{"id":108,"date":"2019-03-27T03:35:59","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T03:35:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gonbys.com\/?p=108"},"modified":"2019-03-27T03:35:59","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T03:35:59","slug":"burnley-1963","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/?p=108","title":{"rendered":"Burnley, 1964"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wolves never won at\nTurf Moor in the 1960\u2019s, a run that began with a fateful defeat in\nthe 1959\/60 season that would ultimately cost us a hat-trick of\ntitles, and the first league and cup double of the 20th<\/sup>\nCentury. Though Burnley had an excellent side in those days, under\nthe inspired leadership of Harry Potts, few people realize the\nprinciple factor in their home successes was the one-in-three\ngradient that Turf Moor was built on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, it was not unusual back then for pitches to have inclines \u2013 it was considered by many to constitute an intrinsic part of the game, and could increase the cash-flow of struggling clubs in the winter months, when they would hire out their snow-covered venues for sledging. Nearby Silsden\u2019s ground was so sloped that both goals were placed at the same end to create a more even game. But while relatively widespread, sloped pitches could create difficulties for teams used to playing on level surfaces, even the mightiest of the mighty like Stan Cullis\u2019 Golden Gargantuans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In previous seasons, Cullis had successfully deployed a “Mardy Kabandha”, switching to a “Rampant Indra” shape when attacking downhill.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In previous seasons,\nCullis had successfully deployed a fairly typical \u201cMardy Kabandha\u201d\nformation at Turf Moor, with all eleven players forming an arc around\nthe goalmouth in the first half, and switching to a \u201cRampant Indra\u201d\nshape when attacking downhill. Potts had since stymied that tactic\nby choosing to attack the Bee-Hole End second half when winning the\ntoss, and Cullis had struggled to find an answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019d tried the \u201cChristian Burial Ground\u201d shape: a rigid and narrow 3-2-3-2 with imaginary wingbacks; he\u2019d experimented with \u201cTin O\u2019Beef\u201d, which was even more rigid, but used a creative midfielder with diminished responsibility to knit weaving runs through the banks of four which would \u201ccatch\u201d the ball like a net (we lost that one 2-0). For the last ten minutes of one match he used an okey-cokey formation with no goalkeeper — all to no avail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Turf Moor: the 1-in-3 gradient has been rebalanced in this image to save space on the internet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On 24 November 1964 this prolonged tactical war would give rise to what coaches now know as the \u201chemi-semi umbilical F2\u201d shape, but which Cullis called \u201cStubborn Betty\u201d, allegedly after a cleaning lady past whom it was difficult to negotiate in the narrow corridors of the Waterloo Road Stand: one at the back plus the goalie, with seven players huddled around the ball at the corner flag on Ron Flowers\u2019 side, stopping Burnley getting to it. Crawford and Le Flem were placed slightly higher up the field (about four feet), and instructed to crow at the Burnley players when their attempts to win the ball inevitably failed (not a natural role for the genial Ray Crawford, but one he performed very professionally, I thought).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were unable to see the ball…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It worked rather well. So well, in fact, that during one spell we were unable to see the ball from our position in the Longside for thirteen straight minutes. Some people did leave early. A 1-1 draw was secured, which was a fairly decent return at Turf Moor in those days, and on the way out a rumour started that in a pub called the Star there was an Aleph where you could see every part of the universe, inside and out, at the same time, including yourself looking at the Aleph in the Star in Burnley. We headed instead to the Coach and Horses, where Dick Flint found a deep-fried beetle in his scratchings, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cullis’ tactical genius was tested to its limits when scaling the north face of Turf Moor…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}