Simpson brings the Clarets to book

By the time the official launch is made in October, it may feel like a lifetime.

"I've spent more time in the reference library than some of the staff! I've been there so long I've been invited on their Christmas party!" he quips.

But the retired building society boss insists it is a labour of love.

The Clarets Chronicles' will be the eighth book on the Clarets' background that the club's official historian has had published, and he is striving for it to be not just the best one relating to events at Turf Moor, but to set new standards for historical football accounts nationwide.

It is a follow-on from Burnley - A Complete Record: 1882-1991', which he co-wrote, but gives an even greater insight into the club that celebrated its 125th anniversary last month.

"When I did the Complete Record in 1991 it was a tremendous thrill to see the book on the shelves with my name on it," said Simpson.

"Every book since then has been a thrill but I've always felt it could have been done better. I've felt there was something missing from that first one.

"But this is the definitive club history with lots more detail than before. It contains everything that any Burnley fans, or any football fan, would really want to know about. The stuff that isn't in it probably isn't worth bothering with, and you can't say that about the other book.

"The sheer amount of work that was involved meant I had to ask other people to contribute," continued Simpson, who is working with local jounalists Darren Bentley, Edward Lee and Phil Simpson, as well as his "oldest friend", Wallace Chadwick.

Simpson and Chadwick have nurtured their love of Burnley Football Club and its rich history since they first met at Burnley Grammar School over 45 years ago.

But regular trips to Turf Moor weren't immediately appealing to a young Simpson, who preferred to play football, rather than watch the game, with friends.

However, the mesmeric skills of Irish wizard Jimmy McIlroy soon changed his mindset.

"For some reason it never occured to me when I was growing up in the 50s that I wanted to go on the football," he said.

"I read about football in the paper and Burnley reports. I knew my dad went on but he never said do you want to come with me?' until I was about five or six. And for some reason I didn't ask either.

"He was waiting for me to ask the question. He didn't try to push me into it for whatever reason.

"I was eight or nine when I went to my first game, in the 1957-58 season.

"I saw Jimmy McIlroy for the first time and I was hooked there and then. My future was cast in stone.

"I think it was a game against Spurs, Jimmy scored twice and Burnley won 2-0.

"He really established himself in the Burnley team before I started watching them.

"Even if you didn't go on the football everybody knew who Jimmy McIlroy was, and he was the best player in the world because your dad said so"

"He had such an ease of movement. There was no effort about it. It came naturally to him.

"But I still didn't really start going to games regularly until I went to Burnley Grammar School.

"I met Wallace there and found we had a mutual appreciation of football history, which, for me, had grown when I realised Burnley were one of the original 12 teams in the Football League.

"While we were at school, we started to research the history of the club together, and he's been involved with everything I've written since.

"He's always contributed in some way."

He added: "I like to think of myself as a football fan before I'm a Burnley fan. I think all true fans are football first and foremost rather than just fans of their club.

"I enjoy football for its own sake. If your team happens to win, so much the better. You can still be passionate but enjoy the football by both sides.

"I tend to follow the careers of players who have been at Burnley and those who come to the club to find out what they've done before they were signed."

It isn't just achievements that Simpson focuses on in his latest publication. From pre-Football League, pre-war and post-war and both wartime periods, a full spectrum of highs, lows and periods of indifference are charted in explicit detail.

"It's always easy to dwell on the good times when the club was winning things. But I don't think that should be done at the expense of the present day and the plans for the future," he explained.

"The book doesn't glorify the good times at the expense of the bad times. It's just telling it how it was to give people a real feeling of what it was like at the club and the part it played in the development of organised professional football as well.

"There is probably a young generation of kids growing up not realising how important Burnley Football Club has been and still is."

There have been several turning points in the Clarets' history.

Simpson continues: "In April 1962, we were three matches away from winning the double - favourites for the league and we got to the FA Cup final. Just 25 years later, we were 90 minutes away from going out of the league.

"It doesn't point back to 62. I'm just demonstrating how quickly they fell from one of the top clubs in the land to one of the bottom."

But out of everything that Simpson has witnessed at Turf Moor through 50 years following the Clarets, he reckons the events of 1987 are arguably the most crucial in the club's entire history.

He added: "In the 1985/86 season, the club was really on its uppers. Players had to be let go because they couldn't afford their wages.

"Then the following season ended with the Orient game. But, in some ways, once we had survived, it was a good thing we got to the brink.

"We were within 90 minutes of losing something that was very dear to a lot of people."

The book, due for release in October, retails at £19.95.

The club is inviting subscribers who may want their name or a personal message printed to collect relevant forms from the club or download them from the official website.