Five decades on, Burnley venture back to Europe
It is more than half a century since Burnley last experienced European football, and while their supporters probably did not have Pittodrie in mind as a first posting, Aberdeen marks the initial stop this evening on a journey that the Lancashire club will hope concludes in Azerbaijan 10 months from now.
It is an adventure that could last two games, but it is one that may yet stretch to an eye-watering 21 if Burnley were to ape two other less-fashionable English clubs, Middlesbrough and Fulham, finalists in 2006 and 2010 respectively, by reaching the Europa League final in Baku next May.
No one at Burnley is getting ahead of themselves, of course, especially not with Aberdeen eager to claim a scalp in their second qualifyinground tie. But anyone who scoffs at the idea of a European odyssey would do well to remember that the idea of the club finishing seventh in the Premier League last season, 10 places and 14 points better off than the previous campaign, might also have invited plenty of sniggering. In a league where the big six increasingly appear to be playing a competition of their own, Burnley were, as their chairman, Mike Garlick, puts it, “the best of the rest” and now Sean Dyche’s side are hoping to ruffle a few feathers on the continent. “Nothing is impossible, but we’re not thinking we’re going to better seventh this season,” Garlick told The Daily Telegraph. “It would be fantastic if we did but the reality is Europe is the new challenge. It’s something different and it’s something we want to embrace and enjoy as much as we can.” Garlick was aged four the last time Burnley were in Europe 51 years ago. For a lifelong fan born just a few hundred yards from the club’s Turf Moor ground and educated at Burnley Grammar School, the excitement is understandable. Most supporters are too young to recall Burnley’s quarterfinal defeat by Eintracht Frankfurt in the Inter-cities Fairs Cup in April 1967, their last foray in Europe, although it was the second leg of their third-round tie away to Napoli two months earlier that earned perhaps the most fame, and notoriety.
Burnley won the first leg 3-0 before holding the Italians to a goalless draw at the forbidding San Paolo stadium, thanks largely to an inspired display from goalkeeper Harry Thomson. But it was the sight of manager Harry Potts racing across the pitch shouting: “Run for your lives, boys, run for your lives” to his players as Napoli fans set fire to the compressed cushions of cardboard that passed for seats and, according to defender Dave Merrington, “threw them on the pitch like frisbees”