John Burridge: Hibs team-mate recalls ‘mad’ goalkeeper on anniversary of key Easter Road milestone

John Burridge in action for Hibs against St Mirren at Love Street, March 1993.

The notion that goalkeepers are a different breed certainly applies to former Hibs stopper John Burridge.

Acrobatic warm-ups, sitting on the crossbar, falling out with managers and sleeping in his goalie gloves are all part of the madcap persona of one of the most eccentric characters to grace the position.

But it was his dedication to fitness and conditioning - very much against the culture of the time - that enabled him to play well into his 40s, setting records in a remarkable career that spanned 29 clubs across three decades.

Hibs goalkeeper John Burridge (left) gathers the ball as teammate Graham Mitchell covers in the Skol Cup quarter-final win over Ayr United at Somerset Park in 1991.

Hibs landmark

After joining Hibs - his 13th club - in the summer of 1991, 'Budgie' established himself as an Easter Road favourite with his performances and charisma.

Lifting the Skol Cup within three months helped cement his place as a club legend while his frequent laps of honour after home games built a strong rapport with the Leith faithful, if not the manager Alex Miller. The pair fell out – Burridge was notorious for wanting to do his own thing at training – before parting ways in 1993.

His 77th and last appearance for the club came exactly 27 years ago today, a 1-0 home defeat to Partick Thistle. It also saw him set the record as the oldest player to represent Hibs in a first-team game at the age of 41 years and 163 days old.

Astonishingly, he went on to represent a further 20 clubs while setting another landmark as the English Premier League's oldest ever player, turning out for Manchester City at 43 years 162 days old two years later.

"A great character"

But Burridge's longevity in the game was no freak of nature. Football wasn't just a job to him, or even a passion. It was an obsession, according to one of his former team mates, and fellow club legends, at Easter Road.

Mickey Weir was embarking on his sixth season at Hibs when Burridge arrived from Newcastle United in the summer of 1991.

“I've never played with a player as obsessed with football as he was. To the point where it was his whole life and everything revolved around it," Weir said.

"He was a great character. His enthusiasm just rubbed off on a lot of people. He was a very experienced player when he came to Hibs. He'd played a lot of games in England and his fitness levels for a man his age were incredible.

"He was always giving advice about fitness and how fit you need to be, and when I look back now I think he was spot on. He was a proper professional and everything had to be done perfectly. He had his own routine, but as a person, he was a great man."

"Mad - the only word for him"

Weir credits Burridge's unique personality as a key factor in boosting confidence and morale in a Hibs dressing room that had finished second bottom of the Premier Division the previous season.

"He brought a bit of enthusiasm to us and he never let things get him down too long," Weir said. "He could recover, and never let defeat get to him too much. He loved the game and he loved playing football. It was just bursting out of him. He was 41 years old and he knew there weren't too many seasons left in him, so he played every game like it was his last.

"There was always something going on when Budgie was there. He was mad - that's the only word I can use to describe him. He would come running out on the training field with just his boots on and nothing else, and run about the field and run back in again. It was just crazy, but it kept the place going at times. He was just a character, and there's not too many of them in the game now.

Self-motivating tapes

"He was very self-confident, that was one thing about him. He believed he was the best. We were sitting at a pre-match meal one preseason and John came out with these headphones.

"Myself and Willie Miller were sitting beside him and he went out for a minute so I picked them up and put them on, and it was one of these tapes telling him how good he was. 'I will not be beaten', 'you are the best' and all that type of stuff. He didn't even know I'd listened to it, but that was just typical of John. He was just so obsessed with football. Totally and utterly obsessed.

"I thought I was bad, but John was a completely different character. He just loved the game."

The big comedown

Since hanging up his gloves aged 46, Burridge has spoken about becoming suicidal as he came to terms with the fact his long playing career was over, relying on counselling to help him through a difficult time in his life.

"It's a tough thing and I've spoken about it a lot in the past. I call it the football comedown," Weir said. "Once you've been playing football at the top level for a long time like John, loved it and trained every day, he's struggled after that to get into reality.

"I think a lot of footballers do that, and I could definitely see John as one of them who would struggle. That would really be big for him because it was his whole life. I could see John really missing the game very much."

Foreign adventures

Now aged 68, Burridge has relocated abroad, with coaching stints in Oman, the UAE, Singapore and most recently India, where he was appointed goalkeeping coach at Kerala Blasters last year.

He is a notoriously difficult man to track down, although he continues to engage with Hibs fans through his Twitter account, recently posting a clip of a 3-2 win at Parkhead from September 1993.

"John will never be away from football. That's one thing for sure," Weir added. "A bit like myself, he would take the amateur teams, take anybody, just to be involved and loving football.

"He never took football for granted, that's one thing he never did. I can see him coaching until he can't do it anymore. That's just the way he is. His whole life just revolves around football."