Eyres takes left side position

Last updated : 22 June 2002 By Tony Scholes

David Eyres with Gary Parkinson after the Wembley win
David Eyres has walked away with the position on the left hand side of midfield and becomes the first player to win a place that did not play for the Clarets last season. In fact it was just as popular choice as Glen Little the previous week.

The Burnley fans took to Eyresy almost from day one after he had joined us from Blackpool for a tribunal set £90,000. It was the second time Jimmy Mullen had signed him, he took him to Bloomfield Road from Rhyl, and he had tormented us more than once in a tangerine shirt.

He scored Burnley's first ever Sunday goal, choosing Wembley to do it, at the end of his first season. Injury and a loss of form hit him during the First Division season but he got both back over the next few years. He was sold to Preston by Waddle, apparently the then Burnley manager thought his career was at an end, and now almost five years later he is still playing league football with Oldham at the age of 37.

The Turf Moor receptions he received on his visits with Preston were comparable to those Steve Davis used to get with Luton and that says much about Eyresy's popularity. That has been reflected in this week's vote where he polled 73.9%.

His colleague from the Play Off Final team Ted ‘Tin Man' McMinn was second with just 12.6% and he was followed by current Claret Alan Moore with 10.9%. The other three players were left behind, Graham Branch had 1.1%, Steve Harper 0.9% and Paul Smith just 0.6%.

Now we move into the centre of midfield. We have split the players into two groups, the first of which is in this week's poll. This means just one player from this week's list will make the team. Next Monday we will take a look at the winner and then move on to the last midfield position.

The team so far is:

Marlon Beresford

Dean West

Steve Davis

Arthur Gnohere

Lee Briscoe

Glen Little

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David Eyres

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