Four special guests

Last updated : 20 April 2002 By Tony Scholes

Tomorrow though there will be four special guests and each with a tale to tell about the last day of the season. Our special guests tomorrow are Ian Britton, Ashley Hoskin, Phil Malley and Billy Rodaway who were all members of the squad that beat Orient at the Turf on the last day of the 1986/87 season. It was and always will be the most important game in the club's history.

Ian Britton celebrates THE goal
What can we say about Ian Britton? The record books say that Britt scored the goal that kept Burnley in the Football League. Neil Grewcock had given us a 1-0 lead and Ian got the second with a header just after half time at the Bee Hole End. I can still see it going in. We eventually won 2-1. Quite how a player listed at 5ft 5ins scored with a header is difficult to imagine but who cares.

His Burnley career was not only about one game though and he gave us three excellent seasons from 1986 to 1989. He had played over 250 league games for Chelsea earlier in his career but Brian Miller made an astute signing when he brought him from Blackpool on a free transfer after a short loan spell.

He went on to play well over 100 league games for the Clarets mainly in midfield although he didn't score too many goals. Apart from the important one he did score a screamer at Tranmere in his third season and that proved to be the last goal scored by Burnley under Brian Miller's management.

He was the only one of the four guests today to be in the starting eleven at Wembley a year after Orient although Ashley Hoskin was on the bench and Phil Malley was a squad member.

He was released at the end of the 1988/89 season by Frank Casper and retired. He turned in so many good performances for the Clarets but will always be remembered for that goal – thanks Britt.

Ashley Hoskin
Ashley Hoskin was the local lad who made his way into the first team and was given his debut by Tommy Cavanagh after some outstanding displays in the reserves. He made an immediate impact on the first team but after only a hand full of games broke his leg in a home game ironically against Orient.

Tash too was released in the summer of 1989 and by that time had made 88 league appearances and scored eleven goals. He had the knack of scoring important goals and spectacular goals and two that readily spring to mind from the 1986/87 season were both away from home. He scored one of the best Burnley goals I have ever seen at Swansea to grab us a point in a 2-2 draw and had that been scored at the Turf then Tommy Cummings would have had competition. Shortly afterwards he scored the only goal at Stockport to give us our first win for some time, a vital win.

He sat on the bench at Wembley for the entire 90 minutes in the Sherpa Van Trophy Final against Wolves and it is such a pity that he didn't get to come on and it was to be his last big day out for the Clarets and after scoring one of the goals in the game at Deepdale that won the place in the final. He stayed another year but hardly featured in the first team.

During a later spell at Accrington Stanley he was likened to Phil Collins – sorry Tash I don't think he looks anything like you.

Phil Malley
Phil Malley was brought to the Turf by John Bond towards the end of the 1983/84 season and his stay was to be just over four years. In that time he made 95 league appearances for the club and even found time for a loan spell at Stockport.

In a recent interview at the Turf he admitted to not being one of Burnley's finest players but what he might have lacked in quality he more than made up for with determination and a will to win. He was very much a crowd favourite during the dark days of the mid 80s and was a player the fans could always relate to with his commitment to the cause.

He was a regular first teamer at the time of the Orient game and had been given the task that season of running the midfield with Billy Rodaway. It was though to be his last season as a regular member of the side.

Brian Miller brought in a host of new players for 1987/88 and Phil had played in just eight league games when he broke his leg in November. He made just two more appearances before being released after the trip to Wembley.

Billy Rodaway - and he is wearing the shirt with the blue V
And last but certainly not least, Billy Rodaway. He made his debut for the Clarets as a 17 year-old in a 1-0 home win against Preston in April 1972 in the Second Division. He played his first ever First Division game at Everton in October 1973 and then in August 1980 was in the line up for Burnley's first ever game in Division Three at home to Newport County.

He was released at the end of the 1980/81 season by Brian Miller but it was Miller who brought him back five years later for one more season as a Claret. When he made his second debut at Torquay in August 1986 he became the first player to play in all four divisions for the club. I'm not sure it could be called a magnificent achievement, at the end of the day it was only made possible by the club's slide, but it certainly puts Billy Rod in the record books.

Only one other player has ever done that since, Joe Jakub, although we do hold out high hopes that current captain Steve Davis could become a third.

Billy had to wait for his chance at Burnley in the seventies with Colin Waldron and Jim Thomson holding down the central defensive places but he was always more than an able deputy. He finally won his place with the departure of Waldron and partnered Jim Thomson for some four years in the 2nd division.

He was released in 1981 after over 200 league games and just the one goal scored at Sheffield United in the First Division. When Brian Miller came back as manager in 1986 he turned to two former players in Billy and Leighton James to help and he played in 44 of the 46 league games that season taking his total Burnley appearances to almost 250.

He had been employed in midfield for most of the season, not his strongest position, and he gave us everything he had in a struggling side. Alongside fellow scouser and old school mate Joe Gallagher he always ensured there were a lot of laughs in the dressing room too. He was released again at the end of that season and moved on to Colne Dynamoes.

It's good to see the four of you back and none of us will ever forget your efforts on that day in May in 1987 without which there would have been nowhere to come back to.

For those of you that don't remember the team on that day was: Joe Neenan, Peter Leebrook, Peter Hampton, Billy Rodaway, Joe Gallagher, Ray Deakin, Neil Grewcock, Phil Malley, Leighton James, Phil Devaney, Ian Britton. Sub: Ashley Hoskin.

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