Wembley hero returns to the Turf

Last Updated : 20-Jan-2006 by

Gary had been with the Clarets just a few months when he scored that winning goal at Wembley against Stockport and ensured his name would be forever in the history of Burnley Football Club.

He’d signed from Bolton at the end of January and filled the problem right back position following the departure of Ian Measham at the beginning of that season. He quickly established himself in the side that was to become Jimmy Mullen’s Claret & Blue Armada that set sail from Plymouth for Wembley and that play off winning goal.

He played for the Clarets for another three years but after being named in the PFA’s Second Division Team of the Season for 1996/97 he decided to snub Adrian Heath’s offer of a new contract and signed for our visitors tomorrow Preston North End.

There was to be another promotion for him from the same division when Preston won it in 2000 and went up with the Clarets but in the following season he was on the move again, this time to Blackpool with whom he ended his playing career.

For the Clarets he played 162 games, scoring five goals, including that one very special goal that May afternoon in 1994 at Wembley.