Wayne Burnett

Template:Football player infobox2 Wayne Burnett was a professional footballer who is most famous for playing at Plymouth Argyle, Huddersfield Town and Grimsby Town.

Burnett started out playing for Leyton Orient as a youngster and he soon earned himself a move to Blackburn Rovers but after a year with the Rovers he found himself transfered to Plymouth Argyle in 1993.

In 1995 Premiership newcomes Bolton Wanderers came looking and signed Wayne. 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 impressive one and was 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 there local rivals out of the Auto Windscreens Shield .

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 was a hero at Blundell Park and was heralded a cult hero by the fans, and was noticeable by supporters for sporting long curly brown hair. Wayne went from strength to strength and helped The Mariners into an impressive finish in the follow season.

Wayne stayed with Grimsby until the summer of 2002, but was troubled by a persistent injury problem that made him miss chunks of the 99/00 , 00/01 and 01/02 seasons. Burnett , now with short hair, was released by manager Paul Groves with the player sidelined for the majority of his time in his last season especially.

Burnett dropped out of professional football and signed with Conference 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 league 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.

Wayne then joined Fisher Athletic for a short period of time. As well as this 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. Fans noticed that the name "Burnett" would appear on the Harchester team sheets frequently in the seasons that Burnett worked on the set, many fans thought this was actually a reference to Wayne Burnett himself, however the Dream Team websites clearly state the player as a fictional Welsh defender named Aron Burnett. Whether the player was named after Wayne is not known, or the name could just be coincidental. Burnett is not the only professional footballer to appear on the show, despite cameo appearances from greats such as Dean Sturridge , Ron Atkinson and Alan Curbishley , ex-professionals Andy Ansah and Scott Mean acually acted in the soap. Ansah played himself, while Mean played a fictional character.

In 2004 Burnett made a shock return to the professional game signing for Peterborough United on a non contract basis. After 1 appearance for The Posh, Burnett left the club and retired from the game.

Honours

Grimsby Town

• Auto Windscreens Shield winner: 1998
• Second Division playoff winner: 1998

External links

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