Burton Andy Image 1 Bristol City 1906

Description

Lochgelly, Fife born inside left Andy Burton began his football career with local clubs Thomson Rovers in 1901, Lochgelly Rangers in 1902 and Lochgelly United in 1903, from where he joined Motherwell in 1904. In a single season at Fir Park he scored 6 goals in 25 appearances before being signed by Second Division Bristol City in July 1905, making his Football League debut at Manchester United that September. The heavy defeat in that match was immediately proceeding the record run of 14 successive League wins by Bristol City, who went on to win the Second Division Championship with Burton missing only one match.

The following season, Bristol City’s first in the top flight, Burton scored 14 goals in the campaign as Bristol City finished runners upon the League Championship to Newcastle United, the club’s highest ever League finish, followed by a respectable tenth place finish in 1907-08. Burton formed a part of a great trio of City goalscoring forwards over three seasons between Burton’s arrival in 1905 and the end of 1907-08, Billy Maxwell at inside right scored 55 goals, centre forward Sammy Gilligan netted 51 goals and Burton contributed 30 goals of the 207 League goals scored in this period.

Maxwell and Gilligan gradually moved on but Andy Burton continued as inside left in the next two seasons both spent in the First Division. In 1908-09, Burton made 35 appearances scoring eight goals and played in all of the ten FA Cup ties appearing at inside left in the 1909 FA Cup Final losing 1-0 to Manchester United at The Crystal Palace, the only Cup Final appearance to date by Bristol City. Burton continued playing most of City’s matches in 1909-10 but missed a considerable number of games between December 1910 and March 1911 as Bristol City suffered relegation at the end of the season.

After their relegation he left Bristol City having scored 49 goals in 211 appearances for The Robins to join First Division club Everton in July 1911. Burton made his debut for The Toffees on the opening day of the new season scoring in a 2-2 draw against Tottenham Hotspur. However he failed to establish himself in the Everton team and after 4 goals in 12 appearances he moved to Southern League club Reading where he scored 16 goals in 68 appearances before the First World War. After a considerable gap, Burton next appeared for East Fife in between 192o and 1922 in the Scottish Second Division scoring twice in 23 appearances before his retirement. He later coached in Belgium.