DAVE BURNSIDE

Full Name: David Gort Burnside

Born: 10 December 1939

Came from: Wolverhampton Wanderers   Went to: Bristol City

First game: 16 March 1968   Last game: 01 May 1971

Appearances: 113 (113/0)   Goals: 17

Born in Bristol and perhaps destined to become a footballer, Burnside's father even installed floodlights in the back garden when he was a youth to help him practise.

Despite representing Bristol Schoolboys and the England Youth side, Burnside was not signed by either of his home town clubs, instead beginning his career with West Bromwich Albion.

An attacking midfielder, he established a reputation as an extremely skilful player and was also renowned for his ball-juggling ability. He even won a national newspaper competition run by the Sunday Dispatch to find the player who could achieve the most consecutive headers, recording 495.

In five years at The Hawthorns, Burnside made 127 appearances and scored 39 goals, while also winning two England under-23 caps. He left Albion for Southampton in a £18,000 move and, in two years at The Dell, played 70 times and scored 26 goals.

He then moved to Crystal Palace in December 1964 for £12,000, playing 58 times and scoring eight goals. He spent one-and-a-half seasons with Palace in Division Two before joining Wolverhampton Wanderers in September 1966. At Molineux he helped the club win promotion to Division One as runners-up at the end of the 1966-67 season. While at Wolves, he also made appearances as a guest for Los Angeles Wolves in the summer of 1967, essentially representing the Wolverhampton club in the short-lived United Soccer Association League.

He remained with Wolves until March 1968, when he moved back to Division Two by joining Home Park as one of Billy Bingham's early signings, for £7,000. A change of position to centre-forward led to him winning the Player of the Season award for 1968-69, in his first full season with Argyle, but he could not maintain that form and lost his place the following year. Reverting to midfield, he played regularly in 1970-71, but when he found himself back in the reserves the following season, he opted to transfer to Bristol City. The move finally allowed him to play for his hometown club and also made logistical sense, as he had continued to live in Bristol while at Home Park and commuted to Plymouth.

The move, however, lasted just three months and one appearance. After spending the remainder of the 1971-72 season with Colchester United, making 21 appearances, he retired from professional football. He returned to his native Bristol and continued in non-league football as player-manager of Bath City, before moving into coaching with Walsall and subsequently taking player-coach roles with Minehead, Bridgwater Town and Taunton Town.

He later worked with Bristol City's youngsters and, for 17 years, as an FA Regional Coach, helping develop players including David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Frank Lampard. He was also part of a managerial triumvirate, alongside Leroy Rosenior and Tony Fawthrop, which took the Robins to the losing side of the Football League Trophy Final in 2000. After a spell as Technical Adviser under Danny Wilson at Ashton Gate, he subsequently coached at Walsall, Cheltenham Town, Team Bath and Oxford University.

In 2010 he was busy planning a potential career in politics while completing his autobiography, which he was believed to have been calling 'Me And My Bad Attitude'. With the story half-written, he was selected in October 2009 as the UKIP candidate for the new Filton & Bradley Stoke constituency, close to his home in Downend, Bristol. He had stood unsuccessfully as in independent candidate at the previous General Election. Tragically, however, he collapsed and died the following day in mid-October, aged 69.