John Haworth

Inductions into the Hall of Fame have in most cases been players who have worn the Claret & Blue with pride but it is not just the players who should be honoured.

It is somewhat appropriate that in the week we lost our record of 30 games without defeat that it should be someone from that side and rightly it should be the manager John Haworth.

In 1910 Burnley were reeling from the sudden death of manager Spen Whittaker who fell from a train and was killed whilst on his way to London to register a new player. A director had taken temporary charge but in July of that year the board gave the job to John Haworth, like Whittaker from Accrington.

He had no pedigree, hadn’t played the game other than at junior level and had previously been with Accrington Stanley as secretary. His appointment was not greeted with much enthusiasm from the Burnley supporters of the time.

Football doesn’t change much and even then he was one of sixty applicants for the job and as surprising as the appointment was he proved to be the right man at the right time, joining a club whose board of directors were ambitious and looking for success.

He took over a club that had just recorded a loss of £1,974 which had subsequently led to the players having their wages lowered. This didn’t give him the best of starts as he looked to build a future for a Burnley Football Club then in Division Two.

The first season was unremarkable and we ended it in 8^th place but there had been some changes that proved to be significant. Early in the season he introduced Billy Watson at left-half and towards the end he made his first major signing, that of Bert Freeman from Everton.

As the club announced that there would be a new stand on the Brunshaw Road side of the ground for the following season he also recommended a change of colours from green to claret and blue.

We were finally the Clarets and early in the 1911/12 season he pulled off something of a coup when he signed Tommy Boyle from Barnsley. It smashed our transfer record and it is believed that Boyle was our first ever £1,000 player.

We just missed out on promotion, finishing 3^rd, but were clear favourites to go up in 1913. Haworth continued to build and was keen to sign Cliff Jones from non-league Gainsborough.

They wouldn’t see whilst still in the FA Cup and amazingly we were drawn against them, knocked them out and got left-back Jones along with their keeper George Sewell and right-back Sam Gunton. All three had signed within two hours of the FA Cup tie finishing as First Division sides hovered to steal in and make deals.

It was proving to be a good season and over 20,000 Burnley supporters descended on Ewood Park to see us knock out Blackburn with Boyle scoring the only goal.

And by the end of the season we were promoted in 2^nd place. By this time, amongst other signings, came George Halley to complete Burnley’s most famous half-back line.

Burnley embarked on life at the top again and despite the mid table finish we topped off our first season by bringing home the FA Cup with Bert Freeman’s goal seeing off Liverpool in the final. The season also saw the arrival of Bob Kelly, who was to those who saw him our greatest ever player.

It was all getting better and in 1914/15 we ended the season in 4^th place in the First Division. We were getting better and it was believed that John Haworth’s Burnley were on the brink of greatness. However, fate dealt its hand and football was suspended for the duration of World War I.

When league football resumed after the war his side had grown older and some thought had missed its chance to show just how good it was. That was no the case and we finished 2^nd in the first season of 1919/20 and two years later ended the season in 3^rd place.

The season in between those two though will forever be remembered as the League Championship arrived at Turf Moor for the first ever time. Having lost the first three games of the season we went on to create a record of 30 consecutive league games without defeat, a record that was to remain for over 83 years.

It was three years to remember for those Clarets supporters of the time but age was finally getting the better of some of these great players and our glory days were coming to an end.

Having built one great side John Haworth set about rebuilding but he never got the opportunity to do that. In 1924 he was taken ill and contracted pneumonia and sadly died on 4^th December of that year at the age of 48.

He was without doubt a Burnley great and surely but for the war would have been considered one of the top managers ever in English football.

In the last week that wonderful record of 30 games unbeaten was finally consigned to the history books. But the brilliant management of John Haworth shouldn’t ever be forgotten, he brought us the first Burnley team to win the league and the only Burnley team to win the FA Cup.