From the Burnley Express Archive: Were you there to cheer the Clarets home?

Some weeks ago, an image that I could not be entirely sure about, was published.
The Burnley FC team coach makes its way through the crowds just below the Finsley Gate junction with Manchester RoadThe Burnley FC team coach makes its way through the crowds just below the Finsley Gate junction with Manchester Road
The Burnley FC team coach makes its way through the crowds just below the Finsley Gate junction with Manchester Road

It showed a Burnley FC football team returning from a big match, in April, 1947, and being greeted by a huge crowd of fans. The photograph had been taken in Manchester Road just above the Town Hall.

I asked if readers could identify the photograph and a number of you contacted me to tell me that the picture was of the Burnley FC team returning from their first ever Wembley Cup Final appearance in 1947.

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Today, we publish another image of the same event. It is taken in a similar location and those of you who know Old Burnley will recognise the Old Fire Station and the former Lane Bridge Foundry, just below the Finsley Gate junction with Manchester Road. Just above the same junction is the old Canal Tavern.

As you can see, the team, joined by the Mayor, are receiving the appreciation of a crowd of supporters jostling for space in Manchester Road. Some have got their rattles aloft and are waving vigorously.

However, the photograph is a remarkable one. Burnley, in the old second division, had lost the match 1-0 to First Division, Charlton Athletic! The Clarets road to the FA Cup Final has seen them beat three First Division Clubs, including Liverpool, who ended the season as League Champions.

The game against Charlton, who had finished 19th in the First Division, proved a match too far, but Burnley were not disheartened as they still had something to play for in the remainder of their season.

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You will have to be older than me to remember the reason why. I was born, after the Cup Final, in December, 1947, but the winter of 1946-7 was one of the coldest on record. It had severely disrupted the League programme and, after the Cup Final, the Clarets still had an amazing seven games to play.

To add to all this, Burnley were one of the favourites for promotion from the Second Division. A 5-0 victory at West Ham, in the penultimate match of the campaign, finally clinched the runners-up spot and Burnley FC, on 58 points, was promoted, four points behind Manchester City, on 62.

The year in which we are living now will probably go down as the “Year of Covid-19” and we know what the disease has done to our football season. Seventy-three years ago, something similar happened as those seven League games were played after the Cup Final, the last one of which was played in June, the only time that a Burnley FC team has played a domestic football match in that month.

The picture was taken from the Town Hall steps and you can see what an occasion the return of the Clarets was. A brass band, concentrating on their music, performs in the foreground, left. What a day it must have been – and all the fans had a lot more to cheer six or seven games later. In the following year, Burnley finished third in the old League Division One.

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