BURNLEY legend Jimmy McIlroy was honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the supporters clubs' player of the year ceremony last night.

The former Northern Ireland midfielder won the 1960 First Division championship with the Clarets, but believes if the club is to reach the top flight again they will need to spend.

"I wish we could look forward to success like this but the state of football today and the way it's run, money buys success, whereas before it was talent, sweat and guts when you won championships and cups," he said.

"Money dominates football today. In my day, the majority of players came through the ranks.

"Nowadays, people demand immediate success, so the only way you can do that is to go out and scour the world.

"There's a tremendous gap between the Championship and the Premier League, and even in the Premier League there are four clubs guaranteed to dominate because they have millions to spend.

"The play-offs will be a possibility (for Burnley) if there's money available to buy the necessary players. It's as simple as that.

"It sounds so businesslike, but that's the way football's run nowadays."

The 76-year-old, who spent 12 years with Burnley after arriving from Glentoran for £8,000 in March 1950, received a standing ovation when he received his award. And he admitted the reception endorsed why he had made Burnley his home, after arriving as an 18-year-old from Glentoran.

"It was a reminder for me why I still love and live in Burnley," said McIlroy who, to date, is the Clarets' most capped player.

"Years ago, Burnley played Spurs at Turf Moor one damp, dull, dark November Saturday afternoon. I was standing at the door to the ground with Danny Blanchflower, my old Irish team-mate.

"We were looking at the crowds in their thousands coming up in their cloth caps and mufflers, and Danny turned round to me and said how do you live in a place like this?' "And yet the moment I arrived in this town, I just felt at home.

"Maybe that was because I left a tiny village in Ireland and Burnley was just the right size for me, and it's still the right size for me."

He added: "In a way it's a tremendous compliment, but sometimes I feel an old has-been. I've done it two or three times, making the half-time draw.

"But on this occasion I thought of Danny Blanchflower when I walked out and I thought 'this is why I stopped at Burnley'."