Monington to make draw

Last updated : 09 August 2006 By Tony Scholes

Monington, now 35, made his debut for the Clarets in a pre-season game when he was only sixteen but it was almost another two years before he made his league debut. Within no time at all he was hitting the headlines and with Burnley in the basement division we soon had bigger clubs taking a close look at him.

He was building an excellent central defensive partnership with the first Steve Davis, and there were strong suggestions that Spurs were ready to make a bid, when in October 1988 he suffered a terrible knee injury in a defeat at Southend.

It was an awful foul, but for Mark it left him out of the game for two years and by the time he was back, Burnley were on their way to promotion with captain John Pender and the second Steve Davis in defence. He played a few games during that promotion season and was in and out during the following season, even playing some games up front.

In the season that saw us reach the play offs he played a number of games at full back but lost his place when Gary Parkinson signed and eventually moved on to Rotherham United. From there it was Rochdale and then into non-league with Boston, he captained the side that won league status. He then moved on to Halifax and played with them into the 2004/05 season.

Who knows how good Monno could have been but for that injury at Southend.