Fifties star is special guest

Last updated : 29 August 2003 By Tony Scholes

The player in question is Albert Cheesebrough, a local lad who joined the Clarets straight from school. Then a winger he quickly won through to make his debut not long after his 17th birthday and he played a few games as a winger (left or right) as deputy for either Jackie Chew or Billy Elliott.

It was four years after his debut that he finally won a regular place in the side and by this time the short, stockily built Cheesebrough had become an inside forward playing on the left hand side and he went on to form an excellent partnership with left winger Brian Pilkington.

He won a call up for the England Under 23s and played the one game against France but he was to miss out on a top domestic honour. With Jimmy Robson coming through and taking his place he moved on to Leicester in the summer of 1959 just as the Clarets were preparing for the season that would see us win the Championship.

But his time at Leicester was not without success and at the end of his second season at Filbert Street he played in the FA Cup Final, losing out to double winners Spurs. Injury kept him out of another final two years later, Leicester again lost this time against Manchester United.

He moved on to Port Vale that summer and after two years was signed by his old Burnley colleague Tommy Cummings who was by then manager of Mansfield Town. He was at Field Mill for a couple of years but retired from the game in 1967 after a broken leg.

Cheesebrough was a local lad who was a good all round sportsman. In his younger days he played cricket for Lowerhouse in the Lancashire League and became a good golfer following is retirement from the game.

His daughter Susan carried on the sporting tradition, she was for a time the country’s top woman gymnast.

He moved to Southport at the end of his career becoming a butcher and running his shop on Lord Street in the town but now the 68 year-old returns home and will be assured a warm welcome from the Turf Moor crowd.