RELAXING in the office at Walsall FC’s training ground ahead of another daily session, David Hamilton is a happy man.

He is right at home talking and laughing about his experiences in the game, he is even happier when the Saddlers assistant manager Martin O’Connor appears in the room to give the club’s chief scout and coach a bit of friendly banter about the way he constantly and willingly talks about the ‘old times’.

But that brings back some marvellous memories for the affable 48-year-old and many of those will be stirred on Sunday when he intends to stay firmly on the fence as two of his old clubs enter an Ewood Park cauldron for an East Lancashire battle of the bragging rights.

“Let’s hope for a good, entertaining draw,” laughs Hamilton when asked to pick a winner of the first Blackburn Rovers v Burnley top flight derby since the year England ruled the footballing world.

“It will be some game, it will light up the Premier League – but don’t ask me to say who will win.

“I am sitting on the fence totally. I want them both to do well over the season. Let them take points off someone else, not each other.”

Hamilton is one of the few men to be as warmly received at both Ewood Park and Turf Moor but he freely admits that his reception at the Clarets was something of a surprise when he crossed the 12-mile divide back in 1990.

After moving to Ewood Park from Sunderland in 1981, South Shields-born midfielder Hamilton spent five years with Rovers before moving to Burnley via successful spells at Wigan and Chester City.

“I don’t think I could have gone straight from Rovers to Burnley,” he laughed.

“I am not sure if the fans would have worn that one. They are proper clubs with proper fans and rivalries so before I went to Burnley I decided to have three years at Chester and Wigan and when I arrived, the fans were great.”

Hamilton wasn’t always appreciated by the Burnley fans, especially as he played in both the seismic derbies of the 1982/83 season with Rovers completing an old Division Two double while the Clarets sunk into Division Three.

“They were some matches,” he said. “There were 18,000 at Turf Moor on Boxing Day and 14,000 at Ewood at Easter and when Burnley went down, we at Rovers were genuinely disappointed because the atmosphere brings the best out of you.

“And the players on Sunday will feel that as well, no matter where they have played in the past.

“The derby is a great game. It is as big as anything in football, certainly for the fans. It is special, and for them to be meeting in the Premier League is even better.

“It is great to see them going up against each other in the top flight again, that is the perfect stage for the game.”

While Hamilton played more than 100 games during his time at Ewood, his two-year stay at Burnley was plagued by injuries which limited him to just 15 starts.

And one of those spells on the sidelines was thanks to a serious knee injury suffered when the young Stuart Pearce somewhat sickeningly took him out of a League Cup tie at Nottingham Forest. “I try not to remember that game,” said Hamilton, adopting a more serious tone. “It’s all in the past, a long time ago.”

Hamilton, who also played non-league for Chorley and Great Harwood and Accrington Stanley, as well as managing Rochdale, is now a popular member of staff at Walsall, where he works under Chris Hutchings, the long-time assistant boss to Paul Jewell and former Bradford manager.

“I am really enjoying it at Walsall,” he said. “It’s a good club and the manager here is a good man.

“He got this job on his own bat, it wasn’t a promotion when another guy left and he believes in doing things the right way and long may it continue.”

Doing things the right way is something Hamilton, who still lives in the area and travels down the M6 daily, appreciates – and he knows that both of his former clubs have the same ethos.

“It is the one regret in my career that I didn’t play for Burnley sooner. It’s a great club, in fact both Rovers and Burnley are great, well run clubs.

“The fans didn’t see the best of me when I was at Burnley. I had a few injuries but I really enjoyed it.

“I still remember my debut for Burnley when I came on as a sub at Turf Moor and I just wish I could have spent more time there after my great times at Blackburn.”

One last attempt to prize a prediction out of Hamilton almost brings a result and he takes a deep thought. But after a pause he said: “I might not even see the game.

“I might be sent scouting to another match – but I will certainly catch it at some time on the TV.

“You really want a prediction? No, I am not moving. Let’s hope for that draw.”