The game when tears flowed like rivers was in 1986/87 and it should really be number 1 in any top-ten list such was its magnitude - in fact it was a huge day, the emotion so palpable it deserves its own feature article. Had Burnley lost, the consequences were just too big to contemplate: it was the final game of the season against the Orient in the old Fourth Division and had Burnley lost they would have been kicked out of the Football League. The football world was in a state of disbelief; the once champions of England demoted to the Conference, but in a game that was so tense you could cut the air, they won, scraped a victory, hung on in a 2-1 win with whistles and screams for full time so loud they must have been heard miles away. As lumps go, it was the biggest ever; sheer relief, unbridled emotion, the ache of fear and apprehension turning to joy and triumph when that whistle finally went. People flew in from all over the world to see the last rites they thought. There were tears before the game never mind afterwards and I was there. It was an awful game but a unique and momentous sporting occasion.
