A MASSIVE television audience will tonight have their eyes glued on a football pitch lovingly manicured by a dyed-in-the-wool Burnley fan.

But despite the prestige of preparing the surface for the clash of European giants Inter Milan and Manchester United, Steve Taylor would sooner be touching up Turf Moor in readiness for the visit of Macclesfield Town on Sunday week.

It is an incredible journey that has taken Taylor from a council house in Rossendale to the San Siro, one of the finest football stadiums in world football.

But, fittingly for a groundsman,Taylor hasn't forgotten his roots and, even if he wouldn't actually swap jobs, he has a touch of envy towards Arthur Bellamy - the inside forward-turned head groundsman at Burnley.

"The truth is I'd rather be at Turf Moor in my claret and blue woolly hat than watching the likes of Ronaldo," said Taylor.

"I've fetched up here, working in this fabulous stadium every day where fans kiss the grass because they love it so much.

"I should be in football heaven. But I'm a northern lad and that stays in your blood, wherever you are."

Taylor's route to the San Siro started in rather more humble surroundings.

"I've always liked gardening and even as a lad I'd help my dad with the tiny patch we had in front of our council house in Rossendale," he revealed. "My reward was those Saturdays when every hour was spent speculating about Burnley's game.

"My grandad, dad and me and all my uncles and cousins used to go to Turf Moor and cheer our heroes.

"Mine was Andy Lochhead, one of our best centre-forwards ever. He was Scottish and bald and brilliant.

"My parents were proud when I went to Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School, but I was more proud of the label on my satchel saying 'Burnley - First Division for 26 years'. That's how great they were."

Taylor, now in his early 40s, moved with his parents Jack and Jean to Devon when he was 15.

That didn't diminish the love affair with Burnley which still burns just as strong.

But he put even greater distance between himself and Turf Moor after meeting his future wife Loredano on the Greek island of Paros he visited each summer.

Unsurprisingly her home town of Milan got the nod as the place they would live.

"All I needed was a job," Taylor added.

"I did a bit of furniture restoring, I worked in a woodyard and then I answered an ad for a gardener.

"My boss, Fabio Rappo, started me off on landscaping and golf greens and then took over the contract for San Siro." It was therefore by chance that Taylor ended up in Milan's football nerve centre.

But he proved himself good enough at the job to be in overall responsibility for the pitch and surrounds - even down to painting the goalposts - for tonight's Champions League quarter-final second leg.

"I've been in charge for four-and-a-half years and I still sometimes think "wow" when I walk in this place," he added.

"This is the world's most fantastic stadium, an architectural gem."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.