Kightly's back and this time for keeps

Last updated : 27 June 2014 By Tony Scholes

He'd joined the Clarets on a season long loan from the Potteries club just as last summer's transfer window was closing. He made a debut against Blackburn, the last player to do that for Burnley since Mike Walsh arrived from Everton on loan in December 1982.

He was not always at his best, something he alluded to in a Sky interview just a few weeks before the end of the season, but he was invariably first choice for Sean Dyche and he played in 36 of the 41 league games following his signing.

if we had a blip last season it came in November when we when we drew four and lost one of five games in the league to follow the Capital One Cup exit against West Ham. The return to winning ways came via a Kightly goal, his first for the club, in a 1-0 win against Barnsley.

He wasn't prolific and only one more followed, the third at Charlton, before he burst into goalscoring life as we reached the climax of the season. He scored a superb winner at Blackpool on Good Friday, got the second in the promotion clinching win against Wigan three days later and then capped it all off by scoring the last home goal of the season, much to Danny Ings' displeasure, in that game against Ipswich.

Having started his career at Southend he dropped into non-league before Mick McCarthy took him to Wolves, initially on loan, during the 2005/06 season. Once the January 2007 transfer window opened that deal was made permanent and Kightly played a major part in their promotion, with us, to the Premier League in 2008/09 season in a squad that included David Jones, Chris Iwelumo, Jason Shackell and Sam Vokes.

He scored both goals against us that season when Wolves beat us at Molineux in a game where the result was all but decided by referee Darren Deadman.

That season ended with Kightly out with a metatarsal injury but worse was to come when he suffered an ankle injury early in their first Premier League season that saw him out of the side for over a year.

Once fit, he hadn't been included in their 25-man squad and, to get some football, was loaned out to Watford. That's where he first worked with Sean Dyche and it was that relationship that saw Kightly push for the loan move to Burnley last year.

By then his Wolves days were over and he'd just completed the first of three years at Stoke who kept him in the Premier League when Wolves were relegated. He was out of favour once Mark Hughes replaced Tony Pulis as manager and so Kightly arrived at Burnley.

It's excellent news that he's now returned, this time as a permanent Claret, after signing a three year deal with the club.