Ok, it's not 'official', but in 1987 Burnley were one match away from going out of the League and needed a last-day result away at Leyton Orient to survive. They got it, and now 22 years later they're in the Premiership. In 1997 we were one match away from going out of the league - so could we 'do a Burnley'?
As a slight aside, some people today think that Sky and the Premier League represent all that's bad about the game, but back in the 1970s people were worried about the demise of the 'football towns'. The view was that given the excessive national media coverage the big clubs got and the ease of travel, people in towns like Bolton, Blackburn and Burnley in Lanacashire and Huddersfield and Bradford in Yorkshire would forsake their local teams and instead would get in their Ford Cortinas and drive down the newly-laid motorways to watch the likes of Liverpool, Leeds and Man U; consequently the smaller clubs would soon follow Accrington Stanley and Bradford (Park Avenue) into oblivion.
I'm pleased that reports of their demise have been greatly exagerrated. Of course currently Burnley haven't a cat in hell's chance of WINNING the Prem, but at least they've made it back.
As a slight aside, some people today think that Sky and the Premier League represent all that's bad about the game, but back in the 1970s people were worried about the demise of the 'football towns'. The view was that given the excessive national media coverage the big clubs got and the ease of travel, people in towns like Bolton, Blackburn and Burnley in Lanacashire and Huddersfield and Bradford in Yorkshire would forsake their local teams and instead would get in their Ford Cortinas and drive down the newly-laid motorways to watch the likes of Liverpool, Leeds and Man U; consequently the smaller clubs would soon follow Accrington Stanley and Bradford (Park Avenue) into oblivion.
I'm pleased that reports of their demise have been greatly exagerrated. Of course currently Burnley haven't a cat in hell's chance of WINNING the Prem, but at least they've made it back.