Eli is first guest of the year

Last updated : 01 January 2007 By Tony Scholes

On New Year's Day 1992 he was in the Burnley side that won 2-0 at Chesterfield and recorded a ninth successive away victory. It left us sat in the promotion places on our way to the title.

Eli had become something of a crowd favourite after a less than auspicious start to his Burnley career. Signed as a defender cum midfielder in the summer of 1989 it was only when he went up front in an emergency during that first season in a cup tie against Scunthorpe that he began to establish himself.

He was to play as a forward for the rest of his time at Burnley, but it all came to a premature end after he suffered an injury towards the end of that promotion season. He missed the last few games as the title was won and hardly played during the next two seasons because of the injury before being released at the end of the 1993/94 season following our Wembley play off win.

The 1991/92 season was very much his season, he was second highest scorer behind Mike Conroy, and also scored the goal of the season past former England goalkeeper Peter Shilton in the FA Cup tie against Derby. He played a total of 99 league games for the Clarets, scoring 20 goals.