David Burnside

Early days

Burnside was born in Kingswood, near Bristol and attended Kingswood School and represented Bristol & District Schools, before joining Bristol City as a trainee in July 1955. His father was so keen to see David develop his football skills that he installed floodlights in his back garden to enable his son to practice in the evenings.

West Bromwich Albion

His potential was quickly spotted by First Division West Bromwich Albion to whom he moved in December 1955, signing professional papers in February 1957. He soon acquired nationwide fame for his incredible ball-juggling abilities when, in October 1957, during the half-time in a televised friendly match against Russian team CDSA Moscow he performed his tricks to entertain the crowd. In 1960, he entered a heading competition organised by the Sunday Dispatch newspaper. He managed 495 clean headers without a break and although this was far from a record it amply demonstrated his ball skills. During his time at The Hawthorns, West Bromwich were relatively successful, generally ending the season in the upper half of the First Division table, including reaching fourth spot in 1959–60. Burnside made 135 appearances for West Bromwich and represented England at Youth level as well as winning two under-23 caps.

Southampton

In September 1962, Ted Bates signed him for Second Division Southampton for a fee of £18,000, making him Bates's third signing in 10 days (along with George Kirby and Stuart…

Burnside played just one League game for the Ashton Gate club, though, before going to Colchester United, his last League club in March 1972. In May 1972, he moved back to his home in Bristol and became player-manager of Southern League side Bath City, where he stayed until the following summer. There followed spells at various clubs including coaching at Walsall and playing/coaching with Minehead, Bridgwater Town and Taunton Town. In October 1979, he started working for the Football Association as a regional coach in the West country, before becoming part of the international set-up in 1983, having known England manager Bobby Robson since his time at The Hawthorns. He worked as the England Youth manager until January 1997 when he rejoined Bristol City as Director of Youth Football. In January 2000, he took on the role of caretaker manager after the departure of Tony Pulis, jointly with Tony Fawthrop. In their short time as caretaker managers, Fawthrop and Burnside guided the Robins to a Wembley appearance in the Football League Trophy Final, losing 2–1 to Stoke City. After handing the manager's post to Leroy Rosenior in summer 2000, Burnside continued to assist Bristol City as technical advisor, before a spell working with Bobby Gould as football co-ordinator at Cheltenham Town, which ended in October 2003. Burnside died on 17 October 2009 after suffering a heart attack aged 69. Shortly before his death, he had been adopted to contest a Bristol seat for the United Kingdom…

As a player

Wolverhampton Wanderers

Football League Second Division runner-up: 1966–67

As a manager

Bristol City

Football League Trophy runner-up: 1999–2000