PHIL BURROWS

Full Name: Philip Arthur Burrows

Born: 08 April 1946

Came from: York City   Went to: Hereford United

First game: 17 August 1974   Last game: 24 April 1976

Appearances: 92 (92/0)   Goals: 3

Born in Stockport, he started his career as a junior with Manchester City, while training as a quantity surveyor. At one stage, he did a day's work as a quantity surveyor, caught a bus to the ground and then marked George Best in the 1964 FA Youth Cup semi-final, in front of nearly 30,000 fans. He signed professional terms shortly afterwards, later that same year. However, in his two further years as a professional with the Maine Road club, he failed to make the breakthrough to the first team.

Leaving Manchester, he signed for York City in June 1966 and became a virtual ever-present at left-back during his first four seasons at Bootham Crescent. He went on to make over 300 appearances in eight years, scoring 14 times as City rose from the fourth tier to the second.

At the end of the 1973-74 season, he became the first winner of the Billy Fenton Clubman of the Year Award, the club's new Player of the Season award, which was named after a long-standing former player who had passed away the previous year.

However, in July 1974 he was sold to Argyle for £16,000 as a Tony Waiters signing and embarked on a similar run of reliability. He became an ever-present over two seasons, playing a key role in Waiters' 1974-75 promotion campaign.

After his spell at Home Park, during which he played 92 times and scored three goals, he moved to Hereford United in August 1976. He went on to make over 100 appearances for the club and, while at Edgar Street, was loaned to Gillingham during the 1977-78 season, playing five times for the Kent club.

Hereford proved to be his last Football League club, but he later played non-league football back in the north-west for Witton Albion and Mossley.

Returning to live in his native Stockport, he later returned to the trade he had started out in, and became a chartered surveyor in the building industry.

Footnote: Phil's father and grandfather, both named Arthur, were part-time professional footballers.

His grandfather was in the Stockport County squad for the infamous 1921 Stockport County v Leicester City game, which attracted just 13 spectators. This holds the Football League record for the lowest-ever attendance and was played at Old Trafford after the FA closed Edgeley Park following crowd disturbances.

His father then featured in the longest game ever in 1946, when Stockport County played Doncaster Rovers in a Division (North) Cup replay under a short-lived experimental 'Play to a Finish' rule. After 90 minutes and the regulation extra time, with penalties yet to be a rule, they played on. And on. The game lasted 203 minutes in total before being abandoned due to bad light. A coin toss decided the venue for the second replay, with Rovers notching a routine 4-0 home win in regulation time, four days later.