IT was love at first sight for Midlander Peter Leebrook when he set eyes on Burnley and Turf Moor for the first time.

Right-back Leebrook was a 16-year-old taken under the wing of Ian MacFarlane, then Leicester City assistant, as he searched for a club to join on YTS terms.

The duo had been to top tier sides Coventry City and Aston Villa before making the journey to East Lancashire in the mid-80s, to a club that was down on its luck at the time, struggling in the Fourth Division.

But Leebrook knew straight away that it was Burnley he wanted to sign for, and his affection for the Clarets and for the town has never wavered in the intervening three decades.

“I came up to Burnley and I loved it straight away, I loved the feel of it, even though they were in the lower divisions then,” remembers Leebrook, who is now technical director at the impressive youth club SC del Sol in Arizona.

“Ian (MacFarlane) said you’re better off with people you can trust and you’ve got a chance of playing in the first team, rather than being one of 30 kids at Coventry or Villa.

“That was great advice and from that day I really connected with the club, so when I played for Burnley all I was doing was my very best.”

Having signed as a YTS Leebrook found himself parachuted into the first-team not long after his 18th birthday in the tumultuous 1986/87 season.

The Clarets had been dumped out of the FA Cup by non-league Telford, and boss Brian Miller was going to ring the changes.

“Brian called me into his office and we knew a few heads were going to roll after that loss and I got the call that day,” recalls Leebrook.

“I was still a bit of a shock. I knew I was there or thereabouts, I’d been playing with the reserves but it was still a bit of a shock.”

But Leebrook found the step up from the reserves easier than expected, and after playing his part in a 3-1 win over Lincoln City on his debut he became a regular, starting all of the remaining 30 league games.

“I found it a little easier. Playing in the Central League was tough, sometimes it was on poor grounds, the speed of play is intense,” he said.

“The first team you were playing with better players and seemed to have a bit more time. I was surprised by it. You had to really concentrate but it was nice to be playing with that quality.

“We weren’t a great team to be fair. I wasn’t the best to be quite honest. We had good players like Leighton James and Peter Hampton, but a lot of them were on the last couple of holes of their career. Their legs had gone.

“Then we had players like Ian Britton who was a great character, it was a bit of a miss-mash of a squad, but I don’t think we had the quality of the players.”

As an 18-year-old Leebrook remembers most of the campaign passed in a ‘blur’ as he strived simply to give his all and win the hearts of the Turf Moor faithful.

But as the season drew to a conclusion the Clarets found themselves in trouble, leading to the date with destiny in May and the victory over Orient that salvaged survival on the final day and prevented Burnley dropping out of the Football League.

“That was intense, but when you’re young you don’t really understand it that much. I went off the crowd and the feeling around the place,” said Leebrook.

“The pressure was huge, the Crewe and Rochdale games and then the last game against Orient it just built and built.

“That final game was incredible. Sitting in that changing room 20 minutes before we went out it was silent.

“I remember thinking at the time that this must be what it’s like to go out as a gladiator.

“Brit’s usually talking, Joe Gallagher’s doing something, Mal (Phil Malley) is doing sit-ups, but it was just silent, and you could hear the crowd outside.”

The 90 minutes that followed is written to Turf Moor history. Leebrook can’t remember much of the game, although he has a tape of the commentary that he still listens to now and again, but the celebrations afterwards have stuck in his mind.

“It wasn’t pretty,” he said. “I’ve still got an audio tape that someone made of the game and I can still play it in the car, I play it my little lad at times, and there’s comments like ‘I’m not sure what Leebrook was trying there’.

“I think I kicked it over the Bob Lord stand about three times, you just wanted to get rid.

“I just got jumped on at the final whistle. I remember seeing grown men crying on me and stealing all my kit. Everything went.

“I was hanging onto my pants running along and people were still trying to get them. I managed to get back into the changing room and then popped back out into the stands and saw the crowds.

“The game was a blur, but the bit before and after I remember well.

“We then went for a drink in the players lounge and my Granddad and family were there, Frank Teasdale was in there having a drink.

“That sort of thing really makes you for the rest of your life. It’s been part of my life, the adversity and the emotions involved were incredible.”

Little did Leebrook know that that was as good as it was going to get at Burnley for him.

He spent another year at the club, making 22 appearances, but was released at the end of the 1987/88 campaign and his career as a professional was over before he’d turned 21, but he will never forget his time at Turf Moor.

“It’s a real football town, so what it means to people is incredible.

“I’m from the Midlands but Burnley for me is still a real club and full of real people,” he said.

“The club has still got it’s soul and I think that will stay because of the people involved and the board and the town.

“When I came back for the Orient dinner it still had that soul and that was absolutely incredible.”