ANDY Payton has scored 230 goals in 610 games in an illustrious striking career.

He was once Middlesbrough's record signing, he scored the winner for Celtic in an Old Firm derby and he represented the Hoops in Europe.

But as he hangs up his boots and retires from league football, for a Burnley fan born and bred, finding the highlight from 18 years in the game is not a hard choice.

"Winning the golden boot as the leading scorer in the season the team you love gets promotion to the first division and winning the player of the year awards, well you can't beat that," he smiled.

The fact that feat came many years after he was shown the door by the club he loves just made the moment all the sweeter although, looking back, he thinks rejection by then boss John Bond might just have been the making of him.

The Gawthorpe High School pupil only had to nip over the hedge to become a trainee with the Clarets but initially the love affair was all one way.

"It was John Bond who let me go but, the way I saw it, I could do one of two things," he said. "I could deal with the rejection and bounce back or I could give up football and find a job.

"In many ways that early setback helped me because it gave me the burning desire to prove I could do it. It was difficult getting knocked back, leaving home for Hull when I was 16 and only getting home once every three months. But having to start all over again could have been the making of me."

Having impressed at Hull, Middlesbrough made him their club record signing for £750,000 in November 1991 but the following summer he was on his way north of the border for the white hot atmosphere of Glasgow football.

He made himself a hero on the Celtic side of the city with the winning goal against Rangers but was soon heading back down south to Barnsley where he was a scoring sensation, finding the net at a rate of just under a goal every other game.

Two of the 41 goals he hit for Tykes came against Burnley, and he admitted: "That was one of the hardest things I have ever done, scoring the winner against Burnley at Turf Moor.

"Even though I had scored I did not want to celebrate. I did not run around giving it the big one, it would not have felt right."

From Oakwell it was a short hop across Yorkshire to Huddersfield where he again led the club's goalscoring charts before, in January 1998, he was offered the chance to come "home".

When he did finally return to Turf Moor it was after a phone call from then manager Chris Waddle, a sleepless night and a lot of worried moments.

"What I remember about coming back was the pressure," he said. "I had been the top scorer for Huddersfield in the first division the previous season when they finished eighth and I had a good partnership with Marcus Stewart.

"But Brian Horton got sacked and I was out with two hernia operations when, in January, Burnley came in for me.

"They were at the bottom of Division Two, four clubs went down, they were fighting for survival and I remember worrying about what would happen if I came back and it was a nightmare.

"I was a local lad who loved the club and having spoken to Chris Waddle I could not sleep that night. I could have stuck where I was because I knew if I didn't score the goals the club would be relegated.

"But I came in, struck up a good partnership with Andy Cooke and scored 13 goals as we stayed up by beating Plymouth."

The rest, as they say is history. Stan Ternent took over as manager and, in his first year, Payton's goals kept the Clarets up, in his second they took the Clarets up.

And it was that year he played with England legend Ian Wright and he recalled: "When the gaffer signed Wrighty and Gazza it was brilliant, but Wrighty probably more so.

"He was still doing it on the pitch, he got us four vital goals and just having his personality around the place was superb. He gave us that lift we needed for promotion.

"Gazza was great as well but we all know he has his problems and it didn't quite work out in the same way."

In his first years back at Burnley his partnership with Cooke was one of the most feared in the division.

He explained: "I think we were opposites in the way we played, he liked the ball in to feet while I liked to feed off people."

Payton scored 81 times for the Clarets, more than for any other club in his career and he was deadly in one on one situations.

"It is just a mental thing," he said.

"I don't think about it. If you ask someone like John Aldridge who has score well over 400 goals, he will say the same thing."

His personal scoring record at Burnley is fantastic when you consider that he has barely featured in the past two seasons with just a dozen cameos from the bench.

The lack of first team action left him 19 short of achieving his dream of scoring 100 Burnley goals but he said: "The goals I got basically came in about three seasons.

"I really wanted three figures but on my way I have passed people like my schoolboy hero Billy Hamilton and Peter Noble. No one in the past 20 years can match my record and so I can't complain.

"If someone like Gareth is going to get past me it is going to take a bit of doing as well."

But as he leaves the club he is delighted to see a few young players coming through as he said: "The gaffer has put them in, that is good for the club and I really like the look of young striker Damien Hindle."

Payton is hoping that there will be other young local lads capable of making an impact for the first team and one thing is certain.

If he does not go on to play football at a lower level next season, on match days Payts will be down at Turf Moor, where he first went at the age of five, cheering on the team he loves.