Wolves teenage debutant Harry Burgoyne back at Molineux as he looks for next opportunity after 'tough' Morecambe experience

A bubbly and ever-enthusiastic personality, whose willingness to contribute as a team player is as strong as the focus on his own performance, Burgoyne is one of those presences who adds a positive element to any football dressing room.

But now finding himself without a club, for the first time since starting with Wolves Academy at the age of 12, it is understandable that the Ludlow-born gloveman is finding life a bit tougher than normal.

Shorn of the opportunity to play football.  Denied the daily routine of training and matches that every professional relishes following with such natural and metronomic regularity.

He has just come out of the most successful personal season of his career in terms of appearances, making 34 for Morecambe in League Two, albeit in a campaign which ended in relegation.  Within that challenge, he was kept very busy between the sticks.

Burgoyne, though, was committed to sticking it out and trying to help the Shrimps swim straight back to the Football League, only to become one of many players to be affected by the club’s long-standing financial difficulties.

An ownership dispute between then custodian Jason Whittingham and the Bond Group, and investors and prospective owners Panjab Warriors, led to an impasse which left the whole club in limbo.

Suspended from league football, with players and staff not being paid, Burgoyne left it as long as possible over the summer before deciding to cancel his contract in the hope he hadn’t left it too late to pursue a fresh opportunity away from the club.

Then, a fortnight later, the takeover went through, and with Panjab Warriors in control, Morecambe were able to continue their 105-year history, and make a belated start to the National League season.

Calls from Burgoyne’s agent to the club to see if they might still need him went unanswered, and opportunity hasn’t knocked elsewhere.

And so, for the first time in over a decade of being a professional, Burgoyne finds himself without a footballing home.

It’s a chastening story. Although one where the footballing family, and the goalkeeping union, has come to the fore with Wolves allowing him to train and use the facilities at Compton.

“It’s been a tricky time,” Burgoyne admits, perhaps understandably lacking his customary effervescence.

“The new owners had been trying to buy the club for a long time, and had been investing, but at the end of the season things got difficult and they stopped putting money in until they could take over.

“After the pay packet we received in May, we weren’t paid afterwards, and it was like torture for players and staff.

“We returned for pre-season with all that excitement about getting ready for a new campaign, but we weren’t getting paid and, with a transfer embargo in place, there were only about seven or eight of us in training.

“The manager did everything he could but the communication from the top wasn’t done properly before the takeover.

“We were going in every day preparing for a season which we didn’t know was going to start, and we’d turn up in the morning being told we were going to get paid, and it just never happened.

“When you’ve got a young family to support, obviously that’s not nice, but I wanted to give it as long as I could because I loved being at Morecambe and it’s such a great club.

“I was trying to give them the benefit of the doubt and was actually one of the last to leave, and only cancelled my contract because I felt I might miss the boat elsewhere.

“As it turned out, clubs had all sorted out their goalkeepers so I had missed the boat, and I now find myself in a very difficult situation.

“I am relying on getting an opportunity from somewhere, whether it’s a lack of form or an injury which isn’t nice, but that is where I’m at and it’s been tough.”

It’s not the first time Burgoyne has found himself a slave to misfortune through no fault of his own.

There was the time he was all set to join Bury on loan in League One, only for them to be expelled from the Football League.  The time he went to Plymouth on loan, but broke his ankle in pre-season. Was all set to move to Salford City, but the forms were submitted five minutes too late. Joined Shrewsbury full of hope and optimism. And then Covid hit and the league was abandoned. 

Little wonder that he still holds onto some words from former Wolves goalkeeping coach Pat Mountain who was at Molineux when he made his first team breakthrough.

“I will never forget Pat saying to me as I was coming through that ‘anything can happen in football’,” says Burgoyne.

“He wasn’t wrong!”

But even in current adversity, there have been positives.

Burgoyne is indebted to the support of family and friends, of footballing contacts such as Mountain and others, and of his agent, in helping keep him both mentally and physically positive.

And there has also been the support of Wolves, the club he first joined as a young boy in the Academy, coming all the way through to representing the first team during the tenure of Paul Lambert.

An enquiry as to whether he could pop back to keep himself fit whilst waiting for an opportunity was met with an overwhelmingly heartening response.

Head of Academy Goalkeeping Scott Bevan and Academy goalkeeping coach Jon Flatt, a former team-mate, welcomed him back with open arms - or gloves - and he is hugely appreciative.

“Scott and Flatty have been amazing in letting me go in and train with the Under-21s, which has allowed me to stay sharp and ready for my next opportunity,” Burgoyne explains.

“It’s been lovely seeing some familiar faces, and some fresh faces as well, and to see how the club has gone on and progressed again since I left five years ago.

“The standard of training is really good, and the Academy goalkeepers also have their own strength and conditioning coach who has been great with me and has done all the testing, so all my data is there if a club shows interest.

“At the same time, hopefully I can help a bit by talking to the young lads and passing on any advice and guidance that I can, having been in their position as a young keeper coming through at Wolves.

“What’s also been great is seeing Flatty thriving so much as a coach.  

“We both left a while back but he has gone back to Wolves and is absolutely flying – he is so good at what he does.”

