‘RUN for your lives boys, run for your lives’.

Harry Potts gave plenty of memorable team talks in his time at Burnley, but the message to his players as they fled the carnage of the San Paolo stadium in Naples on February 8, 1967 was one the heroic Clarets of that night will never forgot.

Burnley had stormed one of the citadels of European football and had escaped with their 3-0 first leg advantage from their Inter-Cities Fairs Cup third round tie intact. But now the night was just beginning.

Having withstood everything that Napoli could throw at them, by fair means and foul, to claim a goalless draw, inspired by goalkeeper Harry Thomson, dubbed a ‘God in a green jersey’ for his astonishing display, now Burnley had to escape Napoli’s fans.

A trip to Naples in a European competition remains an intimidating experience, but rarely have the residents of this city on the Mediterranean been quite so angered by the sheer bloody mindedness of a team everyone expected them to swat aside.

On that day Dave Merrington was a 22-year-old defender making his first appearance in a European competition, brought into the side by Potts to keep the lively Omar Sivori at bay.

“I recall Harry Potts running across the pitch, running past us shouting ‘run for your lives boys, run for your lives’,” Merrington, now 71, remembers.

“The stadium had a moat around it and it was about eight feet deep and the same width from the pitch to the stands.

“The fans were seating on compressed little cushions of cardboard and they were setting fire to these little cushions and throwing them on like frisbees.”

A fiery affair dubbed The Battle of Naples boiled over when Alberto Orlando spat at Thomson at the end of the game, sparking a fracas.

As Burnley players and staff escaped to the dressing room Thomson’s reserve that night, Adam Blacklaw, was involved in another exchange in the tunnel.

“There was a real schmozzle because Adam Blacklaw was last off the pitch and one of their players had grabbed him and they threw him down the steps.

“I remember the doors crashing open and Adam dragged in a couple of guys, but they were policeman, they were trying to get him to safety and he didn’t realise.

“When we got ready Bob Lord came down, we had been due to stay the night but he made arrangements to book us straight out on the charter flight to get home that night.

“When we came out the bus used to drive underneath the stadium. You got straight off the coach and into the dressing room. When we got onto the coach after the match a police officer got on and said ‘we’d like you to cover your heads because of the riots outside’.

“There were flats all around the ground and he said that they throw plant pots down on the away team bus.

“We got out of the stadium and the militia were there with three or four armoured cars full of troops and we drove out, got out into the middle of them and they took us straight to the airport. They cleared the streets.

“We got to the airport and flew straight out.”

Writing for what was then the Burnley Star our correspondent Granville Shackleton referred to the ‘barbaric conduct shown by the defeated Naples team and their lunatic spectators.’

The barbs had begun in the first leg at Turf Moor when the Clarets turned on the style in a resounding win, with Andy Lochhead, Les Latcham and Ralph Coates getting the goals.

Napoli had gone behind after two minutes and preceded to try and turn the game into a kicking match, incensing Turf Moor.

In his report Shackleton said: “Like many of the 24,519 crowd I shuddered to think what might happen to life and limb in Naples as I watched the first 45 minutes.

“The crowd was so incensed at one stage in the first half that I feared they were coming over the top - and evidently the police shared this view.

“Burnley’s barricade system was about the only thing that stopped one of the angriest crowds Turf Moor has ever held.”

Striker Lochhead was at the centre of the major incident at Turf Moor. Kicked in the head after 35 minutes by Dino Panzanato, who took three minutes to leave the field, aghast that his display of thuggery had been punished.

Before Panzanato finally took his leave, he had a message for Lochhead, but the Scot’s response showed he’d picked on the wrong man.

“Their centre half was sent-off against me, he knocked me to the ground and the referee came over and sent him off,” said Lochhead.

“The guy came and grabbed hold of me and said ‘I kill you when you came to Napoli’, I said ‘get lost, you won’t be playing, you’ll be suspended’.”

Lochhead was playing at San Paulo.

He added: “It was a really intimidating atmosphere in Naples. They were a massive side at that time and we were just a small town team.

“We had a police escort back to the airport. We got on the coach and we had to put the suitcases against the windows because the fans were throwing bottles and stones and trying to smash the coach up, it was some experience and we made it back in one piece.”

Burnley had a taste of what was to come when they arrived in Naples the night before.

Booked into a hotel in the centre of the city, sleep was a luxury they weren’t going to be afforded.

“When we arrived there we stayed at a hotel in the town and the fans drove around the hotel all night tooting their horns trying to keep us awake,” said Merrington.

“It was quite an experience. It was quite an exciting time. It was a great game and we got through.”

They got through, and they got out.