My 1st game in 1974 Kenny Burns scored in a 4-0 victory against Manchester City. There was 35,000 or so there, and I was hooked for life! I don’t remember any of the goals – but I remember this bustling, “put himself about” forward – and from that 1st game Kenny was one of my heroes, so it was a tremendous honour to talk to Kenny. Here is part 1 of the interview.

I started by asking him about his move to the Blues as a youngster from Glasgow.

I was about 17 when I came to the Blues. I’d been rejected by Rangers. Somebody had dropped out and I got the call, would I like to come down to Birmingham. It was the case that the ticket had been paid, so they needed to get somebody!I had a two week trial and the club said we’d like to sign you, but I said well I’ll see – as I also have a trial next week for Crystal Palace. The club replied by saying well we may not want to sign you next week, so I said Ok give me the pen!

What were your 1st impressions of Brum, especially as a youngster?

It wasn’t a problem, I’d been to the city before – I actually had relatives in the City. I was living with my 2 brothers at the time, I’d been adopted after my mother had died – so yeah, it was time to move on. It wasn’t a problem for me.

Kenny Burns Battles with Kevin Keegan

What were your first impressions of the club?

Don Dorman was chief scout, (Kev: he was responsible for bringing Kenny to us),  and Freddie Goodwin was manager, Tony Hateley was just there Trevor Hockey and Malcolm Beard were also there. The team was beginning to change. Freddie was moving things about – Latchford, Hatton, Hynde and Hatton were all to come in. I liked the club, it was great times.

1975 the heartbreak of the semi-final, were you involved in that?

Yeah, we had a young team out in those days. Freddie decided to go for experience and bring experienced players back in despite the young players doing well. I have to say that was unquestionably my saddest moment in football. We thought we’d got out of jail in Sheffield with us equalising. But it just never transformed on the day.

From the saddest, what was your best memory of you playing with us as a club?

To be honest, every minute. OK I went on and furthered my career and to be fair I have been very successful with Forest, don’t ask me to pick a winner because I loved Birmingham that much. I loved everything about my time there. I loved my digs in Alum Rock, I loved the team spirit and  camerordrie players such Joe Gallagher, Ian Callahan, Bobby Goode, Bobby Friars, Jimmy Calderwood – we had a GREAT team spirit there. We got to semi-finals of the youth cup.  I LOVED my time at Birmingham.

You are one of a small number of players who were able excel at both ends of the park. I believe that you joined us as a defender didn’t you?

Yeah I started in defence because I couldn’t play with Joe Connor because he would never pass me the ball, so I said I would play at the back. I had a practice against the Blues youth side, regarded quite highly and we beat them 1-0, and I kept Trevor quiet and I think that’s what cracked it for me to get the trial.

What was Freddie’s reasoning to push you up front?

He came to me on the tuesday morning and asked if I could play CF, and I said Yeah. I didn’t have any problem, because I thought I could beat anyone in the air. He wanted me to hold the ball up. That afternoon I played for the 3rd team at Elmdon, then on the wednesday I Bob Latchford was sold to Everton. I then went to CF in his place.

So Freddie had decided that Bob was going, and was looking to you to cover the position?

If I could do the job up there, because Bob Hatton was a prolific  scorer but he could be helped by having someone to hold the ball up for him and I could do that all day long, so it wasn’t a problem. Fred wanted to make sure I could do it obviously he thought I could, he asked me I said I could – so that probably helped him make the decision to sell Bob Latchford. Of course as part of the deal Howard Kendal came to us.

Kenny Burns Proving He Had a Good "Spring"

You obviously COULD play up front, because the season before you went to Forest you scored 20 goals for us.

That’s not a bad return for any striker is it, particularly in probably the best league in the world.

There were a couple of games that season that stand out. Firstly the game at home to Derby when we won 5-1 and you bagged 4 of them. That must have been a great game for you?

Derby had some great players at the time, scoring is about your own belief and I believed I could score goals any time and that game I was lucky that it all went right for me and I scored 4. At the time a local businessman who put a car up – (I jump in, so this IS true then? I was going to ask you about this!) Yes it’s true. He said whoever scored the 6th goal in a game would get a TR7. We were a bit unlucky against Derby not to get the 6th, but we went on to get it against Leicester a few weeks later.

This was the other game I was going to ask you about.

We went to Leicester in the freezing cold and beat them 6-2 and I scored a hatrick and the 6th and won a TR7!

That must have been a brilliant motivation – a TR7 to score a 6th goal.

To be fair I can’t win it without the rest of the team, and I didn’t actually get the car. There was a picture of me getting the car. I would have liked to have got it – but we got the insurance money. So I came back, got in my Austin 1100 and drove home! The rest of the team got 200 quid and the apprentices got a tenner or so – so everyone got something from it. It was around Christmas time.

Part 2 can be read here.

Images used with kind permission of Birmingham City FC