Andy Lochhead

The Hall of Fame Number 20 – Andy Lochhead

Date of Birth: 9th March 1941 Place of Birth: Milngavie, Glasgow Burnley debut: Manchester City (h) 30th August 1960 Other Clubs Leicester City Aston Villa Oldham Athletic

Often when you think of someone you immediately think of another because they were a great partnership. And that is the case with the player who is this week being inducted into the Clarets Hall of Fame, Andy Lochhead.

Andy was one of the best forwards in the league in the 1960s but he will often be remembered alongside Willie Irvine as they played together as a partnership so often for the Clarets.

Glaswegian Andy signed his first professional contract with the Clarets right at the end of 1958 at the age of 17 although he had to wait almost two years on from them before making a first team debut in 1960 early in the season after the Championship win.

It was no real surprise that he had to wait with Ray Pointer and Jimmy Robson in prolific form for the first team and players such as Ian Lawson waiting in the wings and the young Scot had to be patient.

Patience wasn’t always a strong point though and he was sent off in a reserve game against Newcastle after being goaded by the experienced Bob Stokoe all afternoon, he was to learn from that as one Welsh international defender was to find out to his cost.

He made five appearances during that first season, on each occasion standing in for Ray Pointer who was unavailable either on England duty or injured but it was for a totally different reason that he stepped in on the occasion of his first Burnley goal.

That was in March 1961 when manager Harry Potts chose to make ten changes to the side that played Chelsea at home. The club were hit with a hefty fine for fielding a weakened side although taking a look at the line up would suggest it was anything but weak.

The reason was that four days later we had a date in Germany and a European Cup Quarter-Final against SV Hamburg and another three days after that were at Villa Park for an FA Cup Semi-Final against Spurs.

Andy scored twice as did the one first teamer in the side Gordon Harris but after looking as though we would win the game we had to settle for a 4-4 draw with a young forward by the name of Jimmy Greaves grabbing a couple for the London club.

As Burnley chased the double in the following season Lochhead was again on the sidelines playing in only two league games but he was scoring goals for fun in the reserve team that lifted the Central League.

His wait was almost at an end though and early in the 1962/63 season he won a place in the side at the expense of Robson. He was there to stay and the goals soon came with 19 in the league in his first season.

He was getting better and in the autumn of 1963 returned the compliment for that reserve team sending off. Having been wound up by Stokoe that day he knew just what to do and his victim was a Welsh centre half playing for Blackburn Rovers by the name of Mike England.

Andy teased him and tormented him as Burnley beat their local rivals 3-0 on a Tuesday night at Turf Moor to such an extent that England lost it completely and got himself sent off. A memorable moment.

For much of the first two years he partnered either Pointer or Robson but by 1964/65 he was to be partnered by the Irishman Willie Irvine.

What a partnership, they hit it off from the start and although Irvine will probably always be remembered as the goalscorer there is no doubt that Lochhead’s contribution could also be described as prolific.

In fact it was prolific but there was far more to his game than just scoring goals. He was a great header of the ball but also a very good player on the ground too and you would be hard pushed to find a better all round centre-forward to have played for the club.

He was brave as well and nobody who saw it will ever forget the night he had his head stamped on by Napoli defender Panzanato in the Fairs Cup. No moaning from Andy, he just got on with it. That was of course after a quiet but very effective word with the Italian.

Everton defender Brian Labone once described him as his toughest ever opponent. Labone admitted that he used to give his opponent a good hard kick early in the game to sort him out. According to Labone some hid whilst others went moaning to the referee. Not Lochhead said Labone, he just came back and kicked you twice as hard and twice as often.

Andy though remains the only player to have scored five goals in a game for Burnley on two occasions and also he is one of only five players to have scored over 100 league goals. He reached that record on the last day of the 1967/68 season on a mud heap of a Turf Moor pitch. We beat Leeds 3-0 but at 27 years of age his Burnley career was coming to an end.

Into the following season and after scoring one more goal in a 3-2 defeat at West Brom, and by now club captain, he was sold to Leicester City.

His career certainly didn’t come to an end though and by the end of that season he was at Wembley playing for Leicester in the FA Cup Final against Manchester City. But in early 1970 he was on the move again, this time to Aston Villa.

That brought him another Wembley appearance and this time it was the 1971 League Cup Final for a Villa side then in Division Three. They had beaten First Division Burnley in the second round at Villa Park.

A year later and he won a 3^rd Division Championship medal and helped Villa establish themselves in the following season, including a goal at the Turf as Burnley won 4-1, before signing for Oldham in the summer of 1973 where he collected yet another 3^rd Division Championship medal before a brief spell with American club Denver brought his playing career to an end.

That brought him back to Burnley and he was in the licensed trade for some years and is now back at the Turf with his old striker partner Willie Irvine. The quiet and reserved twosome look after the sponsors on match days.

He may have won his medals with other clubs but he is very much a Claret and a top Claret at that who fully deserves his place in the Hall of Fame. I think there might be a few goals scored in there now he and Irvine have both been inducted.