Arthur Bellamy

Date and Place of Birth 15th April 1942 - BLACKHILL died 22nd January 2014   Transfers to and from Burnley junior then pro - June 1959 to CHESTERFIELD - July 1972 (£10,000)   First and Last Burnley Games MANCHESTER CITY (a) - 26th March 1963   SUNDERLAND (a) - 3rd April 1972   Other Clubs ---------------------------------------- CHESTERFIELD

Burnley Career Stats

Profile by Tony Scholes

Not many can claim to have been player, coach, assistant manager and groundsman at Burnley Football Club, but those were the roles carried out by Arthur Bellamy who first joined the Turf Moor staff in 1958 just as Harry Potts was taking over as manager.

As was the case with many of our players from the North East, he was spotted by scout Jack Hixon. At the time he was working for Consett Iron Works and was playing his football for the works team.

The 15-year-old Bellamy arrived for a trial at Burnley in February 1958 in the very week that Potts became the club's manager. The trial was a success and he joined the Clarets, eventually signing his first professional contract in June 1959 at the age of 17.

In the late 50s there was no quick introduction to the first team given the quality we possessed at the time, and the young Bellamy had to content himself with 'A' team football for some considerable time.

He was a member of that team that went on to win the Lancashire League title in 1961/62 although he also made a contribution to the reserve team's Central League success in the same season.

As an inside-forward, and with Jimmy McIlroy at the club, getting into the first team was always going to be difficult, but when McIlroy left in 1963 it gave Bellamy his chance and he was called up for his first team debut in March against Manchester City.

They were struggling at the bottom of the league and we beat them comfortably 5-2. Bellamy had a good debut and scored the fifth goal. He retained his place and played in most of the remaining games that season.

However, that didn't guarantee him a place in the next season and he played just thirteen times. Even so, he made a real impact in his first game in 1963/64 when he was called up to play against Everton at Goodison Park.

It was a daunting task. Everton hadn't lost a home game in over two years but Bellamy helped put an end to that. By half time we led 4-1 and he'd scored a hat trick with Brian Miller getting the other. We were hanging on at the end and won it 4-3 but had certainly ended that Everton home run.

Arthur scored eight goals in the 63/64 season, but he wasn't a goalscorer and that was the best return of his career.

Neither was he assured a regular place in the team and his 33 league appearances in 1967/68 season was his best. He was always in and around the first team and was a very versatile player.

Although considered to be an inside forward, he was the player chosen to play as a sweeper in the mid-sixties as Burnley experimented with new systems. I recall him playing there at Leicester when we got a 5-1 hammering in 1966 but that was a one off and he proved to be very successful in that position.

I wrote that he wasn't a goalscorer, but sadly he's too often remembered for one goal he scored. With Burnley having gone 2-1 up in extra time in the 1968/69 League Cup semi-final replay against Swindon he scored an own goal with Swindon going on to win the game 3-2.

There was another hat trick to come for him though in 1971/72 against Orient, but by then his Burnley playing career was nearing its end.

Appropriately for the Co Durham born Bellamy, that end came at Roker Park, Sunderland against the team he'd supported. Burnley led 3-1 in that game before losing it 4-3 and Bellamy was left out of the six remaining games that season.

In the summer he was sold to Chesterfield. He was reluctant to leave Burnley but was surplus to Jimmy Adamson's requirements. He spent four years at Saltergate, making no less than 133 league appearances for them, and at that point, at the age of 34, he decided it was time to hang up his boots.

Out of football he had a milk round and then run a fish and chip shop in Briercliffe Road, but in 1979 he made a return to Turf Moor when Potts offered him a coaching role with the young players.

He worked for a succession of managers before doing some work with the groundsman in the mid 1980s. His coaching wasn't at an end and in the summer of 1986 he was offered the role of assistant manager by Brian Miller on his return as manager.

A year later, everyone knows the anguish Miller went through on the day we beat Orient to remain in the Football League. Arthur Bellamy was alongside Brian that day. And he was alongside him a year later at Wembley as we played Wolves in the Sherpa Van Trophy Final.

When Frank Casper replaced Miller as manager, and brought in Mick Docherty as his assistant, it meant a return to youth coaching for Bellamy. After a short time he ended his coaching career, joined the ground staff and eventually became head groundsman.

His work on the pitches at both Turf Moor and Gawthorpe came to an end when he retired at the end of the 2006/07 season.

To recognise his contribution to Burnley Football Club, over nearly fifty years, Arthur Bellamy was awarded the Supporters Clubs' Special Achievement Award which was presented to him by Steve Cotterill.

Arthur Bellamy was a great servant for Burnley Football Club. He played a total of 236 goals for us. He then nurtured some of the young talent at Burnley, coming into the club as a coach initially when we had young players such as Vince Overson, Micky Phelan, Trevor Steven, Brian Laws and Lee Dixon coming through.

He remains Burnley through and through to this day, and can still often be seen down on the touchline at Gawthorpe watching the youth team, offering those with him that Bellamy sense of humour.

Arthur Bellamy sadly passed away after a long illness on 22nd January 2014 at the age of 71.

Links

A farewell to Arthur Bellamy (22/01/14)