TRIBUTES have been paid to the wife of legendary ex-Clarets captain and manager Jimmy Adamson, who died yesterday.

May Adamson died in Royal Blackburn Hospital, aged 78, after suffering from a long term illness.

May, who had been married to Jimmy for 57 years, has been described as a “tower of strength” to the Clarets legend.

Burnley Football Club chief executive Paul Fletcher, a close friend of the family, said: “I have known May, along with Jimmy, since I first came to the club in the late 1960s.

“Jimmy was a father figure to me and whenever I visited him at his home May was always there with coffee and biscuits.

“Since the day Jimmy left in the mid 1970s I have visited them on a regular basis and haven’t missed seeing them both on Christmas Eve for the last 37 years.

“Over the past 10 years Colin Waldron has joined me, and players from our era have come along too.

“We have kept in close touch with them both and their family and got to know their grandchildren very well.

“Jimmy and May were a lovely couple and it is very sad news, although she had been ill for a number of years.

“She was a beautiful woman in every way and although we all know the huge contribution Jimmy made to Burnley Football Club, the old adage that behind every great man is a great woman has never been truer.”

May’s granddaughter Jennie Halstead, said: “They had never been apart from each other and even when they were in hospital together last year, they were on the same ward.

“They had been in residential care for a while and their rooms were next to each other so granddad is in shock at the moment.

“He is obviously our priority as a family, we need to make sure our granddad is ok.

“He seems to be fine but he is shocked.”