‘I don’t think you’ll see the likes of Stan Ternent again’ - part two of our chat with former Burnley striker Gareth Taylor

Gareth Taylor admits “I don't think you'll see the likes of Stan Ternent again!”
Ian Moore, Gareth Taylor and Lee BriscoeIan Moore, Gareth Taylor and Lee Briscoe
Ian Moore, Gareth Taylor and Lee Briscoe

Life at Turf Moor was an eye-opener under Ternent, but the former Clarets striker has the utmost respect for the man who turned the club back in the right direction in six years at the helm.

Taylor joined the club, initially on loan from Manchester City in 2001, scoring four goals in 15 appearances before earning a permanent move that summer.

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Indeed, before he made the switch official, he was already essentially a full time part of the dressing room.

Taylor explained: "I came in on loan from Man City the last 13/14 games of the 2000/01 season, and the club made me an offer and I was keen to stay.

"How mad is this? We used to have an end of season get together, we used to go to Portugal with all the lads in those days, Stan and all the staff, all the players.

“You know what Stan was like, it was kind of compulsory!

"I went away with the lads, and that tells you everything. I really enjoyed my time there.

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"There's been some sad situations with Lenny's condition and Stan losing a couple of family members - I've been over for funerals recently, and I speak to a lot of people about this in football, I played for a lot of clubs and I was in some really good dressing rooms, but I don't know what it is about Burnley, you always gravitate back to that club and to Stan.

"You have to take your hat off to Stan really, he would drive you nuts on a daily basis, you'd think you'd had enough, 'this is mental', he's like a bear with a sore head every single day, but he also commanded that respect.

"You couldn't help but love the fella, he knew how to manage people, usually with an iron fist, but I was kind of used to that.

"I had a tough upbringing and apprenticeship at Southampton under Dave Merrington, who played in the same era as Stan and also played for Burnley, Stevie Davis came through that system as well.

"You had to have rhino skin to survive.

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"Dealing with someone like Stan, who would tell you one week you were brilliant, and the following week you were useless...

"I could write a book on my time there, it was great.”

Taylor doesn’t think that kind of manager, who manages virtually every expect of the club, exists any more in the modern game: ”I don't think you'll see the likes of Stan again, someone who's got that ability first off, but also that freedom to run the club top to bottom.

"These clubs these days with the amount of job titles, it's just changing.

"With Stan, he just did the lot.

"We used to have to sign a register in the morning, he used to call it ‘The Book’.

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"On a Friday, we used to have a court hearing. If you did something in The Book, it was £2 fine, if you defaced The Book, it was a meeting, on top of the court hearing.

"We'd all sit in the dressing room, and he'd go 'right lads, Gaz Taylor never signed The Book on Tuesday'.

"I'd go, 'yeah I did', and he'd go 'do you want to appeal it?'

"And if you did, and lost - the judges were Sam Ellis, Jeppo, Mick Doc, and the Fox...they always wanted to get money in the coffers.

"'Lenny Johnrose, no flip flips on on Thursday'...

"But he used to have this thing, 'you've defaced the book'.

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"I'd just signed, and didn't know what this book was, and I was told I needed to sign in.

“As I did, someone had already signed next to my name 'Jesus Christ'!

"Stan was going round saying 'someone's defaced the book!'

"We had this big meeting, 'have we signed Jesus Christ? We've a right chance if we have!'

"I ended up getting fined, if you defaced the book it was £2 for everyone.

"It would have been someone like Cooky...”

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Taylor laughs as he reminisces about another incident in December 2002, as he was harshly dismissed late on in a 4-2 defeat at Gillingham for a perceived head butt: "There was another time at Gillingham, there was a tough tackle between me and Paul Smith, and we went head to head.

"He kind of gave it the old 'you've nutted me one' and was holding his face, but I didn't move my head.

"I got sent off, and Stan pulled me on the Monday and told me we were going to appeal.

"I'd got a two-game ban, and he said he was going to appeal.

"I said, 'okay gaffer'.

“'You didn't do anything did you?'

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“‘No - you can see it, look at the video angle, the ref's stood behind me and thinks I've thrown the nut on him'.

"I hadn't, so he said we'd appeal. We did and got done three games, so he pulled me in and said 'we've lost the appeal, you've got three games'.

"He put a letter in my hand, opened it and he's fined me a week's wages!

"I said 'hold on a minute gaffer', but he said 'no, you lost the appeal'.

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"I said 'you were the one who wanted to appeal!' but he just said 'no, you lost, unlucky, just sort it out with Ange!'”

The Wales international also remembers the time strike partner Ian Moore faced the wrath of Ternent, after a case of mistaken identity!: “Another funny one with Mooro, we were doing shadow play up at Gawthorpe, it's boiling hot, Stan's got about three balls under one arm, three under the other, and he's on halfway.

"We're doing a half pitch shape against no one, with Nik the Greek in goal.

"He's played a ball to Westy and said 'go on from there'. It goes into the forwards, we set it, it goes wide, we get into the box and finish the action.

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"We'd been doing it about an hour, on a Friday, and we had a game against West Brom the next day.

"Stan's on halfway and we're looking at him thinking 'not another ball, not another ball'. and he's got another ball out...

"I think I scored from about two yards out, and he's about 50 yards away, Mooro is close to me, and I've said to him 'is the game off tomorrow or what?!'

"Stan heard it, 'you f***ing what? Sam, get the lads in!' and he's staring at Mooro because he thinks he said it, and he took the rap for me.

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"He was gunning for Mooro, who was desperate to say 'it wasn't me, it was Gaz!'

"They were good times.”

Taylor insists Glen Little has a better memory for old dressing room anecdotes, one of a number of big characters at Turf Moor at the time, who helped the club finish seventh in the second tier in successive seasons after promotion in 2000: "Glen is brilliant with the stories - his memory is spot on, whereas mine is a bit more hazy...he would remember situations, he was talking about how you could never read Stan.

“But I enjoyed playing there, playing with the likes of Alan Moore on the left, Glen on the right, crossing balls in, Westy, Mitchell Thomas, Paul Cook - when I look back at the goals I scored, so many came from Cooky, he had a wand of a left foot.

"Me, Glen, Paul Weller, Johnny Mullin, Ian Moore, we were the youngest in the team at around 28/29!

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"Stan got in so many characters, Mitchell, Gordon Armstrong, Jeppo, Paul Cook, Westy - whether you were playing or not, there was a real togetherness.

"Everyone was in it together.“

He added: ”I played a physical game, I had all my career, and probably wouldn't be able to get away with some of the things I did back in the day now, going in strong, going in hard, leaving with the arm, looking after yourself in general, but you always knew, with Bally, Mitchell, Lenny, big Skip, I was never worried about getting in a scrap!

"I had a team of doormen behind me!

"We might not have been the fanciest of footballers, but it was a bit like the film Moneyball, we were efficient!

"Fair play to Stan, he knew exactly what was needed, for his style of game, and we had some laughs, it was great.

"A real good group of lads and I still keep in touch with quite a few of them.”