WHEN Terry Cochrane was a nine-year-old boy he spent the morning of the FA Cup final playing jumpers for goalposts outside the family home in Killyleagh, Northern Ireland, before going inside to watch Burnley lose to Tottenham.

The year was 1962 and Terry was a big fan of Bill Nicholson’s Spurs, who had swept all before them when winning the double the previous year.

MORE TOP STORIES:

But as he cheered Jimmy Greaves, Danny Blanchflower and Dave Mackay on, little did Terry realise that it was the team in claret and blue, and the man in the opposite dugout, who would go on to have such a seismic impact on his own life.

Cochrane had already been rejected by Everton and Nottingham Forest, and was back playing in the Irish league when the call came that Burnley, and Harry Potts, wanted him.

The 23-year-old, determined to make it in the professional game this side of the water, jumped at the move and arrived as a £38,000 addition to a squad struggling in the Second Division during the 1976/77 season.

Lancashire Telegraph:

But he scored twice in his first two games for the Clarets and became an instant fans’ favourite.

“I think the fans took to me because I liked to dribble with the ball, that’s what it’s all about,” said Cochrane, now 62.

“I was never afraid to take anyone on and that was part and parcel of why the fans liked me. They were on the edge of their seats when I got the ball.

“It gives you massive confidence if the fans are with you. You can do no wrong and you think I’m not going to disappoint them.

“I don’t think we have that in today’s games when a winger goes down the line, beats the full-back and crosses it.

“I still admire the players who can run with the ball and beat people.”

Cochrane had been snubbed by Forest at 16 and Everton at 18, and as he puts it ‘fate had decided I wasn’t good enough then’.

But when his third chance in English football came, he was determined to seize it.

“All of a sudden I got another chance when I was playing Irish league football,” he said. “The scouts came to watch me and it was Harry Potts who wanted me.

“It was Harry and Joe Brown. They were brilliant. I never had a problem with them. They were good managers and real good people.

“It was my first endeavour into the English professional game and they treated me well.”

Despite those early goals Cochrane’s adaptation from Coleraine to the Clarets wasn’t always easy.

“It was a big step up, I was a few yards short,” he explained. “The manager used to tell me you will get the pace of the game. It took me a while.

“There were times when I played against extra good players when I felt a little bit down because they were better than me at the time.

“We played Crystal Palace and I played against Kenny Sansom and he never gave me a kick.

Lancashire Telegraph:

“I had to learn quickly . I was playing against full-backs who were some of the best in the league, not the part-time players I was used to playing against.”

The highlight of a Turf Moor career which spanned 85 games was a famous goal at Ewood Park to win an East Lancashire derby.

Cochrane picked the ball up just inside Rovers’ half on 20 minutes before unleashing a swerving shot which found the back of the net.

Burnley won at Ewood Park the year after as well but it would then be 35 years before they won on enemy territory again.

“I hit one from about 40 yards and it dipped into the top corner. To win a derby it was a good goal,” he said.

Having spent £38,000 bringing Cochrane to the club, Burnley made plenty of profit when they sold him early in the 1978/79 season for £238,000 to Middlesbrough.

But Cochrane, who still lives in the north east, admits he left Turf Moor too soon, and he tells all in his new book, ‘In Off The Far Post’.

“It’s water under the bridge now but it was me trying to be too ambitious at the time,” he said.

“Everybody wants to play at the top level, but it takes a little bit of patience and I wasn’t prepared to do that. I regretted the decision at the time, it wasn’t right.”

A proud Northern Irishman, Cochrane made 27 appearances for his country, and his only goal was the highlight of his career, a late equaliser against England at Wembley that helped the Ulstermen win the 1980 Home Championship for the first time in 66 years.

“That is what you call a field of dreams, it’s what I dreamt of when I first put the coats down with my brother outside our house playing in the road,” he beamed.

“After I scored in 1980 it was David Healy in 2005 who next scored against England.

“David lives five doors away for me back home. There’s a mural in Killyleagh with me and David on it.”

A tricky winger himself, Cochrane played for the national team alongside George Best: “He brought me a pint of lager, I was over the moon. I should have saved it and kept it.”

His travels also saw him coach the Saudi Arabian military team during the Gulf War. After responding to an advert in the paper, before he knew it Cochrane found himself in Jeddah.

One of the game’s greatest characters, Cochrane has plenty of tales to tell in his book, and he will be hoping for a fond reception when he returns to Turf Moor on Sunday for Burnley versus Tottenham, where he will be carrying out the half time draw.

“My wife said why don’t you write a book about all these things,” he said.

“It was good to write it and I’ve sold a lot of books. Hopefully I’ll sell a few more on Sunday.”

For more information on Terry’s book, In off the Far Post, visit www.terrycochrane.co.uk.