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It looked as though they were going to have a good season though from the off and had a 100% record from three games by the time the we played them at Bradford. We ended their 100% and unbeaten start with a superb 3-2 victory with two goals from Glen Little and the winner from Tony Ellis and from that game on Bradford City have picked up just 23 points from 24 games which is relegation form.
It is clear that the club is run by one man and one man alone and that is their pompous chairman Geoffrey Richmond. It's no surprise to see him as a front runner with the Phoenix League, he is chairman of a small club who have had a little purple patch. He can see it disappearing as they progress towards a return to lower league football and is trying desperately to do something about it.
He goes through managers almost as quickly as the weather changes. It doesn't seem two minutes since Chris Kamara was in charge but Paul Jewell, Chris Hutchings and now Jim Jefferies have all passed through since then with Jefferies leaving on Christmas Eve.
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Things didn't immediately go wrong after they had lost to us and they picked up a win and two draws from the next three games. Since our win at Bradford though they have won just 6, drawn 5 and lost 12 of the 23 games since.
They have scored 21 goals in those six wins five of which have been at home. Those five have come against Gillingham 5-1, Grimsby 3-2, Watford 4-3, Walsall 2-0 and Rotherham 3-1 whilst the away win was at Norwich where they won 4-1. They are still the only team to win at Norwich this season.
Four of the five draws have come away from home with 2-2 draws at Sheffield United and Crewe and 1-1 draws at Sheffield Wednesday and Preston. They picked up a point from a 3-3 draw at home to Wimbledon.
Thirteen defeats this season including our victory against them and six of them have been at home. The other five clubs to pick up three points at Bradford have been Stockport 4-2, Wolves 3-0, Millwall 2-1, Sheffield United and Crystal Palace both 2-1.
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Since our first meeting there has been very little transfer activity with Juanjo from Hearts the only new signing. Andy Tod was on loan from Dunfermline and he has now made his move permanent.
Goalkeeper Matt Clarke has led the outgoings with a £1.35 million move to Crystal Palace whilst Billy McKinlay (Preston) and Lee Makel (Livingston) have moved out on frees.
Tottenham's Matthew Etherington has been on loan but has now returned to White Hart Lane but two other players Stephen Caldwell (Newcastle) and Carl Muggleton (Cheltenham) are currently with them on loan.
One other loan deal is still current and that is the one that sees Benito Carbone at Premiership club Derby County. He has been there since 18th October and is on a three month deal. Carbone has made it clear that he would like to remain with Derby County.
They are a side capable of scoring goals and with 46 have just 3 less than the Clarets. However they have conceded 52 goals and only Stockport with 62 have conceded more. Eoin Jess is the leading scorer with 11 and long time Burnley target Robbie Blake is just behind him with 10. Blake of course was subject of a bid by Burnley but the two clubs, to quote Stan Ternent, were miles away on valuation.
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One player set to play against a former club is Ian Moore who had a loan spell at Bradford City during the 1996/97 season whilst at Tranmere. He played six games for them but failed to score. Stan Ternent also had a period on the coaching staff at Valley Parade.
There haven't been too many transfers between the two clubs in recent times and the last was Richard Huxford the right back brought in by Adrian Heath. He was given a chance by Chris Waddle but was soon left out and moved up to Scotland. Billy Ingham moved to Bradford from Burnley in 1980 for a £30,000 fee and ended his career with them. More recently we took Andy Kiwomya on loan during Waddle's spell as manager, more about Kiwomya later.
Past league games against them at Turf Moor are hardly worth a mention, there have only been five encounters since World War II and we have picked up just one point from them with a 2-2 draw in 1992/93. The last time we won a league game against them at the Turf was as far back as 1935/36 season when we won 3-0.
There was a great cup win against them though during our First Division Championship season of 1959/60. We had come back from two down to draw 2-2 at Valley Parade in the 5th round with two John Connelly goals and in front of a massive 52,850 won the replay easily 5-0. Connelly again scored with both Ray Pointer and Jimmy Robson getting two apiece.
League results in the last 20 years
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
1983/84 | 3 | h | 1-2 | 12,327 | Jackson(og) |
a | 1-2 | 5,578 | Biggins | ||
1984/85 | 3 | h | 1-2 | 7,060 | Biggins |
a | 2-3 | 8,156 | Biggins Grewcock | ||
1992/93 | 2 | h | 2-2 | 13,262 | Slawson McCarthy(og) |
a | 0-1 | 10,235 | |||
1993/94 | 2 | h | 0-1 | 13,517 | |
a | 1-0 | 9,501 | Heath | ||
1995/96 | 2 | h | 2-3 | 9,714 | Robinson Eyres(pen) |
a | 2-2 | 8,356 | Harrison Swan | ||
2001/02 | 1 | a | 3-2 | 17,527 | Little(2) Ellis |
Last Time in the League
Burnley 2 (Robinson Eyres(pen)) Bradford City 3 (Tolson Winstanley(og) Kiwomya) – Endsleigh Insurance League Division 2, Saturday 6th April 1996.
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Some of those games had been very heavy defeats but they had all come away from home. Both home games under Heath had ended 0-0 against Swindon and Bournemouth. This was never going to end goalless as Bradford attacked us from the off.
By half time we were 2-0 down with the second a catastrophe as Mark Winstanley put through his own goal. It was looking like another defeat and everyone was getting very edgy that only a year after playing First Division football we could be facing a second successive relegation.
It all changed in the second half though as the Clarets fought their way back into the game and then Bradford City were reduced to ten men. Liam Robinson scored his first goal of the season to bring us back into the game and then David Eyres converted a penalty to level the scores.
Bradford City's Nicky Mohan was sent off and the initiative was really with the Clarets. Bradford looked out of it and there seemed that there was only ever going to be one winner. Burnley were going forward and playing as well as for some time when one incident changed the whole game. Bradford's Andy Kiwomya was threatening no one in the middle of the field but when he beat Gerry Harrison down our right Harrison decided he would bring him down. Already carded the referee had no option but to send Harrison off. Ten versus ten and the initiative was handed back to the visitors and deep into stoppage time Kiwomya grabbed the winner.
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The teams for this game were,
Burnley: Wayne Russell, Gerry Harrison, Charlie Bishop, Peter Swan, Mark Winstanley, Warren Joyce, Paul Weller (Liam Robinson), Steve Thompson, Paul Mahorn, Kurt Nogan, David Eyres.
Bradford City: Jonathan Gould, Richard Liburd, Wayne Jacobs, Eddie Youds, Nicky Mohan, David Brightwell, Andy Kiwomya, Lee Duxbury, Neil Tolson (Ian Ormondroyd), Mark Stallard (Tommy Wright), Shaun Murray (Derrick Hamilton).