Clarets. I'm sure Roy would have been a very proud dad that day seeing his son become chairman of his club.

I'd neither met nor spoken to the new chairman, but that first opportunity came at, of all places, Michael Wood service station on the M5. I was heading for Bristol and a league game against Rovers in January and as we arrived Barry was just leaving.

He'd dipped in again the day before to allow Ternent to bring in Micky Mellon who was set for his debut. We were seventeenth in the league, just three points above the drop zone, and with over half of the season gone.

And what did he ask? He asked if we thought we could get into the play offs. He certainly sounded positive and also hinted that we were trying to bring in a striker from another club in our division. It didn't materialise but he would have cost us a healthy amount of money had we got him, and that player is now with a Premier League club.

That was the new chairman then, and today Barry enjoys his tenth anniversary as chairman of Burnley Football Club. I for one think he's done a terrific job for us. It's not always been easy, and probably it has been more difficult than even he imagined at times.

And I don't think I can ignore ITV Digital. It still gets to him, no doubt about that, because of the major problems it caused our club. But we came through them and I recall in one meeting I attended he heaped praise on his vice-chairman Ray Ingleby and the accountant at the time Roger Spencer for the work they did in seeing us through that difficult time.

Barry Kilby is a good chairman, he's also just like his dad a committed Burnley fan make no mistake about that. Only yesterday in an interview he said he had a lump in his throat when he saw our 6,100 fans at Stamford Bridge.

Stan Ternent, Steve Cotterill and now Owen Coyle have played their part, a massive part, in getting us into the Championship, keeping us there, and not just that but right now having us sitting in fifth place.

But no one can ever undervalue the service Barry Kilby has given our great club in the last ten years. They give testimonials for ten years service in football. I shudder to think just where we might be now had he not made that investment ten years ago and become chairman.