EX-CLARET Earle Wilkinson was welcomed back to Turf Moor, in Burnley, this week – 75 years after he first donned the famous claret and blue shirt.

Foulridge-born right-half Mr Wilkinson, 92, joined Burnley as a 17-year-old in 1938, and played for the ‘A’ team – the club’s third XI – before scoring two goals in three wartime appearances for the first team in the 1940/41 North Regional League.

He was part of the Burnley side which won the West Lancashire League in 1939, but left full-time football to serve at RAF Halton, in Buckinghamshire, before enjoying a long career as a joiner and amateur player.