Once Manchester United were Cock O'The North. Now it's Burnley. Be it F.A. Cup, European Cup or League Championship, the name of Burnley makes the opposition pull their socks up, and the man who speaks for them is chairman Bob Lord. Bob Lord is the public image of Burnley. He has been called rude, big-headed, vulgar, argumentative, arrogant and ill-mannered. His club have been fined �1,000, and Mr Lord himself has been reprimanded by the League, snubbed by the F.A. and made the target for abuse by the Press. Does he care? Not a jot!

Bob Lord IS Burnley. He is managing director of the firm of meat contractors that bears his name, and he doesn't mind who knows it. He'll argue with anybody on butchering or football. He reckons he knows both his subjects. Chairman Lord loves Burnley like a favourite child. And the players love him to a man. Sometimes he embarrases them by his outbursts, but he is the man they go to when they're in trouble. Blunt, honest, rough-diamond Bob is seldom out of the news. What he says is usually red hot if not explosive. He admits, "I like to air my views, but I am not a windbag. I am a worker for better things."

That's nicely put. And the success of Burnley is one of those better things. It has been said that Tottenham Hotspur buys success. Certainly their team cost all of �250,000. Burnley's cost next to nothing. Every man in the team was a teenager when he signed for the club - a record unequalled by any other First Division club. Their last transfer of note was back in 1951 when they paid �15,000 for Billy Elliot. What happened? They sold him to Sunderland for nearly twice that amount! Perhaps their biggest fee was for Ireland's Darlin' Boy Jimmy McIlroy - �7,000 from Glentoran in 1950, and what is he worth now? Bob Lord values him at �100,000 , which is his way of saying he's not for sale at any price. McIlroy once shook Burnley by asking for a transfer. Mr Lord averted the danger single-handed. Yet the foundation of Burnley's success rests squarely on the shoulders of manager Harry Potts and his captain Jimmy Adamson. Potts is lucky. He has complete control at Burnley.

"What's the use of a manager if you don't allow him to manage?" demands Bob Lord. "Harry Potts has complete control over all playing matters such as signings, transfers, team selections." And forty-one year-old Potts does the job with such success that Burnley presented him with a new five-year contract in March 1961 that made him one of the highest paid managers in the business.

Manager Potts joined Burnley when he was sixteen. He was a member of the team that won promotion to the First Division in 1946-47 and missed the F.A. Cup by a goal in extra-time. In 1950, Everton promised him a job when his soccer days were over if he'd join them, so off he went. One year later, alas, he received an injury that put him out of the game for eighteen months, so when Wolves offered him a job as coach, Potts decided to join them. A spell as manager of Shrewsbury Town followed, and then his big break - the offer to manage Burnley. Harry seized his opportunity. He has never looked back. Manager Potts is a study in dedication. You'll find him at all training sessions prompting, listening, giving the answers to problems. During the game you'll find him sitting on the trainer's box or bench on the touchline where he can be nearer to his beloved players and weigh up the tactics. Once his enthusiasm made him run onto the field at Rheims. The F.A. frowned on that and banished him from the touchline for a spell. But he's back again!

Let's look at the players who have brought such glory to Burnley. The first must be captain Jimmy Adamson. Other clubs have yearned for Adamson, who is also a first-class F.A. coach, but they're wasting their time. "When Jimmy stops playing, he'll still be at Turf Moor," says the Chairman. This captain courageous is quiet, cool, effective. He doesn't flap. He is the lynchpin of a defence that is always steady and unflustered. That's the Adamson influence at work. Jimmy went to Burnley in 1947 from East Chevington Juniors when he was only sixteen. He was an inside-forward then, but after service with the R.A.F. at Aden, Jimmy returned and established himself as a wing-half. Bowls, gardening and cricket books are Jimmy's favourite hobbies, though he is no cricketer. As a captain, though, he is first-class. "Jimmy nis the equal of any of the old-time skippers," says Harry Potts stoutly. "His reading of a game is masterly."

