One To Watch – Ben Burgess

Ben Burgess has been outlined by Nik as Blackpool`s one to watch going into this evenings clash in W12.

The burly striker began his career at Premiership club Blackburn Rovers, however, found it hard to break into the first team at Ewood Park. It came as no surprise when Burgess was loaned out to Brentford for the duration of the 2001-02 Season.

It was at Griffin Park where Burgess first started to make a name for himself, making 48 appearances for the club, scoring 18 goals.

Stockport won the race to sign Burgess, and he made 21 appearances for County, scoring 6 goals, before a largely unsuccessful loan move to Oldham followed.

Burgess joined Hull City in the Summer of 2003 and it was at the Tigers where the former Republic of Ireland U-21 really began to flourish. Burgess was Hull’s top scorer in their Division 3 promotion winning season, scoring 18 goals, forming a partnership with Danny Allsopp, and becoming the first Hull City player to score a hat-trick at the KC Stadium in the process.

However, Burgess’ great season was marred when he suffered a serious cruciate ligament injury in a game against Huddersfield, ruling him out of the majority of the 2004-05 season, in which Hull completed successive promotions by finishing behind Champions Luton Town, as runners up in League One. Burgess did find himself back playing again in the 2005-06 season, despite being thrown in at the deep end, playing at Championship level. That did not deter Burgess from returning to scoring form though, and he bagged one of Hull’s two goals in their first win of the season, at home to Brighton. However, injury once again reared its ugly head, restricting to Burgess to just 4 starts in all competitions.

The man mountain striker found himself out of favour following the 2005-06 season, and dropped back down to League One level, joining Blackpool on August deadline day 2006 for a fee that eventually rose to £100,000. Burgess made 31 appearances in all competitions during the 2006-07 season, scoring 2 League goals which helped propel Blackpool into the Championship, following a 2-0 Play-off final win against Yeovil at the ‘new’ Wembley, in which the striker was an unused substitute.

Blackpool adapted to life in the Championship well in the 2007-08 season, with Burgess scoring 10 goals in 37 games, finishing as the Seasiders’ top scorer. Included in the frontman’s haul was his, late, late, injury-time winner against QPR at a freezing cold Bloomfield Road in December 2007, as well as a Blackpool consolation goal in March’s 3-2 defeat against the Superhoops.

Standing at 6 ft 3, and with 3 goals already this term, there is no doubt that Burgess will ask big question of the R’s defence at Loftus Road on Tuesday night, and the Rangers’ backline will have to be at their best in order to ensure that Burgess doesn’t increase his ever-growing tally of goals this season.

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