IAN MUIR 

Burnley Career Stats

Profile by Tony Scholes

When Burnley played on QPR's plastic pitch at Loftus Road in 1982 we came home with more than we'd bargained for. Two Trevor Steven goals in front at half time we'd suffered a 3-2 defeat in the end although we managed to acquire a striker.

The striker in question was 19-year-old Ian Muir who had joined QPR as an apprentice from Bedworth Juniors. He'd won England Schoolboy caps and had made his way into the first team squad at Loftus Road.

He made a dramatic start to his first team career, scoring twice on his debut in a 5-0 thrashing of Cambridge United in April 1981. He kept his place for the one remaining game of the 1980/81 season but by the time he arrived at Turf Moor, well over a year later, he was still looking for his third game.

That eventually came with Burnley, but he was hardly a success during his month with the Clarets and played just twice. He came on as a substitute in a 2-1 defeat at Charlton, replacing skipper Martin Dobson and then started and scored our goal in a 3-1 defeat at Leeds.

He impressed, but the home fans never saw him and at the end of the month he was dispatched back to West London, his Burnley career over. Not as though things got any better for him at Loftus Road where those two early games remained his only games in blue and white hoops.

Muir eventually moved on to Birmingham, and then to Brighton and whilst on the south coast he had a loan spell with Swindon. That took him to the summer of 1985 and for those three clubs he played just six more games without scoring.

Things weren't looking good for him and when he left Brighton that summer the only offer was one down in Division Four with Tranmere Rovers who were managed at the time by former England striker Frank Worthington.

I think it is fair to say that Muir's career took an upturn at that point, and I think that is one massive understatement. Things clicked almost immediately and he went on to become one of the great heroes of the Prenton Park fans as Tranmere eventually progressed and moved up two divisions.

He'd found a club that played him on a regular basis and he repaid them with goals, goals and more goals. He scored fifteen times in his first season, and a year on his goals kept them just above the drop zone into the Conference.

Whilst at Tranmere he played in two promotion sides and also featured in three failed play off attempts as they came so close to getting into the Premiership.

From 1986 to 1990 he was the club's leading scorer and in the 1989/90 season he scored no less than 35 goals in 65 games. By the 1990/91 season he became Tranmere's all time best goal scorer beating the record set by Bunny Bell of 113 goals.

By the time he left Tranmere in 1995 he'd scored no less than 141 league goals for them, he'd scored at Wembley and they were still in the second tier of English football. Ironically his last two Tranmere goals came in a 4-1 win against Burnley as Jimmy Mullen's Clarets made it eight consecutive league defeats.

That summer he returned to Birmingham in a £125,000 deal. But he played only twice for them before injury struck. He spent a month on loan at Darlington, and indeed scored one goal, as he tried to get fit but his league career was over.

He spent some time in the Far East but returned to England in 1998 and signed for Nuneaton Borough and partnered Malcolm Christie. Just three goals in 21 games eventually led to a move to Stratford where he also took over as acting manager when the manager fell ill.

But in 2000 he finally called time on his career, one in which he had become something of a legend at Tranmere whilst supporters at this other clubs will barely be able to remember him.