RED-HOT BURNS
Forest’s Scottish bruiser outmuscled the rest of Europe on path to glory
IN the second instalment in our series on unsung Scots who have lifted the European Cup, we stick with Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest. Yesterday the focus was on influential skipper John McGovern. Today, we turn our attention to on-field enforcer Kenny Burns.
THE rise of Kenny Burns from footballmad kid in Pollok to two-time European Cup winner with Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest is one of the game’s true fairy stories.
For the many opponents who found themselves on the wrong end of the notorious hard man, however, it was more of a grim, scary tale.
The fearsome Burns was an uncompromising, old-fashioned centre-half — and one not averse to modifying his boots in brutal fashion in order to inflict maximum damage upon rivals.
‘The studs in those days were made of wood with three metal pins inside,’ he once explained.
‘I’d hacksaw across each one, taking off the top layer and so exposing the metal. It meant they stuck better to the skin when I went in for a tackle.
‘But I also learned you should never trap the ball after doing that — or you might burst it!’
Incredibly, when Burns arrived at Forest from Birmingham City in 1977, he was a 20-goal-a-season striker.
But Clough’s revered righthand-man Peter Taylor insisted the Scot with the bad reputation was the ideal partner for Larry Lloyd at the heart of the newly-promoted Forest’s defence.
Rumours were rife that Burns was a stone overweight, gambling heavily and had fallen out with several of his team-mates.
‘Don’t buy him, he’s trouble,’ Birmingham chairman David Wiseman had warned Clough.
Taylor was adamant, however, that he had identified the right man for Forest’s return to the top flight. Wearing a flat cap and dark glasses, Clough’s No2 went in disguise to the Perry Barr greyhound track where he discovered Burns was only gambling moderately.
Birmingham duly accepted Forest’s offer of £150,000 and Burns met Clough the following day at a garden centre in Long Eaton where he found out they were naming flowers after the manager at an exhibition of sweet peas.
‘I didn’t have a clue,’ Burns recalled in I Believe in Miracles, the book accompanying a 2015 documentary about Forest’s remarkable achievements.
‘I thought we were going to look at some peas — as in garden peas. I mean, peas are peas, aren’t they? Green things. What kind of peas are sweet peas? I know what green peas are. I know mushy peas. In Scotland, flowers are just things whose heads you kick off when you’ve had a few pints on a Saturday night...’
Burns proved a smash hit at Forest but it’s fair to say he did not shake off his hard-man image.
Indeed, he gained further notoriety by delivering a Glasgow kiss into the back of Arsenal star Richie Powling’s skull while waiting to defend a free-kick.
Fined £50 by Clough after the incident featured on Match of the Day, Burns believed it was an investment that paid off in the long run. ‘I knew I was wrong,’ he said. ‘But I also looked upon it as a chance to send out a message. If I was watching it on television, so were my future opponents. So it was like advertising — and it would frighten some of them off. That was the life in those days.’
With other astute signings including goalkeeper Peter Shilton and Scot Archie Gemmill, Forest went on to claim the First Division title.
They set a record for longest unbeaten run — 42 games — which was only beaten by Arsenal’s Invincibles in 2004.
And now they found themselves qualified for the European Cup.
Burns said: ‘We all wanted Real Madrid, Benfica, AC Milan, Inter Milan, or Juventus. I went out and bought a passport and everything — and we got Liverpool! You don’t need a passport to go to Liverpool. But we didn’t mind drawing Liverpool. Liverpool didn’t want us because we knew we could beat them — and they knew that!’
Liverpool had lifted the previous two European Cups but Clough’s side knocked them out by winning 2-0 at the City Ground and drawing 0-0 at Anfield.
AEK Athens, Grasshoppers, and Cologne were then beaten to set up the 1979 final with Malmo in Munich.
Burns was joined in the starting line-up in the Olympic Stadium by fellow Scots John Robertson and John McGovern, who captained the team, while John O’Hare and Gemmill were left on the bench alongside future Celtic manager Martin O’Neill. New £1m signing Trevor Francis scored the winner just before the break from a cross by Robertson, who Clough referred to as his ‘Picasso.’
Burns said: ‘Martin O’Neill and Archie Gemmill had been carrying knocks in the lead up to the game. Both of them told the boss they had both recovered but he said: “I am delighted for you both… you are on the bench!”
‘Both were furious with that reply and I think that was the first time that the gaffer was not loyal to his players. After all, these had been the guys that had got the club to the final in the first place!
‘This was the biggest game of their lives and they had to settle for a place on the bench!
‘Martin played in one the following year against Hamburg and we won it, but Archie never got the chance again as he had moved on by then. But that was Cloughie. He stood by his decision and it paid off.
‘He may not have been popular with Martin and Archie at the time but he won the European Cup for the club for the first time and that was all that mattered.’
The following year, the Bernabeu in Madrid was the venue and Hamburg the opponents. This time, Burns, McGovern and Robertson were joined on the park by fellow Scots Frank Gray and O’Hare, the latter as a substitute.
Robertson was the hero with the only goal of the game but Burns was at his ruthless best in snuffing out Kevin Keegan.
‘He spun to run on to a long pass and I knew he was gone and I was in trouble. So I thrust out my arm and took him out,’ recalled Burns. ‘Keegan, the European Footballer of the Year, was on the floor squeaking: “I can’t breathe” and clutching his throat.
‘I called the referee over and knelt down and said to Kevin: “Don’t worry, I’ll be coming right through you again in a minute”.
‘Kevin ended up taking the ball off the goalkeeper, playing so deep. Nobody has scored a goal from back there. I’d won.’
But the Scot’s story is not just about one league title and back-to-back European Cups.
There was a third Burns Night in Europe to savour as he scored the goal in a 1-1 draw in the Nou Camp against Barcelona which clinched the 1979 Super Cup for Forest 2-1 on aggregate.
Now 66, he also won two League Cups — the first as Forest captain — one Charity Shield, two club Player of the Year awards and one Football Writers’ Association Player of the Year award.
It is a career that underlines the fact that Burns was also a fine footballer and far more than just a renowned hardman.
Capped 20 times by Scotland, he represented his country at the World Cup in Argentina 1978.
But Kenny Burns will forever be associated with his starring role in that remarkable, all-conquering era at Forest.