The Longside Reference

Incredibly Burnley within 48 hours of the league encounter at Ewood Park, fielded their very near first team against the amateurs from all four of the home countries that made up a Great Britain Olympic side. I say incredibly because we were already into a very hectic league programme whereby we had already sustained injuries to key players and in those days there wasn't the same squad rotation as we see today.

There was an actual single sheet programme produced for this game which has become a bit of a rarity. It cost only 1d and had the team line ups on one side and the 1959/60 squad on the other, see scans.

The Clarets came out of the game easy winners with a 5-0 victory, goals coming from Connelly (2), McIlroy (2) and White (1)

One thing to note of interest looking at the 38 man 1959/60 squad is that there are no players listed that have been brought in from any league clubs. To win the League title with such an inexperienced squad would be totally impossible in today's football, thus making Burnley's achievement in doing so even more remarkable.