USL-1 North Carolina FC

Meet Burnley FC of England's Coca Cola Championship Division

July 7, 2008 - USL First Division (USL-1)
North Carolina FC News Release


Cary, NC (Monday, July 7th, 2008) - The Cary RailHawks U-23 PDL team welcome England's Coca Cola Championship Division mainstay Burnley Football Club on Thursday, July 10th at 7:30 PM at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary. Tickets ($10 and $15) are available at the LGFCU Box Office, by calling 919-859-KICK (5425), at all Ticketmaster outlets or by visiting www.carolinarailhawks.com. Below is a brief history of the Burnley Clarets, one of the oldest soccer clubs in England.

Founder members of the Football League, the precursor to the English Premier League, Burnley Football Club began life as a Rugby Club. However, Burnley Rovers soon switched codes and became Burnley Football Club in 1882. They moved to their Turf Moor home, in Lancashire, England, shortly afterwards, at the invitation of the town's cricket club, which is still situated next to the stadium.

F.A. Cup campaigns gave way to organized football in 1888 with the foundation of the Football League - and since then Burnley have claimed every major honor with the exception of the League Cup. The first honor was a Second Division title in 1897-98 and the Club's improved fortunes were reflected in an F.A.Cup triumph in 1914, with a 1-0 win against Liverpool coming just months before the outbreak of the Great War.

Following the War, the Clarets continued to make their mark on the domestic game and in the 1920-21 season the team enjoyed an unbeaten run of thirty league matches as they led the club to a first-ever First Division title, having been runners-up the previous season.

That record stood for over 80 years until being bettered by Arsenal in the 2003/04 season.

By the outbreak of the Second World War, the Clarets were back in the Second Division. However, the first season of organized football after the War saw them promoted as runners-up to Manchester City - and they also reached their first Wembley final where they lost the F.A. Cup to Charlton Athletic by 1-0.

This led to the most exciting time in the Club's history. By the late 1950's and early 1960's the Claret and Blue of Burnley had become the most feared colours in the domestic game. After several near misses, the First Division title again came Burnley's way on the very last day of the 1959-1960 season and two seasons later the Turf Moor Club claimed the double nobody wants - runners-up to Ipswich in the League and Tottenham Hotspur in the F.A. Cup Final, losing 3-1 in an epic Wembley battle.

The 1960's also saw two European campaigns. The 1960 championship side beat French Champions, Reims, in the first round but then went out to Hamburg at the next stage. Finishing third in the 1965-66 season was good enough to earn a place in the Inter- Cities Fairs Cup (now known as the U.E.F.A. Cup) and Burnley marched on splendidly. Stuttgart (Germany) and Lausanne (Switzerland) were early casualties before Burnley pulled-off a surprise win against Naples. Eintracht Frankfurt were the quarter final opponents and after a draw in Germany, a place in the last four looked very much on the cards but the Clarets were beaten 2 -1 at Turf Moor.

That exciting decade ended with Burnley starting to struggle and they were eventually relegated in 1979 - 80. Two seasons later, they were back in the highest echelon after winning the Second Division title, but only three seasons followed in the top flight before relegation and four years later, Burnley were relegated to the Third Division for the first time in their history. The 1981 -82 season saw the Clarets win that Division, but they found life back in the Second Division tough and were relegated again straight away, despite reaching the semi-finals of the League Cup and quarter-finals of the F.A. Cup.

In 1992 the Clarets created history by becoming only the second team to win all four divisional titles in domestic soccer - Wolves being the first - when they won the fourth Division and escaped from the league basement after seven seasons.

Since then they have been promoted to the new First Division via a Wembley play-off success against Stockport County, but unfortunately, lasted only one season in that Division before relegation.

Now the Club is very much geared towards the future. There has been a £6.5 million redevelopment of Turf Moor with two new stands giving Burnley an all seater stadium with a capacity of 22,619. The Club has also installed an all-weather pitch at Gawthorpe Training Ground, a facility that is the envy of many Clubs in higher divisions.

Stan Ternent was appointed as manager with Sam Ellis as assistant manager in June 1998, following on from former England star Chris Waddle who was in charge as a player-manager the previous season. They are a well-established management team and have brought the club forward.

The last day of the 1999/2000 season saw Burnley win promotion to the First Division, when they dramatically beat Scunthorpe United 2 - 1 at Glanford Park. Promotion felt much more special to Burnley, as it meant that after a seventeen-year wait Burnley would be able to contest in the same division as arch-rivals Blackburn Rovers.

In February of that season, Burnley made one of the biggest signings in their illustrious history, when securing the services of former England and Arsenal prolific goal scorer Ian Wright. Ian signed on a free transfer from Celtic until the end of the season, when he eventually retired from the game.

The 2000/2001 campaign saw the Clarets hold their own in the First Division. The Club also reached another milestone when Stockport County striker Ian Moore became the first £1 Million signing in the Club's history.

Stan Ternent's reign at Turf Moor came to an end in the summer of 2004, when the club decided not to offer him a new contract. After weeks of speculation, Steve Cotterill was appointed as the new manager of Burnley Football Club in June 2004.

Each of the former Cheltenham man's first three seasons saw progress halted in mid-term. However, one of the highlights of Cotterill's reign as Burnley boss was the 1-0 victory over the would-be European Champions Liverpool in the FA Cup in January 2005. Yet the sales of many of the club's top scorers saw the goals dry-up and following a 19 game winless run the previous season, in 2007/08 the club parted terms with Cotterill.

The front-runner to replace Steve Cotterill was Owen Coyle, who in the previous two seasons led his Scottish side St. Johnstone to both the Scottish League Cup and Scottish Cup semi-finals respectively. In November 2007, Coyle was named as the new Burnley manager and lead the club to a mid-table finish just 3 wins short of the play-offs.

With ambitious plans to redevelop Turf Moor in full swing, the future under Owen Coyle looks prosperous as he leads his side into the 2008/09 campaign with Premiership ambitions.

Next the RailHawks Men embark on a road trip that will take them to Minnesota on July 11th and Vancouver on July 13th. All Carolina RailHawks matches can be seen on www.USLLive.com. On July 10th the Cary RailHawks U-23 PDL team will host England's Coca Cola Championship Division mainstay Burnley FC in an exhibition at WakeMed Soccer Park at 7:30 PM. The Carolina RailHawks Women return to W-League action the following Saturday, July 12th as they host the Tampa Bay Hellenic. Tickets for all these events are available at the LGFCU Box Office, by calling 919-859-KICK, at all Ticketmaster outlets or by visiting www.carolinarailhawks.com.

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