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He made a total of 68 league appearances for the Quakers before Chris Kamara paid £300,000 to take him to Bradford City in 1997. He was there for almost five years before making the move to the Turf in a £1 million deal and played 153 games for them and he also played 11 games for Forest during a loan spell in the 2000/01 season. It was during this time that we visited Forest and came home with a 5-0 defeat, a game in which Robbie Blake was outstanding.
His Burnley debut was in the 2-0 home defeat against West Brom at the beginning of February this year when he came on as a sub for Ian Moore and his 18th league appearance on Saturday brought up the 250. He has scored a total of 65 goals in those games.
Two other players reached Burnley centuries on Saturday, Ian Cox and Gordon Armstrong although both players have made considerably more than 100 career league appearances. For Coxy the total is 287 and for Stretch a staggering 530.
Coxy’s debut for the Clarets was in February 2000 and the visit of the league leaders Bristol Rovers. It was the game that saw Andy Payton sent off and a game eventually won with a wonderful individual goal from Glen Little. He had signed the day before from Bournemouth in a surprise £500,000 deal when he looked certain to be joining fellow promotion rivals Wigan.
He has been a virtual regular in the side since and only a couple of injuries and a bit of tangling with the Trinidad Mob has delayed his 100th appearance.
For Stretch it has taken a bit longer, in fact since August 1998. He signed from Bury along with Peter Swan as Stan looked for replacements for the gang of four who had played their last games the week before. They both signed on the same day and just 24 hours later were in the Burnley side beaten 3-1 at Walsall. Both were involved in our goal as Swanny headed on a cross for Armstrong to head in at the far post. Only Phil Gray and David Johnson have scored on Burnley debuts since.
Not a prolific goalscorer but it is worth noting that he scored 50 league goals for Sunderland and is the only non-striker to achieve that figure for the north east club since Bobby Kerr in the early 70s.
Injuries have severely restricted his appearances over the last two years and in fact the substitute appearance that brought up the 100 was his first appearance this season following a hamstring injury. However his late appearance as a replacement for Paul Cook finally brought up the 100.
Congratulations to all three Clarets.
