Where Are They Now – Dave Burnside

The next instalment of Peverell Green’s ‘Where Are They Now’ series puts the spotlight on Dave Burnside.

DAVE BURNSIDE – Born 10th December 1939 Kingswood Nr Bristol.

Dave started his football career by representing Bristol & District Schools, before joining Bristol City as a trainee in 1955.
His father was so keen to see him develop his footballing skills he installed floodlights in his back garden to enable his son to practice in the evenings.

His potential was recognised by first division (now the Premiership) West Brom, he joined them in 1955, signing as a professional in February 1957.
While at the club he acquired nationwide fame for his incredible ball juggling ability, in October 1957 during the half time in a televised friendly against the Russian team CDSA Moscow when he performed tricks to entertain the crowd.

In 1960 he entered a heading competition organised by the Sunday Dispatch newspaper and managed 495 clean headers without a break, although it wasn’t a record it amply displayed his ball skills.
While at West Brom the team were relatively successful, always finishing in the top half of the table with a high of fourth in 1959-60.
He made a total of 135 appearances scoring 39 goals. While at the club he also represented England at Youth Level, and twice played for the Under-23s.

In September 1962 Dave was signed by Southampton for a fee of £18,000 soon becoming a fixture in the Saints team. In the 1962-63 season Southampton fielded the same team line-up for 28 matches, including seven FA Cup games before losing in the semi-final to eventual winners Manchester United.
In the quarter final replay Dave scored an 89th minute equaliser after his team had trailed Notts Forest by three goals. In the second replay he scored twice in a comprehensive 5-0 Southampton victory.
He missed much of the following season due to a recurring knee injury. During his time at the Dell he played 70 games and scored 26 goals.

In December 1964 Southampton needed money to part fund the purchase of Jimmy Melia, and Dave was sold to Crystal Palace for £12,000. He spent two uneventful seasons at Selhurst Park making 58 appearances, scoring 8 goals.

Dave moved to Wolves, then a Division 2 team (now the Championship) in September 1966, in his first season there he helped them to promotion to Division 1 as runners up.
In 1967 he was allowed to make twelve guest appearances for Los Angeles Wolves where he scored one goal. He returned to Molyneux staying until March 1968, making a total of 40 appearances for the club and scoring 5 goals.

New Argyle manager Billy Bingham made Dave one of his first purchases, with a fee of £7,000 bringing the experienced 28 year old to Home Park.
Unfortunately neither of them was able to save Argyle being relegated to the third division. Dave proved his worth to the club the following season scoring 9 goals in 42 league appearances and was rightfully voted ‘Player of the Season’ by the fans.

With Bingham being replaced by Ellis Stuttard he was used more sparingly in the 1969-70 season, only scoring one goal from 15 league appearances.
He once again became a regular the following season, mostly as a midfielder where he made 36 appearances, scoring five goals.
It was always thought among the Home Park faithful that he would have been more effective if he didn’t have to cope with a daily commute from his Bristol home.
His last league appearance for the club was in May 1971 at Rotherham where he scored what turned out to be his last professional goal in a 1-1 draw.

He left Argyle in December 1971 after finding himself in the reserve team but only made one appearance at his home town club Bristol City before moving on to Colchester where he made 13 appearances.

After leaving Colchester he became player manager at Bath City making a total of 37 appearances. There followed spells at various clubs including coaching at Walsall and playing/coaching with Minehead, Bridgewater and Taunton.

In October 1979 he started working for the FA as a regional coach in the Westcountry, becoming part of the international set up in 1983 under Bobby Robson who he got to know during his time at West Brom. He worked as England Youth manager until January 1997.
He then became the Director of Youth Football at Bristol City, taking over as caretaker manager after ex-Argyle manager Tony Pulis left the club.
Acting as joint manager with Tony Fawthrop he guided City to a Wembley appearance in the Auto Windscreen Shield Final, losing 2-1 to Stoke City.
After a new manager arrived Dave continued working with the club as technical advisor before moving to Cheltenham as a football co-ordinator alongside Bobby Gould.

After a long and successful footballing career, in 2009 unfortunately Dave suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 69.