Next Game – Bradford City (home)

David Wetherall

This is definitely one of those games where we really owe them one following the farcical way the game at Bradford ended with the showboating Clarets allowing nine man Bradford to steal in for an equaliser.

I’ve seen all sorts of emotions from Burnley fans over the years but never seen such anger after the most unprofessional twenty minutes I have ever witnessed from a Burnley team. They owe us one tonight and not just Bradford for that shameful episode.

It has been tough for the Bantams but not as tough as it could have been. Despite the severe financial restrictions they have faced since Pompous dropped them in it they have been able to make six permanent signings (although one of them, Dave Beasant, has since left) and bring in six loan players during the course of this season.

Three of those loan players were involved in our game at Bradford with Stephen Warnock (Liverpool) their best player and Sunderland’s Michael Proctor scoring the embarrassing last minute goal. None of the six are with them now.

We should have met on 8^th March but the game was called off because of our supposed involvement in the FA Cup. Bradford quickly re-arranged a home game against Crystal Palace and won as we seemingly pressed the button on to signal the end of our season.

Since then they have won one, drawn one and lost one. The win came at Derby as the two penniless former Premiership clubs clashed and they followed that up with a point in the no money league with a 1-1 home draw against Sheffield Wednesday.

Aidan Davison

The club is currently denying any link with Derby County who apparently are keen on manager Nicky Law. They are not the first club either to check him out recently and he was on the short list for the jobs at both Sheffield Wednesday and Hull.

Back to the Reading game. With Law describing the goal as a circus goal it was perhaps appropriate that they had a clown of a referee in Stockport’s Scott Mathieson. He was fourth official when we were there in September but this time he had control and sent off Reading’s Nathan Tyson right on half time.

Bradford did not muster one single effort on goal in the second half in an exhibition that hardly suggested they were making the extra man count, in fact one reported described their performance as clueless.

Manager Nicky Law said after the game, "I thought we were out of sorts and we didn’t have any shape after we lost Ashley Ward and three players on the left hand side through injury.

"We contributed to our downfall by individual errors and we let ourselves down."

The lined up: Aidan Davison, Gus Uhlenbeek, David Wetherall, Mark Bower, Claus Jorgensen, Simon Francis, Peter Atherton, Jamie Lawrence, Paul Reid (Michael Standing 75), Andy Gray, Danny Forrest (Ben Muirhead 70). Subs not used: Gary Walsh, Daniel Ekoku, Craig Fishlock.

It is as long ago as 1938 since the Clarets beat Bradford City in a league game on the Turf although there was the famous cup victory in 1960. It’s about time we put an end to that.

Click HERE to see our preview from the away game and HERE to see Bradford City’s results this season.

He played for both

Reg Attwell against Spurs at Turf Moor

He was Reg Attwell and was the right-half in the Burnley team who won promotion to the First Division and played in the FA Cup Final in the 1946/47 season.

Attwell was the son of a professional footballer and he had made his Football League debut for West Ham before the outbreak of World War II.

He guested for the Clarets in war time games but was back at West Ham for the resumption of the league in August 1946. But manager Cliff Britton moved quickly and signed him in time for him to make his league debut for the Clarets against Luton in the November.

He quickly formed a half back line with Alan Brown and George Bray in the Burnley team and its iron curtain defence.

With Burnley back in the top flight Attwell blossomed and turned in a string of top class performances that won him international recognition. But he played just once for the Football League and amazingly never won what would have been a richly deserved England cap.

He did lose his place at right-half to the up and coming Jimmy Adamson but such was his ability he moved across to left-half to replace the retiring George Bray.

The death of his father was the beginning of the end for Attwell at Burnley. He stayed after the funeral to look after his mother who had been taken ill and without informing the club missed a game against Arsenal.

Then manager Frank Hill never considered him as a regular again and he was transferred to Bradford City for whom he played 24 league games before he retired from the professional game in 1955 at the age of 35.

He was a superb passer of the ball, and could hit both short and long passes with incredible accuracy. He was very much a favourite of the Turf Moor crowd in the late 40s and early 50s.

Reg continued to live in Burnley, in fact just a short walk away from Turf Moor, until his death in 1986.

Click HERE for a complete list of past games since our last meeting in November 1903 when we won 3-2 at the Turf.

Last Time in the League

Burnley 1 (Johnson 20) Bradford City 1 (Jorgensen 79 – Nationwide League Division 1, Wednesday 20^th March 2003.

Not only that, there was a change to the Burnley team. After being introduced to the Burnley crowd just three days later we were now to see Paul Gascoigne in a Burnley shirt.

This was being hailed as another Wright type signing, the one that would see the Clarets into the big league for the first time in 26 years. It didn’t work of course and we didn’t even make the play offs. Gazza didn’t play well but probably his debut was his best game.

The national papers were there just waiting to criticise him, and despite playing well they did just that. But the Burnley fans were not having it and voted him man of the match. If his performances for the rest of the season had matched this then who knows.

We carried on the way we had left off against Preston and were much the better side. Ian Moore and David Johnson up front were again looking a formidable partnership and with the promptings of Gazza in midfield it was one way traffic against the Bantams.

Burnley could and should have been in front before their 20^th minute goal and the reason they weren’t was because of referee Bates who missed the most blatant of penalties when Johnno was pulled back by Gunnar Halle as he was about to score. Halle to be honest could well have been sent off but Bates ducked the issue completely and waved play on.

But Johnson was not to be denied and scored with just 20 minutes on the clock as he got on the end of an Ian Cox knock down to steer the ball home from close range.

For spells Gascoigne and Grant were magnificent in midfield and Moore and Johnson were proving impossible to handle for the Bradford back line.

Combe made an excellent save from a Gascoigne free kick and was to make an even better one in the second half.

But as the players left the field at half time it was the two front men who were taking all the applause and we could so easily have been further in front.

As it turned out we needed to have been further in front because the second half was a complete contrast as the Clarets looked more to contain and allowed Bradford back into the game.

There were rare attacks but the closest we came to scoring was from a couple of Gazza free kicks and it still takes some working out just how Alan Combe got to one of them.

But with eleven minutes left Bradford got themselves a deserved equaliser through Claus Jorgensen and in the end we had to settle for a point.

But we had seen enough in the first half to know that we were still good enough to reach the play offs but could we reproduce that sort of form at Bramall Lane three days later? Sadly now, we all know the answer.

The teams were,

Burnley: Marlon Beresford, Dean West, Ian Cox, Mitchell Thomas, Lee Briscoe, Glen Little (Robbie Blake 61), Paul Gascoigne (Andy Payton 85), Tony Grant, Kevin Ball, Ian Moore, David Johnson (Brad Maylett 74). Subs not used: Nik Michopoulos, Paul Cook.

Bradford City: Alan Combe, Stuart McCall, David Wetherall, Gunnar Halle, Jamie Lawrence, Wayne Jacobs, Mark Bower, Ashley Ward, Danny Cadamarteri, Claus Jorgensen, Eoin Jess (Gareth Whalley 85). Subs not used: Jon Worsnop, Gareth Grant, Michael Standing, Juanjo.

Referee: Tony Bates (Stoke-on-Trent).