| Colin Waldron |
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Name: Colin Waldron D,O,B: 22nd June 1948 Place of Birth: Bristol Clarets Debut: Southampton 28th Oct 1967 (at The Dell) Last game for Burnley: Liverpool 27th March 1976 (at Anfield)
For me that 5 shirt means Colin Waldron; not coming up through the youth set up, or commanding a vast transfer fee for the league in the season 1967/68 when he was signed from Chelsea for £30,000; but a player that gave sterling service to the Burnley cause in his 9 year stint at the club before his free transfer to Manchester United in 1976, sadly our last season in the top flight and Waldron's last game was in a 2-0 defeat by Liverpool at Anfield with 6 matches of that season remaining. If the end was surrounded by disappointment, then what of the start? Well the first time he was associated with the number 5 shirt for the Clarets, we lost 8-1 at West Bromwich Albion and only a late Arthur Bellamy goal prevented a white wash. Waldron's two earlier starts had been in the number 2 and 3 shirt. With such a start and finish you may be thinking he must have done something good in between! He certainly did and made 308 league appearances scoring 16 goals, 14 FA Cup appearances, 23 Football League Cup appearances and 11 other appearances scoring 2 goals, making a total of 356 appearances and 18 goals for the Clarets. Waldron arrived at Burnley after a short spell at Chelsea were he had signed from Bury and lasted just 10 matches for the London side. Rumour was that he was homesick and Harry Potts convinced the 6 foot 2 inches tall blond defender that Turf Moor should be his footballing home for the bulk of his career. Not many goals to his name you may say, but two of them stand out a mile; the first a left foot blast that earned Burnley a point at Preston in the last match of the 1972/73 season to lift the second division championship and a route back into the first division. The second months later when a run around
There was the disappointment of the semi final defeat against Newcastle in 1974, relegations and promotion, but I will always remember Colin Waldron as a tough, no nonsense and not lacking in skill, 100% committed to the Burnley cause player. He always appeared to me to be a centre half who was really a frustrated centre forward, something at my much lower player level of football at the time that I could relate to. There were no England caps and injury played its part at the end of his career with brief spells at Manchester United, Sunderland, Rochdale and in the USA. Now he runs his own bookies in Nelson and I have only had the privilege to speak to him once, when not long after his playing days had finished I met him when he was in the company of the then Manchester City Chairman Peter Swales at a race meeting at Haydock Park on a cold November day, during our conversation I wanted to ask him a question but in the end didnt, wish I had now “Go on Colin, tell him about that goal against City in the Charity Shield”
With thanks to Longside poster Stephen aka 'ColinWaldron' |
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 06 January 2009 ) |
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