Source: FOOTYMAD
First substitute to make draw
Burnley's first ever substitute, Ian Towers, will be the very welcome guest at Turf Moor tonight at our game against Hull City and he'll be making the half time draw for the very first time. It's not surprising to learn that a Burnley player of the 1960s came from the North East of England, Blackhill to be precise with Towers, after we spotted him playing for Durham Schoolboys.He made his first team debut in April 1961 but it was in the next season when he came very close to playing in an FA Cup Final. He'd got into the side at the expense of Gordon Harris, but on the big day at Wembley it was Harris who was preferred with Towers, in the days before substitutes, the twelfth man.Towers made just 44 league appearances for the Clarets and his last was certainly a significant one when he appeared at the start of the second half in our home game against Arsenal in August 1965. He'd come on as substitute for the injured Willie Irvine and thus became the club's first ever substitute in competitive football, wearing a shirt with no number.He was sold to Oldham in January 1966 for £20,000 and he later played for Bury before moving to South Africa, where he lived for many years, to play for Cape Town and Hellenic.Now aged 70, it is not his first return to Turf Moor but the first time he'll have made the half time draw.
