IF the Burnley players on board the flight to Frankfurt felt a surge of excitement about their Inter-Cities Fairs Cup quarter-final clash against Eintracht, they would have been less enamoured when the aircraft was struck by lightning somewhere over West Germany.

Fifty years ago last week, Harry Potts’ side were on the march in Europe, having won four and drawn two games to reach the last eight.

That included a brutal night in Naples when they had to be escorted out of the ground fearing for their lives after a second-leg goalless draw saw them progress.

The airborne drama en route to Frankfurt thankfully had no repercussions, and they went on to deliver a display that our reporter at the time, Granville Shackleton, labelled ‘one of their finest in European football’ in earning a 1-1 draw.

But the difference between that excellent performance on the banks of the Main River, and the return two weeks later in East Lancashire was like night and day.

Burnley lost 2-1 and were out, just when they were starting to believe they had a good chance of lifting European silverware for the first time in their history.

Leading goalscorer Andy Lochhead, who had netted six times up to that point, missed both games through injury which proved a huge setback for Clarets.

But the striker, now 76, remembers the positive feelings surging through the camp at the time.

“We thought we had a chance of winning it,” he said.

“We had some good results but unfortunately we got knocked out by Eintracht Frankfurt.

“But it was a great run and something the squad all enjoyed.”

Frankfurt were still a giant of the German game and the Clarets’ trip to the Waldstadion came only seven years after the club had lost the European Cup final 7-3 to a Real Madrid side featuring Alfredo Di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas.

Although they went out in the next round of the Inter-Cities tournament, losing 4-3 on aggregate to eventual winners Dimano Zagreb, they did finish fourth in the Bundesliga that season.

And all this made correspondent Shackleton, writing for what was then the Burnley Star, very impressed with the performance and result which saw Eintracht lead after 36 minutes before Brian Miller equalised on the hour mark.

Shackleton wrote: “After one of their finest performances in European soccer, Burnley, with a 1-1 draw in Frankfurt last night, will fancy their chances of reaching the semi-finals of the Inter Cities Fairs Cup.

“It was a glory night for English football as the sporting Frankfurt players left the field at the end of the first-leg quarter-final in West Germany to allow their 26,000 fans to applaud the Clarets from the field.

“This was a magnificent gesture, so different from the shambles of Naples, but so typical of the sporting way these West Germans accepted what must have been a bitter disappointment at not being able to use ground advantage.

“For Frankfurt must have been hoping for a 3-0 lead to carry to Turf Moor where now they must surely see the end of the road for them after this brave show by battling Burnley.”

Alas, that was to prove not the case.

Lochhead was out again for the return leg and Burnley surrendered rather meekly.

Frankfurt struck first, after 33 minutes, and it was the usually-dependable Dave Merrington at fault.

Fifty year on, the former centre-half remembers it well and says the pitch played a part in Oskar Lotz putting the visitors in front.

“I had a mishap in that game,” he told the Lancashire Telegraph. “There was a ball over the top and I was playing at the back.

“As I went to play it back to the goalkeeper it hit a divot and the ball bounced up and as I went to play it, it came off the edge of my foot and the winger ran in behind me and he caught the ball from 35 yards on the volley and it dipped over the goalkeeper.

“I look back on that and you think of bumpy pitches and the problems they caused.

“I think the biggest difference between then and the modern game is the quality of the pitches.

“When you go to a training ground now you can do all your technical work and you’re playing on superb surfaces like bowling greens. That’s the biggest difference.”

Did Merrington think he was going to be tasting European glory that season before the torrid Turf turnaround?

“I think the club was very confident (of winning the trophy), we’d done well and it was one of those games,” he said.

“That goal against us was a sheer fluke and a bit of bad luck.” Bumpy pitch or not, Shackleton had his pencil sharpened to deliver his verdict the next morning.

“After the 1-1 in Frankfurt a fortnight ago, this result and performance by the Clarets must have seemed like ‘after the Mayor’s Show’ to the 25,161 Burnley fans,” he wrote.

“They willed their team to win but the harsh facts are that Burnley, without Andy Lochhead, who failed to make it, were but a shadow of a team.

“Eintracht, on the other hand were a grand side. I’m told the term means ‘United’ and this is just what they were in comparison to the disjointed Burnley.

“From going ahead in the 33rd minute, they never looked back and following their second goal in the 72nd minute, they were treating Burnley almost with contempt.

“When Miller got a consolation goal in the 87th minute, it was no more than a token gesture – a last gasp of an injury-hit club who had come to the end of the road for the season.”

So the European dream was over for the Clarets.

But for Lochhead, half a century later, there are nothing but good memories from a continental adventure.

“To get a hat-trick in Europe and in that competition was terrific – I had a really good record in that competition that season, it seemed to suit me.

“It was one of the best experiences I’ve had in football.”