Turf Moor - Burnley

Burnley - Turf Moor

Burnley Football Club

Turf Moor

Harry Potts Way

Burnley

Lancashire

BB10 4BX

Burnley Facebook Page

Burnley Twitter Page

Burnley Official Website

HISTORY/FACTS ABOUT THE CLARETS:

• Burnley Football Club were formed in 1882. They were originally a Rugby Union club but switched to Football. In the first few years of the club, the club played in various colours, mainly Green, Blue or White.
• The club's 1st competitive game was against Astley Bridge in the Lancashire Challenge Cup, which ended in an 8-0 defeat.
• Burnley's 1st ever appearance in the FA Cup was in the 1885-86 season but were beaten 11-0 because due to eligibility restrictions, the club could only field a reserve side which was against Darwen Old Wanderers.
• The club's first ever title win was the 2nd Division in 1898, winning the League on 48 points from 30 games beating Newcastle United by 3 points.
• Burnley have only ever won the FA Cup once, in 1914 beating Liverpool at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in London, 1-0. The winning goal came from Bert Freeman. It was also the last FA Cup final to be played there as well.
• Burnley also won the FA Charity Shield in 1973, beating Manchester City 1-0 at City's Maine Road with Colin Waldron getting the goal.
• The most appearances for the club made is by former keeper Jerry Dawson. He made 569 appearances for the club in all competitions.
• Burnley won promotion to the Premier League for the 1st time in 33 years, with the winning goal at Wembley in 2009 against Sheffield United scored by Wade Elliott. 80,518 were in attendance to see The Clarets promoted to the Premier League.
• Burnley have played at Turf Moor since 1883. The ground holds 21,800.
• Burnley's main rivals are Blackburn Rovers. Burnley are listed as the 2nd club out of the 92 respective Football League clubs with the most rivals. Halifax Town, Stockport County, Preston North End, Rochdale and Blackpool all considering them as rivals.

MY VISITS:

VISIT 1: Burnley 0-0 Huddersfield Town 23/9/17

1ST VISIT TO TURF MOOR; A DAY I WOULD HAVE NEVER HAVE IMAGINED..

Burnley 0-0 Huddersfield Town

Saturday 23rd September 2017

Premier League

My 1st visit to Turf Moor came in September 2017. Gillingham were playing away at Rochdale, I didn't fancy a trip back to Rochdale, I'd previously been a couple of times before plus I find it's a bit of a pain to get to by train. By the sounds of it, it sounded like I didn't miss much anyway! In the week leading up to going to Burnley, I was debating whether to go or not. I didn't fancy getting up at half 5 in the morning after working late the night before, but after thinking about it and plus I already had my train tickets and match ticket, I thought sod it I'll do it. It'll probably be ages until I go back to Burnley, plus it needed ticking off anyway. Leading up to it, Burnley is my 77th ground of the 92 ticked off the list. The game itself there wasn't really much to talk about, an absolute drag if I'm honest. Burnley were very poor although they defended fairly well but didn't really threaten at goal. Huddersfield had a couple of chances of their own, but a 0-0 draw was probably fair if I'm honest. But anyway onto my visit on hell of a long day, I woke up about 5.30am and left home just before 6. Got dropped off at Tonbridge station as my Dad was working anyway, and caught the 6.40 train into London Bridge. A quick tube ride to King's Cross, and then I left King's Cross at half 8 and arrived into Leeds at 10.40am. Another alternative route would have been going via Euston and changing at Preston to get another train to Burnley Central or Manchester Road, but opted to go via Leeds as I found it a lot cheaper on Trainline. It only cost me just over £20 return from London to Burnley via Leeds so went for that option. I wish I hadn't now haha! But will explain in a minute. Anyway, After arriving into Leeds at 10.40, I then left Leeds for Burnley after 11am and arrived into Burnley an hour later. I popped into Ladbrokes to put some bets on which of course, another miserable weekend with the bets, still a bit of fun though. I arrived to the ground just before half 1 to take some pictures and made my way in the ground as soon as the gates opened which was just before 2. Anyway after the game, luckily the 17.12 train was a bit late, so I caught that train to get back to Leeds, which would have given me plenty of time to kill but wasn't majorly fussed. Now, this is where the fun slowly starts to begin. As time killed, I left Leeds on the 19.45 train, where the train runs all smoothly for a while no problems. Anyway, I dozed off for a bit and I woke up to have noticed we stopped in a middle of nowhere. After hearing an announcement that a broken down train was stuck between Grantham and Peterborough, I thought ok no problems, we'll get under away in a bit. 2 hours later, and still the same. So after that, apparently the lines on the track had broken or something, so then we made our way back to Grantham. Of course this was affecting other trains coming from London and coming from the North, examples being Leeds, Edinburgh and so forth. Time went, and it was midnight and I was stuck at Grantham train station with other fed up passengers. As I was standing along the platform, no other than Steve from Gills, or as I like to call him Fuming Steve as many Gills fans may know, walked past me and I realised who it was, so of course I shouted out "FUMING! FUUUUUUUUMINGGG!" Steve was coming back from a dreadful 3-0 defeat at Rochdale and suffered the same as well, going the cheaper route via Leeds to Rochdale. After chatting with him about the games, I saw a poor 0-0 draw and a dreadful 3-0 defeat at Rochdale, the trains mucking up, sums up the day pretty much. So anyway, after a while, we left Grantham very slowly and then stopped off at Peterborough and Stevenage along the way until finally arriving into London King's Cross at 3.15am. Yes, 3.15am.

My fury on Twitter along with Virgin Trains East Coast tweet about compensation.

At this point I was literally shattered and struggling to keep awake. Virgin Trains did tweet me back apologising and basically said you will get home all fine no problems. So anyway, as a few members of staff gathered us all round calling out random locations in the London area, Kent of course, Surrey and others, as people were shouting out where they were going, I overheard a woman with her daughter shout out Paddock Wood which of course if fairly near to where I live. So I went over to her and double checked with her which of course was right, so I stood with her. 2 other blokes were going to Kent as well, 1 being Tonbridge and the other Tunbridge Wells. So as everyone was now in groups, we eventually got in our taxi, I was wondering how we were all going to pay for taxis, but later discovered that Virgin Trains were covering costs and ordered way over 100 taxis at King's Cross, which was an added bonus and rightly so as well in my opinion. So anyway, we were on our way home, after dropping the 2 guys off first in Tunbridge Wells, then Tonbridge, and dropping off the woman and her daughter on the outskirts of Paddock Wood, I finally arrived home at 6.20am for a journey I was meant to arrive home at shortly after half 11 at night. What an adventure but a tiring and restless night. If someone had said to me this was going to happen, I would have never highly unlikely, but I never expected it to happen. Luckily I didn't have work the next day, would have been worse, but yeah. From half 5 in the morning on Saturday, until 6.20am the next day. The whole day I must have only had about 3 hours sleep not even that probably. A day I probably won't forget in a while haha. But yeah, a hell of a long day! My next new ground and away day would you believe it or not, is Burnley's rivals Blackburn Rovers haha!




THE GROUND:

Turf Moor has been the home of Burnley FC since the club's existence. The ground has a total capacity of just over 20,000 of which away supporters are located in the Ladbrokes Covered stand which is one end of the ground. Allocation can be up to just under 2,500 supporters. When I went by train, the station I went to was Burnley Manchester Road and changed at Leeds. Manchester Road is around a 15-20 minute walk, but also Burnley Central station is in within walking distance of the ground as well.

GROUND PHOTOS: