MANY supporters believe that Colin McDonald was the greatest goalkeeper in the history of Burnley Football Club.

But it was only by chance that he first took up his position between the sticks.

Hawkshaw St Mary's, a Bury Sunday School League side, were short of a custodian and Colin was drafted in from his usual left wing spot.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Former Burnley player Johnny Marshall saw his potential and took him down to the Turf for a trial.

Colin signed as an amateur and a part time professional, before being offered a full time contract.

In 1954 he made his debut at Villa Park but it was not the auspicious start he would have chosen.

"Manager Frank Hill told me on the Friday morning that I would be playing and told me the coach would pick me up at Bury.

'Don't be late' were his parting words. Maybe I should have been - we lost 5-1.

"Welcome to the big time!

"But I must have done okay because he kept me in and I became the regular keeper."

At 6ft 1in and weighing in at 13 stone, Colin had all the attributes of a top class keeper. He was brave, commanded his box, was dominant in the air, had great hands and gave confidence to his team-mates.

"I was lucky to play in a very good side with some terrific players," he added modestly.

"The full backs were Jock Aird and Jock Winton and with a half back line of Jimmy Adamson, Tommy Cummings and Bobby Seith my job was made a lot easier.

"There were no goal keeping coaches in those days but I did get a lot of encouragement from the likes of Billy Dougal and Ray Bennion who were on the staff at the time and the fans were just brilliant.

"They really supported the players and the Longside was packed to the rafters. In fact, in those days over 10,000 of them came along to reserve games!"

Colin's first representative honour came in 1958, when he played for the Football League against the Scottish League at Newcastle.

He got his first of eight caps against Russia and recalled: "Prior to the World Cup in Sweden, England had games organised against Yugoslavia and Russia.

"Eddie Hopkinson was in goal for the first game but we lost 5-0. We moved onto Moscow and even though Walter Winterbottom was the manager, it was skipper Billy Wright who told me I would be playing in the next match.

"What an experience. 104,000 in the Lenin Stadium. Tommy Banks and Eddie Clamp were also included for the first time."

But Colin's international highlight undoubtedly came in the World Cup game against Brazil when he kept a clean sheet.

"The match was played in Gothenburg in lovely conditions and the fans helped with my performance.

"To stop those gifted players from scoring was a very special day for me. After that experience I've often thought that summer football would be welcomed by players and fans alike."

Sadly, right at the top of his profession, Colin's career was to be tragically cut short. He played for a Football League side against the League of Ireland in Dublin and broke his leg.

Aged 28, he didn't know then that his playing days were over. They took him to the local hospital where X-rays revealed the fracture and his leg was set in plaster, before he returned home to shuffle around on crutches.

After suffering great pain, diagnosed wrongly as pneumonia, Colin's condition started to deteriorate and it was after a visit from his brother-in-law that alarm bells were pushed.

The club were contacted, Colin was transferred to the Burnley area and after exhaustive tests, it was confirmed that Colin was suffering from pulmonary embolism - a blood clot in his lung - which could have been fatal had it settled in his heart.

"I was devastated," he told me. "At 28 my career was over and to think in the modern game, some of them go way past their 40th birthday. But eventually you put all that behind you and you begin to move forward.

"I started to work for the Spastics Society and I'd only been with them for a few weeks when Billy Allen, the chairman of Bury, asked me if I'd like to become youth coach.

"The manager Dave Russell moved onto Tranmere Rovers and when Bob Stokoe took over, he made me chief scout."

Colin had two spells at Gigg Lane, sandwiched between was a spell at Bolton Wanderers where he was employed in a similar role, before retiring from the game completely in 1987.

He lives with his wife Anne in the village of Summerseat near Bury.

But there's little doubt that a certain generation of Burnley fan still remember the great man in his prime.