It took a last-day win at Scunthorpe United to propel Burnley back to the First Division (Championship) for only the second time in 17 years.

Under Stan Ternent, the Clarets won seven out of their last eight matches and also needed a helping hand from Wrexham, whose defeat of Gillingham at the same time as Burnley were beating Scunthorpe 2-1, confirmed automatic promotion behind champions Preston North End.

For the Clarets’ fans at Glanford Park and watching back on a big screen at Turf Moor, 6 May, 2000 was a nerve-shredding afternoon.

But for one of the key men that day, there was never any doubt.

“Even the last game of the season, I wasn’t bothered about going into the play-offs with that group of players,” said Micky Mellon, whose superb goal at Scunthorpe sparked a Clarets’ fightback.

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“I believed we had enough, if it wasn’t going to be automatic to do it in the play-offs.

“I had no doubt about that. You just had to look around at the characters that were in there.

“I wasn’t bothered how we did it. I just believed we would do it somehow.”

Mellon had been signed by Ternent mid-way through the previous season as the Burnley boss assembled a side capable of starting the climb back following near relegation back to the basement division before his appointment.

“I knew they were going to put together a group of players that was going to be successful,” added the midfielder, who signed from Tranmere Rovers to join the Ternent revolution.

“I believed in Stan and Sam (Ellis), and Mick Docherty and the chairman, and I knew they were going to bring in good players who would keep things moving forward and I wanted to be part of that.

“They were piecing together a jigsaw of the right types of players and characters that were going to take Burnley forward because they’d had a few years in the doldrums.

“When I heard about the plans and I knew what those two were capable of – because they had done so well at Bury – I had no problem dropping down a division to League One because I knew when Burnley got promoted, being back in the Championship with a club like Burnley would be fantastic.

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“It (the dressing room) was full of men, guys you could rely on, who would put in performances in most of the time and weren’t going to let the team down.

“The team was full of those kind of people – good players and good people. It was a great time. It was a brilliant dressing room with great people to be involved with.”

It took a little time for Ternent’s team to gel but after finishing the 1998/99 season with a gallop they were rarely off the top-six place as the Football League straddled the new millennium.

Burnley were briefly top of the table in mid-September, but it wasn’t until their penultimate game of the season that they acquired a top-two place.

Even that was short-lived by Gillingham’s mid-week win in the final week of the campaign. But when the Gills then faltered, Burnley held their nerve to recover from an early Lee Hodges thunderbolt for the Iron to get the win they needed thanks to Mellon and a spectacular second-half winner from Glen Little.

“I felt comfortable in the game. When they scored – it was a great hit – we just got the ball and put it back on the spot. No-one got too over excited or disappointed,” recalled Mellon.

“We kept playing and we needed that reward for the way we were playing, which you need in any game of football.

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“We got that moment and were delighted when it came. Happily enough I was the guy that got the equaliser and that was at a good time for us, just before half time.”

Little’s brilliant goal and a late cameo from Ian Wright – his final appearance on a football pitch – was celebrated wildly by the Burnley fans at the end of the game in the Lincolnshire sunshine.

Thoughts were more measured in the away dressing room, however.

“The Wrexham game was still getting played. We were sitting in our dressing room just waiting,” explained Mellon, a vital part of the Clarets’ midfield alongside Little, Lennie Johnrose, Paul Cook and John Mullin.

“I can remember saying to Paul Cook, who was quite emotional and desperate to get this result, ‘I don’t care. We’ll go up in the play-offs anyway. I don’t care how we do it’.

“We were just waiting because we couldn’t do anything. And I think it was a Scunthorpe steward just happened to push the door open a little bit and say ‘the Wrexham game’s over and you are up’.

“That was it – superb. It was a really special moment for a group of players that still speaks now.”

The Clarets were on the march as Ternent became only the third manager in 20 years to take Burnley into the second tier.

This time, though, they would stay there and build a platform for future success, with Ternent going on to complete six years in charge of the club where he had started playing his career and in the town he made his home.

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“I knew how much Burnley meant to Stan. That was his dream job. That was the one he always wanted,” added Mellon, 48, who has gone on to win five promotions of his own as a manager and whose son, Michael, is now on the books at Turf Moor as a highly promising young striker.

“He carried the responsibility and the pressure well to be fair, but I could see he was carrying it.

“Everybody knows some of the incidents we had where he would be Stan and be very emotional and do mad things but I understood what the guy wanted was ultimate focus from us and to drive us on and not to take our foot off the gas.

“I respected that. I knew how much it meant to him and when he got it and got Burnley over the line I was delighted for him.

“It was great to win a promotion with a group of players and a staff that was so tight.”

Watch the full interview with Micky Mellon on the video above and re-live the Clarets' last-day triumph at Scunthorpe at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPStdoauVng

POS	Team	PL	PTS
15	FOR	5	5
16	BUR	5	4
17	BRE	5	4

POS	Team	PL	PTS
15	FOR	5	5
16	BUR	5	4
17	BRE	5	4

Premier League table

Premier League table