A SURPRISE winner, given the significance of what happened in 1987, but Burnley’s runaway FA Cup triumph at Penrith was voted the Clarets’ ‘Game of the 80s’.

Perhaps the nature of the scoreline is what made this game stand out from the shortlist for this particular decade.

The 9-0 win is a joint post-war highest score club record that still stands to this day in the competition, and the game included two hat-tricks for Kevin Hird and Steve Taylor.

Burnley were having a terrible season, but there was no chance of a slip-up against non-league opposition as the Cumbrian side had no answer to anything the Clarets threw at them in the first round tie.

But it was to be one of few highlights in a season which ended a relegation from the Third Division for Burnley, It was one of the darkest periods in the history of the club.

Worse was to follow, but there was light at the end of the tunnel.