THE man who scored the last goal in a Burnley-Blackburn League derby is delighted to see the games back on the fixture list -- starting on December 16.

Derek Scott scored Burnley's goal in their 2-1 defeat at Ewood Park on April 4, 1983 in a game marred by crowd trouble.

At the end of that season the Clarets were relegated to the old Third Division and only following promotion on the final day of last season have they now risen back to be on a level footing with Rovers.

"You want to see these derby matches in this corner of the county," said Scott.

"The history of the two clubs is as great rivals. As ex-Clarets we have played games in recent years against Blackburn veterans and the rivalry in those games is still quite high.

"You still want to beat them. It doesn't go away."

Scott admitted that the crowd trouble at the Darwen End is the abiding memory of the last derby clash.

"We ended up having to go of the pitch when the game was stopped," he recalled.

"Blackburn had scored one penalty and then got another one and when Simon Garner scored that all hell broke loose.

"My goal was more or less incidental and I can't remember much about the game after that. Obviously we lost the game 2-1 and that was more or less our final nail in the coffin."

From there Burnley slipped down the division to the verge of non-league football in 1987, while Rovers headed the other way.

"I know Blackburn missed out a few times in the play-offs but once Mr Walker came in it totally changed things around and they were on a different planet." "Our club was on a big downward spiral, not just on the playing side but on the financial side as well. You need money to survive and money wasn't coming in," Scott added.

However, Scott, who played over 350 games for the club and whose son Chris is now on the staff, believes Burnley will have learned lessons from past promotions and will be stay up this season.

And in his second career as a policeman he is hoping there will be no repeat of the violence of 1983 when Rovers and Burnley meet again.

"There's no getting away from the fact that the potential is there but the powers-that-be in our job will be doing everything to hopefully stop that happening," he said.