Derby County v Burnley FA Cup 3rd round replay 1992.....
REAL FANS ROAR OUT MESSAGE TO ALL THE FAT CATS
Jimmy Mullen is due in court this morning to answer a drink drive allegation.
On Saturday,he watched his goalkeeper inexplicably drop the ball to present Derby with a decisive second goal that swept his team out of the fa cup.
Now,you couldn't claim that these have been the the happiest few days in the life of fourth division Burnley.
And yet Mullen has found himself at the centre of a remarkable phenomenon perhaps unique in the grand history of football's most romantic competition.
I don't care what kind of response former Burnley midfield man Brian Flynn received as manager of Wrexham on their latest day of glory at West Ham.
It wouldn't have been a patch on the acclaim given to the boss of the club where he began.
I want to tell you about the most heartening, stimulating and optimistic occasion i have experienced for many .many years.
Derby v Burnley was a match in a time-warp.A third round match played on fourth round day . But the real blast from the past came from far more distant days...
When fans came only to back there beloved team, not fight there opposite numbers . when fences were not needed and policemen merely smiled in approval.
Burnley took 4,000 Lancashire lads and lasses to the midlands.and they were sensational.
Soon after goalkeeper Chris Pearce dropped his dreadful clanger they set up one of the loudest ,sustained dins I've ever heard on a foot ball ground anywhere in the world
"Jimmy Mullen's claret and blue army" was the chant from the terraces and double decker stand that housed Burnley's claret and blue army.
Over and over they chanted it. Clapping and stamping there feet and drumming on the advertisement boards in perfect rhythm.
On and on for 20 minutes until the end of the match and 15 Min's after.Until i urged the clubs chairman to get his manager and players to leave their dressing room , return to the pitch and wave their appreciation.
The bedlam was almost deafening, I t was a colorful and spectacular sight .But it was something far more important than that .
I wanted others to see and hear it . Big men important men who are making decisions that could alienate the game from ordinary working folk.
I wanted Graham Kelly to be there to prove to him that those who talk super leagues should not underestimate the passion of the so called little clubs.
I wanted sir John Quinton to be there so that the bank chairman chosen to preside over the elite could learn something of life at the other end of the scale.
I wanted officials of Man Utd and arsenal, Liverpool and the other fat cats behind the move to change the face of football to hear the voices of the people.
The bedlam of Burnley was not a simply a cry of support for another of the fa cups beaten teams It was a roar of defiance
"Traditions" said Arthur Cox , Derby's manager whose time in north east football taught him all there is to know about fanaticism." you heard the traditions of Burnleys past out there today.A major club of 30 years ago, don't forget" those who kept up that thunderous clatter were real football fans .
Genuine Football people with a deep love of their club ,no matter what the result
They had nothing to do with the executive box brigade and the corporate hospitality merchants to whom football is a pandering of the modern era.
They stood in the rain sat in the cold and screamed their allegiance to a game which,at the highest level, continues to turn its back.
English football has no right to dismiss or take lightly the support of people like those who raised their voices so valiantly at the baseball ground.
This remember was the support of a team who lost to a deflected free kick and a goal handed on a plate by a goalkeeper who couldn't catch the ball.
The frost that caused postponements had managers and scouts flocking to derby......
Brian Clough David Pleat, Neil Warnock, Ian Branfoot together with scouts from Villa,QPR,Norwich,Portsmouth,Leicester,West Ham...And with Leeds ,Man Utd, Oldham Coventry,Cambridge,Blackburn to name a few.
Some will report back about an individual player or one side or the other. But all will first tell the story of those incredible Burnley supporters
So at least the message will be cast far and wide . The cry from the fourth division will reach high places .
"In all my 23 years in the game I've never anything like that" Jimmy gasped
"It left my players feeling like they were prepared to die for those people "
It left Arthur Cox thinking out load"Burnley have had a reminder of how things could be.It was a demonstration of potential"
"They have to try to make sure they get promotion and don't let those people down" And that is a sobering thought.
Written by "John Sadler" sports journalist from the Sun
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