Position : Midfield (also played at centre half and left back)
Played : 1996-97 to 1998-99
Appearances : 118
Goals : 6
Andy came over with the returning Mark Leonard on a free from Wigan. His career began at his home town club Colchester in the mid-80s making 105 appearances for them before a £13,000 move to Burnley in 1987. Andy is held in the highest regard at Turf Moor where he played in virtually every position and made 257 appearances scoring 19 goals. He was sold to Wigan for £20,000 when Burnley got promoted to the First Division making 54 appearances before following Graham Barrow to Spotland.
Andy is generally remembered as the ultimate "Barrow man" who appeared in nearly every match and followed the gaffer's instruction to play a long ball game religiously. He's possibly been over-maligned as a result. Mr P hated him beause he was keeping Alex Russsell out of a central midfield slot. I remember missing a game at Northampton in November 1996 to go to a wedding and in Mr P's match report he straight-faced told me "Farrell had a nightmare" ( you wouldn't have thought he'd scored both goals in a 2-2 draw ! ) . Although he did a job in the middle he was better when he filled in at centre half which he had to do often in his second season with Johnson and Pender out injured. Towards the end of that season he started looking a bit long in the tooth and should have been freed. However Barrow was reluctant to let him go and the following season he not only had a regular place at centre half but the team seemed to be structured around him with a 5-at-the back formation to compensate for the fact his legs had gone. To make things worse Andy now seemed jittery whenever the ball came to him and was more a liability than a help to the other defenders.
Steve Parkin wisely declined to keep him on and he went to Morecambe for a season. He then spent 4 years at Leigh Genesis playing until he was nearly 40. He is now back at Burnley working in their Centre of Excellence.
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