Bally's back to get ya

Last updated : 25 October 2002 By Tony Scholes
It's not often that a former player makes the draw in the same year as he played for the club but Bally was only too happy to say yes when asked.

He hasn't played since being released by the Clarets in the summer but was recently considering a move to Accrington Stanley to help their bid for promotion to the Conference.

Football is in a crisis and many players are now out of the game who would otherwise have still been playing and Bally is very much one of them. Burnley confirmed that he was released because of the loss of the television money and but for that he would still have been in our midfield.

Bally started his career at Coventry but it was with tomorrow's opponents that he made his league debut, somewhat surprisingly as a full-back.

From there after over 100 league appearances for Portsmouth he moved to Sunderland where he became a cult hero throughout the 1990s. He played well over 300 league games for the Mackems, many as captain, before moving to Fulham in 1999.

That was shortlived and in the summer of 2000, following our promotion, he became a Claret and for the next two seasons was a regular in the first team.

Some will remember him for his lack of ability in front of goal, some for his fierce tackling but he should best be remembered for the massive part he played in establishing the Clarets as a First Division club.

He played 82 league games for the Clarets and scored three goals. Some will say he scored just twice but Clarets Mad recognise that the first goal against Gillingham towards the end of last season was clearly his.

Bally spends much of his time now gardening and watching Sunderland but tomorrow will see him watching the clubs for whom he played his first and last league games.