IT was the game that inspired a generation of young football supporters.

And now one of Burnley FC’s most famous fans has revealed his love for flicking about mini Clarets players in the days before he became the Prime Minister’s spin doctor.

Former Downing Street director of communications and Burnley fanatic Alastair Campbell is just one of a host of celebrities who reminisce in a new book about their 1970s childhoods spent hunched over the Subbuteo pitch.

The football game was overtaken by technology in the 1980s and 1990s – but it remains a cult classic for many.

In the book Mr Campbell, 51, said: “I first started watching Burnley in the days when Andy Lochhead was up front and Adam Blacklaw in goal, but I didn’t really become a diehard fan until the Martin Dobson/Leighton James era during my teens.

“I always wanted to be Burnley whenever I played Subbuteo with my brothers or a couple of mates, though I wasn¹t very good at it.

“If I was by myself, I’d play Burnley against Blackburn or Celtic.

“And we’d win every game, usually in the last minute.”

Mr Campbell, who has been a regular at Turf Moor since he was a child, grew up in Keighley and Leicester.

After attending Cambridge University, he worked as a journalist before becoming Tony Blair’s director of communications in 1997.

Now he admits his football-supporting children would never play Subbuteo – and one has even snubbed the Clarets in favour of Manchester United.

“I couldn’t help indoct-rinating (my children) into the Burnley way,” he added.

“While one of them is still indoctrinated, the other has gone off to Fergie-land.

“Now they’re into Champ-ionship Manager, Pro Evo-lution Football and other computer games which look unbelievably realistic.”

  • Teenage Flicks: Memories of the Beautiful Game, compiled by Paul Willetts, is available from bookshops priced £6.99.