BURNLEY broke Town's winning run - and denied manager Mick Buxton and striker Steve Kindon what would have been a sweet victory.

Both men had strong Clarets connections, and both had a point to prove to the Turf Moor travelling faithful in a crowd of 15,741, the biggest of the season to date in the original Division III.

Buxton had begun his playing career at Burnley, making 18 first-team appearances at full-back before a switch to Halifax Town in 1968.

"They kicked me out and they didn't do it in a very nice way," he recalled. "I first heard from my wife after the club simply sent a letter to our house saying I wasn't going to be retained.

"There's a right way and a wrong way to do things, and they did it the wrong way."

While Buxton had waited ever since for a chance to take on Burnley in a competitive clash, Kindon had been a Turf Moor player 10 months earlier.

His second spell at the club where he made 185 appearances had been ended by a free transfer to Town, and the burly frontman, who had also played for Wolves, pointed out: "Burnley felt I was past my best, and I want to show them there's life in the old dog yet. I've got a point to prove."

Kindon had already fired seven goals that season, while Town, promoted as the previous campaign's Fourth Division champions, had won five on the bounce to go second in the table.

But they slipped to third after Burnley, playing outside the top two divisions for the first time in their history, held them to a goalless draw in a highly entertaining floodlit showdown.

It could have been worse for the home side, who needed an inspired performance from goalkeeper Andy Rankin for the point.

Twice in the second half the sixth-placed Lancastrians looked to have ended the deadlock, only for agile Rankin to pull off superb saves.

"Andy had a great game," said Burnley boss Brian Miller, while Buxton quipped: "It's about time he was given something to do."

The Leeds Road boss then added: "Andy is a great bloke and a great goalkeeper who really earned his corn with this display."

While Rankin was undisputedly Town's saviour, Burnley needed another ex-Evertonian to pull out all the stops to deny Town a breakthrough.

He was Martin Dobson, who had made his name as a classy midfielder, but operated in the centre of defence to put the shackles on his old teammate Kindon, who was unable to break through and test goalkeeper Alan Stevenson, the future Town commercial manager.

Brian Stanton, Mick Kennedy and Ian Robins did manage to conjure efforts on goal.

The Burnley duo denied by Rankin were Billy Hamilton and Eric Potts, the recently-signed former Sheffield Wednesday player.