The team bristles with big names. Take John Connelly, England right-winger, who was spotted playing for St.Helen's Town in the Lancashire Combination back in 1956. Burnley had gone to watch a lad named Michael Davock, but Michael was injured and Connelly deputised to such effect that Burnley signed him in November 1956. John made only three first team appearances that season, five the next, and thirty-seven in his third season with the club. That's careful grooming. That's progress. And in 1959-60 Connelly picked up four international caps with his speedy touchline runs and his two-footed ability to take chances. Connelly has tremendous speed with the ball - not just track speed. is fast raids into enemy territory always spells danger, and his co-operation with McIlroy almost uncanny. A favourite trick is to interchange with Ray Pointer at centre-forward, and often the opposition are well and truly snookered.

Ray Pointer is another star in his own right. He is a brilliant club man though he doesn't shine so brightly for his country. Remember his first cap? That was against Luxembourg at Highbury after England had won 9-0 in Luxembourg. The fans and Press expected another high-scoring game. They did not get it. So the match was declared a flop and Pointer was criticised. Well, Burnley appreciate Pointer if England don't. His speed and stamina and his instinctive link-up with McIlroy are among the team's biggest assets. Pointer is as mobile as a Z-car. When he darts away from the middle, the team know their job is to get the ball to him. He'll do the rest. If Pointer flashes out to the right wing, Connelly knows the drill. Nip into the centre and stop thinking you're being done out of a job. Slightly-built Pointer does less training than anyone else - by design. They save his stamina for the game itself.

Tommy Cummings is another name you know. He's the centre-half and now Chairman of the Professional Footballers' Association. After fifteen years with Burnley, he is still only thirty-three and good for another few years. Who else? Brian Pilkington (now with Bolton). Also Jimmy Robson, the twenty-three year-old inside-left who graduated through the junior side to the seniors. Irish Alex Elder, and the most famous Irishman of them all, the one and only Jimmy McIlroy who can match Danny Blanchflower for Irish wit and humour.

One of Burnley's most famous sons was General James Yorke Scarlett who led the charge of the Heavy Brigade - not the Light Brigade - at Balaclava. Well, Bob Lord now leads the Heavy Brigade when it comes to speaking up for Burnley. As Bob says, "Nobody gets anywhere by keeping their mouth shut." Luckily Bob Lord can act as well as talk. That's why Burnley now own a �6,000 training farm at Gawthorpe and a huge covered gymnasium. That's why there is such a club spirit in Burnley. That's why the players are paid �50 a week in their pay packets, though no one but Bob Lord knows exactly what every man gets. That's his secret.

Burnley believe in spending their money on their players or on facilities rather than on transfer fees. When Burnley travel they go first class. They stay at the best hotels. When the team is playing away, every man receives typewritten instructions. Nothing is left to chance. On their tour of America two years ago, Bob Lord led his players out of a hotel because it was not good enough for them. "I was damned if I was going to take them four thousand miles with the prestige of English football to uphold and give them treatment any less than they received at home," said Bob. And when a pilots' strike caused travel plans to break down, Mr Lord still kept his promise to get his lads home to their families in time, though he had to sit up half the night to find a way of sending the team home in two parties by first class jets.

One thing will always make Bob Lord's hackles rise - criticism of Burnley. A League official was brash enough to suggest Burnley would not be included in any future Super League because of the lack of support. Mr Lord exploded. "Our quantity of support may not be outstanding," he boomed , "but I submit that quality of performance is an essential factor, and on that assumption Burnley will quickly enter the highest grade."

Burnley has only 82,000 inhabitants - the smallest town in the League to support a First Division club - so what it lacks in numbers it has to make up in quality. The locals are suspicious of success. Like good Lancastrians, they are always ready for the worst. If it doesn't happen, good and well, but don't expect them to shout "it's all over" before the final whistle. Success indeed slightly disturbs some fans. It's a form of self-protection for people who are used to getting the worst end of the stick. Well, the good folks of Burnley don't need protection any more. They have a team to be proud of.

Back to Index page	Forward to next article

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws