A fan's-eye view from Turf Moor, with Stephen Cummings

ASK Burnley supporters of a certain age "Who was the greatest Claret of them all?" and they will invariably come back at you with one name - Alan Harper.

No, but seriously, folks, of the galaxy of stars which have lit up Turf Moor down the years, Jimmy McIlroy is the one which shone the brightest. Or so I am told.

You see, like many Burnley fans, I wasn't even a twinkle in my parents' eyes when McIlroy, Lochhead and Cummings (no relation I should add), were terrorising the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur. Which from a personal point of view is immensely frustrating.

As far as I am aware, there exist no video tapes of the great man in action. As Jimmy Mac played his last game for the club in 1963, it would seem that any Burnley fan under the age of 36 is destined never to see just why the Irishmen achieved legendary status.

In fact the only way in which any information can be gleaned about McIlroy is either by perusing copies of old newspapers in the local library or asking someone who was lucky enough to have seen him play.

(The latter method, it should be pointed out, is utterly futile. I've tried it with my Dad. And at the mere mention of the man's name, he went into thousand yard stare mode, whilst his eyes took on the sort of glaze more readily associated with a Melton Mowbray pork pie). Happily for younger Burnley supporters, the old saying that history repeats itself has the ring of truth about it. Because what McIlroy did for the fans in the fifties and early sixties, Glen Little is doing for their nineties counterparts.

Little's form this season has been nothing short of outstanding. Pace, trickery, fast feet and a wonderful ability to cross the ball with consistent and terrifying accuracy, all add up to make Little the Ginola of Division Two (mind you, Little doesn't dive).

The similarities between McIlroy and Little are uncanny. Both are crowd pleasers. Little plays on the right hand side, as did McIlroy. Furthermore, both players were signed from the Irish club Glentoran.

However, there is one similarity between McIlroy and Little that we definitely do not want to see. McIlroy was mysteriously sold to Stoke City - an act which shocked and outraged the Turf Moor faithful. Here's hoping history doesn't repeat itself too often.

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