The Stan Ternent Testimonial: End of an era...

By Turftalker
August 30 2004

On Tuesday night Turf Moor witnessed the final farewell of Stan Ternent from the club. A night of raw emotion and great celebration, nearly 9000 people turned out to watch Burnley play Manchester United. Here Turftalker gives his views on the match and more.

Burnley 1 - 3 Manchester United

The score may have been 3-1 to Manchester United, but in essence that did not really matter. The testimonial was all about giving Stan a rousing farewell, a farewell to match the raw emotion of his final competitive game in charge of the clarets, a farewell to ensure Stan will remain part of the rich history of our club forever more.

Sir Alex Ferguson kept his word and put out a very strong United side. Howard, P. Neville, Silvestre, Djemba-Djemba, Bellion, Giggs, Scholes all played their parts against a strong Burnley. The match itself never really got going in terms of pace and crunching tackles, but then again that was not expected. Giggs and Scholes often combined with passing moves that would put the smile on any genuine football fan, as they entertained the crowds with lobs, pin point passing and delightful attempts on goal. England really will miss Paul Scholes, he, like Giggs have been model professionals, focusing on their football way ahead of their images. In the end goals from Scholes, Neville and Eagles were enough, although Marc Pugh pulled a consolation back for the clarets.

As for the Burnley faithful they had the chance to see some of our young talent on show. Players like Ryan Townsend, Marc Pugh and Alex Taylor have exciting careers ahead of them on their showings here. Furthermore playing in front of 9000 people and against Manchester United can do not long term harm at all to their playing experience.

Some fans may have been worried that this match would cause injury to our first team players. As it happened it did not. Instead our first teamers got a good work out to aid fitness, got the chance to play against and learn from some real world class players and the football club benefitted financially as well. All in all well worth while.

As for the entertainment Stan can be justly proud of his organising committee, who got together a collection of football stars like Mark Bright, Bobby Saxton, Brian Flynn, Frank Casper and more and more. We had music, Phoenix from the Flames, recreating Ian Britton's Orient goal and it genuinely was a good night out.

Most importantly it also seemed that the main man Stan had enjoyed the night too, along with his golf day with more of his footballing mates. Stan, who looked very tanned, beemed as he came out of the tunnel for a standing ovation, chants of "Stan Ternent's claret and blue army" and with his little grand daughter Olivia in tow. What a sign of appreciation for the man who led the clarets out of despair post-Waddle and made us proud once more of our club. The man who got us to Division One, kept us their, took us to within a goal of the playoffs, the FA Cup Quarter Final and gave us some highs and lows along the way. Can any true claret actually say the last six years have not been fun? Can any claret say that Stan has failed in his aim to leave us better off than when he came? Highly Unlikely.

For whether you liked or loathed Stan Ternent (and there were plenty of each) there were moments when you could do nothing more than smile at his little sayings, nod furiously with his inditement of the previous regime's failings and passionately follow the man who is a true claret.

If the Sunderland match was filled with raw emotion, the testimonial was filled with more joy and cheer. Of course Burnley Football Club goes on under the more than capable stewardship of Steve Cotterill, but the testimonial was a chance to celebrate the highs and lows of Stan's distinguished reign one last time. A chance to be part of history as we bid farewell to one of Burnley's best managers. Stan Ternent will move on and now so must Burnley. We should never forget the last six years of our history, another chapter in the vibrant story of Burnley Football Club, but so too must we close that chapter and open a new one, with our new leader.

In the end one thing has been here long before any of us were born and hopefully will be here long after we die - that is the club.

Thank you Francis Stanley Ternent - always - Stan the Burnley man.

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