Welsh coach Flynn is special guest

Brian was a youngster making his way through the youth team and reserves as the Clarets won promotion back to the First Division in 1973 but he was less than a year away from that debut and by the time the Clarets were facing the inevitable drop down he was a fixture in the side.

Early in the 1977/78 season he was sold to Leeds, a necessary move for financial reasons, and he was at Elland Road for just over five years apart from a short spell when Brian Miller brought him back to Burnley on loan to play as a central striker. A bad injury at Chester in his second game ended the loan spell.

He was back again in the following season as Burnley were fighting relegation from the Second Division whilst having two fantastic cup runs.

There were strong rumours that we were set to sign Bolton’s injury plagued Peter Reid but it was Flynn who arrived and a couple of weeks later Reid moved to Everton.

Flynn’s stay this time was just two years but the one full season back proved to be a good one for him personally and he became a regular goalscorer in John Bond’s team, often able to get into the space created by Kevin Reeves.

That link up with Reeves was to be a fruitful one, they got back together in management in the late 80s at Wrexham and worked together for almost fifteen years at both Wrexham and Swansea.

He moved on to Cardiff, Doncaster, Bury and Limerick before going to the Racecourse at Wrexham, he even had a brief return to the Turf as manager of the Football in the Community scheme.

Our local rivals have recently been an influence in his return to coaching. Their appointment of Mark Hughes as manager led to a change in set up within the Welsh FA and Brian has become the Welsh Under-21s manager, appointed by new manager John Toshack.

Tomorrow though he will be back out on the Turf in front of a big crowd, just as it was when he first played for the Clarets.