A very special guest tomorrow at the Coventry game

Now you can keep your Alan Stevensons and your Marlon Beresfords because for me there will never be anyone to match our Scottish international keeper Adam Blacklaw. He was the last Burnley goalkeeper to play for his country in a full international until Nik Michopoulos made two sub appearances for Greece in the summer of this year although he never received the recognition he really deserved at international level, winning just three caps.

An Aberdonian he joined the Clarets’ groundstaff before signing as a professional in 1954 and he finally made his debut for the injured Colin McDonald in December 1956 still only 19. It was another injury to McDonald, the broken leg that ended his career, that finally gave Adam his big chance of a regular place in the first team and it was a chance he was not going to see pass by.

From winning his place in March 1959 he missed just two games in the next five years when Harry Thomson deputised following an injury at Leicester. That injury ended a run of 172 consecutive first team games.

He turned in some memorable performances but none could have been better than an FA Cup 6^th round tie at Hillsborough in 1961 that ended 0-0. We were second best to a strong Sheffield Wednesday side that afternoon and the fact that we got a replay was all down to Adam who at times kept the Owls at bay single handedly.

I can still see one of his saves from that afternoon as clearly as if it were yesterday. He dived to his right to save a rocket from Wednesday’s Tommy McAnearney that was simply out of this world. It matched a save from Uwe Seeler earlier in the season in the European Cup. We won that FA Cup replay too three days later when Adam had a quieter 90 minutes.

Even when he finally lost his place he starred for the Clarets, helping to rescue Harry Thomson in Naples after a 0-0 draw had seen us go through to the Fairs Cup quarter-finals. Adam was the hero at the end and was finally arrested for his own safety as the Italians went gunning for him.

Sadly the time came for him to leave the Clarets after 318 league appearances and Alan Stevenson is the only post war keeper to have played more games for us than Adam. But to this day it hurts that my hero moved on to Ewood Park. It is some consolation that he did have a short spell at Blackpool before retiring where he played one game before ending his career. I really would have hated it to have ended at Blackburn.

He still lives locally and is a good friend of many of his former team mates, still with his Scottish accent but without doubt a Claret.

He should get a warm reception from the Burnley fans at half time tomorrow but even if not I can assure you that there will be one Burnley fan in the upper tier of the Harry Potts Longside giving this great goalkeeper a deserved standing ovation.