The 1991/92 Season - September

The 1991/92 Season
September

First up in September was a home game against Chesterfield.  A 3-0 victory with a hat-trick from Roger Eli, the first Burnley hat-trick since Kevin Hird notched 3 against Rotherham in February 1985, saw Burnley move up one place in the league to second.

Mike Conroy in action vs Rochdale. Conroy finished the month as Burnley's top scorer, with 4 goals in the league and one in the cup.

Another home match followed with a top of the table clash against early league leaders Crewe Alexandra.  The Crewe side also featured Ron Futcher who had left Burnley in the summer but his game was not to last long as he was sent-off after 36 minutes. 

John Francis gave Burnley the lead only to see David Hamilton lob Andy Marriott to give Crewe an equaliser just 2 minutes later.  If Hamilton thought he was having a bad day after the own goal then worse was to follow as he was was to follow Futcher for an early bath following a red card on 80.  The game finished 1-1 and Burnley still ocupied the 2nd place spot.

Hereford away was the next match and my first away match of the season.  A goal in each half gave Hereford an easy 2-0 victory on a day that Burnley very rarely threatened.  John Francis was shown a red card to follow Hamilton’s the previous Saturday.  Hamilton’s misery also continued as he picked up a back injury and was stretchered off in what turned out to be his last game in Claret and Blue.  The only highlight of the day was the performance of Andy Marriott in the Burnley goal.

Back to the Turf and a local derby against unbeaten Rochdale.  David Williams the reserve Burnley keeper was on loan at Rochdale and lined up against the Clarets and what a game he had.  Rochdale won 1-0 with the winner coming on 70 minutes although Williams single handedly kept Burnley at bay with many stunning saves throughout the game.  This defeat put Burnley 10th in the league.

Where better to spend a wet Saturday afternoon than Scaborough as we visited the McCain Stadium for our next league match.  Scarborough were on a poor run so three points were a must to get Casper’s Burnley side back on the promotion track.  I should have known to stay away, I had seen Burnley play away 26 times and had only seen them win twice away in the league. 

As the rain came down on the open terracing a fellow fan I had travelled with convinced a steward to allow us into the stand to take shelter. Only problem was the stand roof hardly covered our seats so not only did we get wet but we also had to spend the game avoiding missiles coming from the birds on the roof above! 

Unfortunately Burnley did not ease our misery as they were again easily defeated this time  3-1 with the only consolation being Graham Lancashire’s goal on his first full debut which gave Burnley a short lived equaliser.  During the game fans started to call for Casper’s head.  The team seemed to be playing with hardly any confidence and with performances as they were and the previous seasons failings the Burnley fans wanted a change, and they were to get their wishes and far more.

The league table at the end of September: