Former captain is special guest

Merrington always faced competition for his place in the side, initially from such as Brian Miller, John Talbut and Sammy Todd and finally from Colin Waldron, Jim Thomson and Martin Dobson and although he was club captain for a year he was never a regular in the side. He started half the league games in the 1967/68 season and that proved to be his best season for us in terms of appearances.

He was released following relegation in 1971 and signed for Bristol City, but injury prevented him ever making his debut for them and his playing career was over at the age of 26. He joined the coaching staff at Ashton Gate but returned to Burnley in 1974 as reserve team coach and then went to both Sunderland and Leeds with Jimmy Adamson before leaving football to train as a church minister.

He returned to the game in 1984 as Youth Development Officer with Southampton and his association with the south club was to last for twelve years. The last year was as manager but he lost his job at the end of the 1995/96 season.

He remained in football and worked at both Wolves and Walsall and was even under consideration for the Burnley job in 1998 to work alongside Colin Lee. He was offered a return to the game by Lee last summer with Millwall, I'm sure he'll be thankful he didn't take that.

Tonight though, he'll be back at the club where he played all his professional football.