Dickinson interests Burnley
Last updated : 26 February 2006 By Tony Scholes
A healthy number of clubs, in all of the divisions, have already been linked with the newcomer to league football and only last week the same tabloids were suggesting that he was on his way to the Premiership with Wigan Athletic.
It is becoming a very quick rise to fame for the big 20 year-old striker who until just before Christmas was plying his trade in Unibond League Division One with Woodley Sports, a club that is currently managed by former Claret Ally Pickering. He dropped into non-league football after being released by Blackburn Rovers
It was in Christmas week that former Hatters’ boss Chris Turner took him to Edgeley Park and he’s not looked back since with five goals in nine games in League Two after making his debut on New Year’s Day Bank Holiday when he scored Stockport’s second in a 2-2 draw against Cheltenham. His new club, bottom of the league when he joined them, have lost just twice in those nine games.
He’s currently under contract until the end of the season but the club are keen to extend that. Dickinson though said, “I’ve signed a short term deal until the end of the season, but the gaffer has already told me the club is prepared to offer me a two year contract.
“I would love to eventually get the chance to play at a higher level, if a bigger team came in for me, but right now I’m very happy at Stockport and I’m grateful to them for giving me this opportunity.”
Burnley have a history of signing strikers from the League Two strugglers. Back in 1989 we spent an incredible £80,000 on Tony Hancock who had been in league football for a matter of months after signing for County from Stockport Georgians. He was until recently the manager at Woodley Sports, before giving way to Pickering.
In 1996 Jimmy Mullen made Ian Helliwell his last signing. Helliwell and Hancock never scored a goal in Burnley colours. Almost five years later, Ian Moore became the last Stockport striker to join the Clarets, whilst Graham Branch made the same journey at the end of 1998 and has also played up front.