The two have also taken the opportunity to reminisce about those old days when they emerged together through the Academy to become young professionals.

For Burgoyne, that was a journey that led to a first team debut at 19 in a 4-4 draw with Fulham and then, when Carl Ikeme was suspended, a famous FA Cup performance in a 2-1 win over Liverpool at Anfield. A truly memorable afternoon’s work.

In total, he made eight first team appearances for Wolves, each and every one which was cherished, as well as spending many more with the first team squad on the bench as cover.

And what Burgoyne has always done, another string to his bow as he looks for a fresh opportunity, is to be willing to go and play football anytime, anyplace, anywhere. Whatever it takes for the Martini man of goalkeeping.

Whilst at Wolves he went on loan to Lowestoft, Corby, Telford, Barnet and Falkirk.  No outpost of England, or Scotland, however remote, was ruled out.

When a permanent move came however, it was to his native Shropshire, with Shrewsbury, and a happy four years during which he made 38 appearances.

That took him to a new challenge of Morecambe last summer, and such a promising season individually, amid a difficult time for the team, on and off the pitch.

Having won a place in the team early in the season, it was always going to be a battle but two wins over Christmas, and then reaching the FA Cup third round where Burgoyne memorably saved Christopher Nkunku’s penalty in a 5-0 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, raised both confidence and hope.

But with Adams having lined up three or four new signings to help boost their survival push, the Football League imposed a transfer embargo until the club could prove it had sufficient funds to see out the remainder of the season.

The cup run obviously helped, but that embargo was only lifted on the final day of the window, leaving insufficient time to bring in the fresh blood which would have increased the chances of beating the drop.  Morecambe’s 18-year stay in the Football League came to a frustrating end.

“It felt like we were always behind the eight ball, and not being able to bring in enough new players in January made it a long, hard slog to the end of the season,” Burgoyne reflects.

“We gave it our absolute all, and it certainly wasn’t for the want of trying, but we fell short in the end.

“I would have loved to have stayed there this season and tried to put things right and help the club back into the EFL, but it just wasn’t to be.

“It’s such a great club, and that game at Chelsea when over 4,000 Morecambe fans travelled down and I saved a penalty will always be one of the highlights of my career.

“Even this summer, when people weren’t getting paid, the atmosphere around the place was incredible.

“The chefs were still coming in cooking for the players, the cleaners were still coming in keeping the place clean and tidy, everyone carried on working and turning a negative into a positive.

“It really brought everyone together, and over that couple of months everyone got to know each other a lot more.

“Where before the players might not have known all the office staff working upstairs, in the afternoons we were all playing cricket together on the car park, and the club became so much stronger as a group.

“It is such a special club and so important for the community, and hopefully with the takeover now complete, they can survive in the National League this season and then push on to try and get back into the League – I wish them nothing but the best.”

If there was a collective will to overcome adversity among those within the Morecambe set-up, Burgoyne now finds himself dealing with personal adversity – and uncertainty – as he seeks a return to the game.

The physical side of the strength and sharpness can be covered by the generosity of Wolves allowing him back in to train.   The mental toughness has to come from within.

“There’s no point hiding away from it, it’s been a crappy few months,” he admits.

“You find out who really cares about you in situations like this.

“I can’t thank my wife Verity and having a young daughter who I am able to spend time with is also something I massively appreciate.

“My Mum and Dad, my brothers, all my family and friends have been great, picking up the phone to see how you are because they know how much I am missing it.

“From a professional point of view, my agent has been brilliant, people like Pat (Mountain), Scott and Flatty at Wolves – they could easily have said ‘no’ to me going in to train.

“It would be quite easy in this situation for people to ignore you, and let you rot to an extent, but those that step in and help out – I really can’t thank them enough.”

Now then, it’s a waiting game.  It’s not lost on Burgoyne that it’s probably a case of waiting on someone else’s misfortune whether it be injury, suspension or a loss of form.

At 28, he is arguably heading into his goalkeeping prime, both in terms of ability and that overall package of positivity and experience which he can pass on to a dressing room.

In a nutshell, he is ready, willing and able, for any of a variety of roles which modern goalkeeping now entails.

“With all the work I’ve been doing, I’ve probably never been more ready, and am chomping at the bit to get back in,” he explains.

“I’ve gone from a four hour round trip to train at Morecambe, or staying in a £40-a-night hotel, to ending my contract and now having no income whatsoever.

“But I’m still working hard every single day, doing extras in the gym, and feel like I have got a lot to offer.

“If anyone needs a keeper, maybe even a ‘number three’ in any of the leagues, I am ready to go and work my socks off.

“I’ve got experience in all roles whether as a number one, two or three, and as well as pushing for a place, I know how important it is to play that supportive role and make sure the first choice keeps their standards high.

“I just want that opportunity to go back into that football environment and scrap for three points whether it’s playing or supporting and trying to get the best out of everybody that is around.

“I know how fortunate I am to have football as a career, and certainly don’t want anyone feeling sorry for me, but maybe I am due a little bit of luck, and for someone to throw me a bone!”

There are hopefully many more years to come for Burgoyne for whom the burning ambition remains to become stronger through adversity and show just how much of a contribution he can make. 

For Harry’s Game to continue, he just needs an opportunity.