Burnley F.C. History

For all the fans and just footy lovers what could be a better way to learn about the football club than follow it’s history from its founding date through all the falls and rises and to the current day. See the list of events throughout Burnley F.C. history to learn all about the Clarets.

Burnley Club 1889

• 1882, May – Burnley Rovers Football Club decided to shift their allegiance from rugby union to football.
• 1882, October – the club played their first competitive game against Astley Bridge in the Lancashire Challenge Cup, that game ending in an 8-0 defeat.
• 1883 – Burnley moved to Turf Moor, which is still their ground and is among the oldest English football grounds still in action.
• 1885-86 – Burnley first appeared in the FA Cup but were ignominiously beaten 11-0 when eligibility restrictions meant that their reserve side had to be fielded against Darwen (near Blackburn).
• 1888-89 – Burnley is among another 12 footy clubs to found the Football league competition.
• 1889-90 – Burnley is presented with their first honours, winning the Lancashire Cup with a 2-0 final victory over Blackburn Rovers.
• 1896-97 – the club relegated to the Second Division, but then won the promotion the next season, losing only 2 of their 30 matches.
• 1899-00 – Burnley were relegated again and found themselves at the centre of a controversy when their goalkeeper, Jack Hillman attempted to bribe their opponents in the last match of the season (Nottingham Forest), resulting in his suspension for the whole of the following season.
• 1910-11 – Burnley changed their colours from green to their now traditional claret and sky blue.
• 1912-13 – this season saw them win promotion to the First Division once more, as well as reaching the FA Cup semi-final, only to lose to Sunderland.
• 1913-14 – their first major honour, the FA Cup, won 1-0 in the last final played at Crystal Palace against Liverpool. This cup final was historic in that King George V became the first reigning monarch to present the cup to the winning captain.
• 1920-21 – Burnley F.C. lost their opening three matches of the Football League Championship before they went on a 30-match unbeaten run, a record for unbeaten games in a single season that lasted until Arsenal went unbeaten through the whole of the 2003-04 season.
• 1921-22 – Burnley finished the third in Football League
• 1929-30 – Burnley demoted fro League
• 1931-32 – The Clarets avoided further relegation (from second tier) by only two points.
• 1934-35 – Burnly got to the FA cup semi-final.
• 1956-57 – record 9-0 victory over New Brighton in the FA Cup.
• 1959-60 – Burnley won League Championship (manager – Harry Potts)
• 1972-73 – Burnley won the Second Division.
• 1975-76 – Burnley relegated from the First Division.
• 1979-80 – Burnley relegated to the Third Division
• 1984-85 – Burnley relegated to the Fourth Division
• 1986-87 – ‘The Orient Game’. For the 1986-87 season, the Football League had decided to introduce automatic relegation and promotion between the Fourth Division and the Conference league, the top tier of non-league football. Although, in retrospect, this has only served to blur the lines between professional and semi-professional leagues in England, at the time it was perceived that teams losing league status might never recover from this. After a disastrous season Burnley went into the last match needing a win against Leyton Orient. A 2-1 win was enough to keep Burnley in Division Four.
• 1988, May – Burnley were back at Wembley; this time to play Wolves in the final of the Sherpa Van Trophy. 80,000 people packed Wembley to its capacity, unsurprisingly a record for a match between two teams from English football’s fourth tier, as two great old clubs started to find an upturn in their fortunes. The Wolves won 2-0.
• 1994 – Burnley won the new Division Two play-offs and gained promotion to Division One under Jimmy Mullen.
• 1996-97 – relegation to Division Two.
• 1999-2000 – Burnley gained promotion to Division One.
• 2004 – Steve Cotterill’s first year in charge produced two notable cup runs, knocking out Premiership giants Liverpool and Aston Villa, and a 13th place finish in The Championship.
• 2007, November – Owen Coyle became Burnley’s new manager.
• 2009 – Championship’s playoff final against Sheffield United – their first ever game at the new Wembley Stadium, which they went on to win 1-0 through a Wade Elliott goal and thus gained entry into the Premiership, a return to the top flight after 33 years.