BURNDEN Park's legendary goalscoring pairing of John McGinlay and Andy Walker were back in harness, and in competition, at Newcastle on Wednesday night.

The Scottish strike duo who terrorised defences in a white shirt a decade ago rekindled their partnership to cover their old club for local radio.

It used to be goals they fought over with prolific results and it did not take them long to find something else to satisfy their healthy rivalry.

"Andy was getting all the best action to talk about," moaned the tongue-in-cheek John, who probably used to claim Walker got better service into the box at Burnden as well.

The notorious wind-up merchant went on: "Andy had the better cans (earphones) and I had these things hanging off my shoulders. My ears were freezing.

"The big fella Graham Lovett, the Tower FM commentator, went to Andy every time something exciting happened and when there was nothing happening he'd come to me and expect me to find something interesting to say."

The two former Burnden favourites complimented each other perfectly when they were playing and Graham said they are no different behind the microphone.

He smiled: "They were a fantastic partnership when they were playing and they are no different behind the mike. They are great fun together and different class talking about the game."

Reflecting on their old partnership at Wanderers, Walker said: "John was a great partner for me and that was one of the best times of my career.

"I loved strikers with a good attitude, plenty of workrate and who could score goals and John was all those things.

"And even though he was a great goalscorer he was always a team player. We clicked from the first day we were put together and I never had to think about where John would be on the pitch because I knew it instinctively.

"But it wasn't a two-man team. We had great service from players like David Lee, Alan Thompson, Tony Kelly, Phil Brown and others in the side and we had a dressing room full of great characters."

McGinlay added: "It was the perfect partnership because if Andy didn't score, which wasn't very often, then I would score and more often than not we would both score.

"Unfortunately it came to an abrupt end when Andy suffered a serious injury after a terrible challenge by Des Little against Swansea."

One thing they both agree on is their single-minded approach to scoring goals to the point that victory was tainted for them if they had not found the net.

"If we won 4-0 and I didn't score I wasn't happy," admitted Beast of Burnden McGinlay. "Scoring goals meant so much to me."

Walker agreed: "They say it doesn't matter who scores as long as the team wins but I was always happier scoring goals."