Wayne Burnett

Wayne Burnett

Personal information
Full name	Wayne Burnett
Date of birth	4 September 1971 (1971-09-04)
Place of birth	Lambeth, England
Club information
Current club	Dagenham & Redbridge (Assistant manager)
Youth career
	Leyton Orient
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1989–1992	Leyton Orient	40	(7)
1992–1993	Blackburn Rovers	3	(0)
1993–1995	Plymouth Argyle	117	(6)
1995–1996	Bolton Wanderers	3	(0)
1996	→ Huddersfield Town (loan)	3	(0)
1996–1998	Huddersfield Town	71	(6)
1998	→ Grimsby Town (loan)	0	(0)
1998–2002	Grimsby Town	101	(5)
2002	Woking	3	(0)
2002–2003	Grays Athletic
2003	Fisher Athletic
2004	Peterborough United	1	(0)
Teams managed
2004–2005	Fisher Athletic
2006–2007	Dulwich Hamlet
2007–2008	Fisher Athletic
2008–2009	Grays Athletic
2009	Leyton Orient (Youth team manager)
2009–	Dagenham & Redbridge (Assistant manager)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Wayne Burnett (born 4 September 1971) is an English former footballer who is most notable for playing at Plymouth Argyle, Huddersfield Town and Grimsby Town. Having also had spells with Leyton Orient, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Woking, Grays Athletic, Fisher Athletic and Peterborough United. Burnett went on to become a manager at several clubs, and is currently assistant manager at Dagenham & Redbridge.

Playing career

Burnett was born in Lambeth and started out playing for Leyton Orient as a youngster, and represented England at youth level, he soon earned himself a move to Blackburn Rovers becoming one of Kenny Dalglish first signing but after a year with the Rovers he found himself transferred to Plymouth Argyle in 1993.

In 1995 Premiership newcomers, Bolton Wanderers signed Burnett. But after only a season with the club he was sold to Huddersfield Town following a short loan spell. His time in Yorkshire was a rather mixed one. He alternated between a deep-lying creative midfield role and that of a libero-style sweeper. Described as a flair player with much skill, he scored a wonder goal against Bradford City from just inside his own half in a League Cup tie.

Following a clear out at Huddersfield, Burnett was loaned too Grimsby Town in 1998 and scored in his debut against Scunthorpe United as the "Mariners" put their local rivals out of the Football League Trophy.

It was in the same competition at Wembley Stadium against Bournemouth that Burnett scored the winning golden goal in the 1998 final and played in the promotion winning team in the play-off final a month later. Burnett helped the "Mariners" to an impressive finish in the Championship, almost securing a play-off spot to the Premiership the following season.

He stayed with Grimsby until the summer of 2002, but was troubled by a persistent injury problem that made him miss chunks of the 1999–2000, 2000–01 and 2001–02 seasons. Burnett was released by manager Paul Groves with the player sidelined for the majority of his time in his last season.

Burnett dropped out of professional football and signed with Conference National club Woking, but his time at his new club was short lived after a spat with the clubs supporters. The incident happened in a Conference game in which Woking were trailing 2–0 with 20 minutes remaining. Burnett was brought on as a substitute but could not change the outcome of the game. In a statement made to the Grimsby Telegraph, Burnett claimed that Woking supporters had singled him out for abuse, stating that they expected him to come on and win the game for them because he was a professional footballer. Burnett claimed that just because he is a professional does not mean he can change the outcome of every game.

He then joined Grays Athletic and Fisher Athletic for a short period of time before appearing to retire from the sport.

In 2004 Burnett made a shock return to the professional game signing for Peterborough United on a non contract basis. He only made one appearance for the club before leaving.

Brief acting career

In 2003-2004 Burnett went into acting appearing as an extra for Sky One football television drama Dream Team. Burnett can be seen in a number of episodes appearing to be sat on the substitutes bench also training with the fictional Harchester United team.

The name "Burnett" would often appear on the fictional Harchester Team sheets, and some fans pondered this to be a reference to Wayne, but this later was confirmed as a fictional Welsh player called Arron Burnett.

Managerial career

Burnett started his managerial career with Fisher Athletic in 2004, winning the London Senior Cup and Southern League Division One East. He then joined Dulwich Hamlet in 2006. He was appointed manager of Fisher Athletic for the second time in May 2007. On 23 September 2008, it was announced that Burnett will join Grays Athletic on 29 September as manager. He left the club by mutual consent on 29 January 2009. It was confirmed through the clubs official website on 7 May 2009 that Burnett would take up the position of assistant manager to John Still at League Two club Dagenham & Redbridge for the forthcoming 2009–10 season.

Honours

Fisher Athletic

• London Senior Cup winner: 2006
• Southern League Division One East winner:2006

Grimsby Town

• Football League Trophy winner: 1998
• First Division play-off winner: 1998

External links

• Wayne Burnett career stats at Soccerbase
• electronicfishcake.com Grimsby player profile