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Date and Place of Birth 2nd September 1969 - LINCOLN
Transfers to and from Burnley see below
First and Last Burnley Games ROTHERHAM UNITED (h) - 29th August 1992
FRANCHISE (a) - 4th May 2003
Other Clubs SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY, BURY (loan), NORTHAMPTON TOWN (loan), CREWE ALEXANDRA (loan) ---------------------------------------- MIDDLESBROUGH, SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY (loan), WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS (loan), YORK CITY ---------------------------------------- BRADFORD CITY, LUTON TOWN, BARNSLEY, LUTON TOWN, OLDHAM ATHLETIC (loan) |
Transfers to and from Burnley
from SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY - 28th August 1992 (£100,000)
to MIDDLESBROUGH - 10th March 1998
from MIDDLESBROUGH - 31st January 2002 (loan)
returned - 28th March 2012
from YORK CITY - 5th September 2002 (loan)
released - 6th May 2003
Burnley Career Stats
| Season | League | FA Cup | League Cup | Others | Total | |||||
| apps | gls | apps | gls | apps | gls | apps | gls | apps | gls | |
| 1992/93 | 44 | - | 5 | - | - | - | 2 | - | 51 | - |
| 1993/94 | 46 | - | 4 | - | 4 | - | 8 | - | 62 | - |
| 1994/95 | 40 | - | 4 | - | 4 | - | 2 | - | 50 | - |
| 1995/96 | 36 | - | 1 | - | 4 | - | 5 | - | 46 | - |
| 1996/97 | 40 | - | 4 | - | 2 | - | 2 | - | 48 | - |
| 1997/98 | 34 | - | 2 | - | 4 | - | 3 | - | 43 | - |
| 2001/02 | 13 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 13 | - |
| 2002/03 | 33(1) | - | 5 | - | 4 | - | - | - | 42(1) | - |
| Total | 286(1) | - | 25 | - | 22 | - | 22 | - | 355(1) | - |
Profile by Tony Scholes
Over 350 games for Burnley, his first and last Turf Moor appearances poles apart, that was goalkeeper Marlon Beresford who signed for Burnley from Sheffield Wednesday just after the start of the 1992/93 season.
We'd just won the Fourth Division title but the goalkeeping position was a problem. Chris Pearce had been released and we'd used no less than five goalkeepers in the promotion season, including three on loan. The only one remaining at Turf Moor was David Williams and it was Williams who started the season with Jimmy Mullen not having been able to bring anyone in.
A fee of £100,000 was finally enough to persuade Sheffield Wednesday to sell and Marlon made his Burnley debut in a home game against Rotherham United just three days before his 23rd birthday in our third league game of the season.
Although he hadn't played a single game for Wednesday he did have league experience having been with Bury, Northampton (twice) and Crewe on loan.
He had a good debut in a 1-1 draw, and as I left the ground someone said that we'd signed a future England goalkeeper and he'd be the first Burnley player to bring in a £1 million fee in the future. I'd been impressed with his debut but ......
The following week, in a heavy defeat at Chester, he saved a penalty, something that became a trademark for him during his time at Burnley.
He became a big crowd favourite, and his performances warranted it during his early seasons at Turf Moor. He was very much a big influence during our next promotion season in 1993/94 and by the time we reached Wembley he hadn't missed a single Burnley game since signing for us.
That changed early in the 1994/95 season when he got the first of two red cards in the season at Oldham. It led to him missing games through suspension with Wayne Russell taking his place. It was Russell who came in again when he was dropped in the following season after a series of poor performances.
Although he hadn't had the best of seasons after promotion, he was still very much the first choice goalkeeper and this was his first really poor spell. A change of manager, as Mullen was replaced by old team mate Adrian Heath, saw him back in the side and once again he was very much a first choice.
The 1997/98 season was a disappointing one for Burnley. Hopes were high with the appointment of Chris Waddle as manager but things didn't quite work out. Beresford again had some disappointing games and in the away game at Carlisle he presented the home side with a vital late winner.
Even so, what happened a week later still came as a massive shock. It was another away game, this time at Walsall's Bescot Stadium. I'd just got inside the ground to be told that goalkeeper coach Chris Woods was playing and the reason was that Marlon Beresford had been sold to Middlesbrough that very morning.
It all seemed somewhat far fetched but when the teams came out there was Woods and it was later confirmed that Beresford had indeed been signed by Boro boss Bryan Robson in a £450,000 deal. It was a deal that was too good for Burnley to turn down and Woods did well when he came into the side as the Clarets continued their improved form and stayed up on the last day.
For Beresford, it was a four year spell at the Riverside during which he played only occasionally. He made his Premier League bow in a 2-1 home win against Blackburn in October 1998, but he only made eight league starts for Boro and again found games by going out on loan.
He finally made his Sheffield Wednesday debut, playing four games for them in a loan spell, and then joined Wolves on loan without featuring in the first team, but things changed for him when Burnley went out of the FA Cup at Cheltenham in January 2002.
First choice goalkeeper Nik Michopoulos had suffered a serious injury in the game and substitute Luigi Cennamo had the sort of debut that ensured Stan Ternent, by then the Burnley manager, never used him even as a substitute again.
We had to bring in a goalkeeper on loan, and that goalkeeper was Marlon Beresford. He returned to Turf Moor and played thirteen games for us before being recalled by Middlesbrough, and once Michopoulos was fit again. His first game was in front of the television cameras against West Brom and his last the disastrous 3-0 defeat at Sheffield United. He kept just one clean sheet, that coming at Stockport in a 2-0 win.
Even so, with him being released by Middlesbrough in the summer, the plan was to sign him to compete with Michopoulos, but down came the ITV Digital crash and things changed. Beresford went to York for a month but did eventually arrive back at Turf Moor in time to make his third debut in a 2-1 win at Derby during the September international weekend.
He was clearly first choice, and during this season we saw fit to allow Michopoulos to spend time out on loan at Crystal Palace. It really was a season to forget for anyone in goal for Burnley as goal after goal went in against us.
Beresford started 33 of the 41 remaining games that season, and also made one substitute appearance on that memorable day against his first club Sheffield Wednesday when he and Michopoulos took goalkeeping to a new level, that bad were they.
Throughout that season he'd signed monthly deals, opting not to take a long term deal with the club. In the end that cost him with Burnley releasing him at the end of that season.
He went on to play for Bradford City, Luton and Barnsley before playing his last league games in a short loan spell at Oldham. He featured against Burnley for two of those three clubs. He was in the Bradford side that Burnley beat 4-0 in the 2003/04 season, just a few months after he left Turf Moor.
He also played at Turf Moor for Luton, but memorably he was in the Luton side that we beat 3-2 on the day that Brian Jensen was sent off and Ade Akinbiyi hit a hat trick. I suspect he's still looking for Ade's second.
He got involved in some good natured banter with the Burnley fans that day and I recall, at the final whistle, he turned to applaud those fans who had once supported him.
In some ways it was a shame that he came back to Burnley. He was remembered fondly for his first spell, but things really did go wrong when he returned.
Having retired from the game he has donned the gloves again for Middlesbrough's London based supporters club in a game against Plymouth supporters and it was reported that he played well.
He's also done radio work, sometimes covering Burnley for Radio Lancashire. However, on 30th September 2011 he returned to the game as goalkeeping coach at Barnet.
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