PROFESSIONAL football hasn't much more to offer Skipton lad Craig Mawson. There's the small matter of a first-team debut at Turf Moor. And a regular first-team place with Burnley. And a decent living out of a game and an environment he obviously loves.

But when you've ridden on the open-topped bus with the rest of the squad after a championship winning season and looked down on thousands of joyous supporters from the Town Hall balcony, barring the financial rewards of a long and successful career, that's probably as good as it gets for a farmer's lad from Elslack.

Imagine the emotion. One day you're a misty-eyed youngster on the streets of Burnley, waving and cheering from a place near the hospital and then running down to the Town Hall for another glimpse of your heroes as they parade the championship trophy in 1994. Then, a few short years later, you're on the bus, receiving the acclaim as a member of another group of Clarets who have brought success and joy to the town which loves its football.

Considering that he has yet to make his first-team debut, Burnley's reserve goal-keeper and Young Player of the Year last season, young Mawson has certainly tasted the nectar of soccer success. Not surprisingly, there's still a dewy-eyed tendency when he recounts the kind of experience that zillions of youngsters have dreamed of.

"My whole family have been Burnley supporters for years." says the former pupil at Aireville School in Skipton: "My grandfather was at Wembley and Crystal Palace for two of the great games of bygone days and there has never been any question of me supporting anybody else. Even though I didn't get a game in the senior side last season, I felt to be part of the team. Being on the bus and the balcony were unbelievable experiences."

Not that the personable and articulate youngster's association with Turf Moor has been a Boy's Own story from first to last. His first sporting associations were with Wharfedale RU as a seven-year-old, courtesy of Michael Spenseley, a rugby man from a neighbouring farm at Elslack. At 6ft 4in and 14 stone, coach Michael Harrison could probably make something out of him. Then, the bumps and bruises came thicker and faster than he cared for.

He graduated to soccer with Skipton LMS and when he and pal Adam Oldfield couldn't get back from a rugby match and the goal-keeping job became available, he volunteered. The rest, of course, is history, with games for North Yorkshire, a trial spell at Leeds United and subsequently schoolboy forms at Turf Moor.

But while recollections of the open-topped bus ride still inspire memories which make your hair stand on end, there have also been tears of disappointment along the way.

Waiting for the offer of a new contract is a harrowing business for any teenager and when it doesn't arrive, the pain is hard to handle.

"Ironically, of all the years when I waited for a new offer, the time when it didn't arrive was the one when I was most confident," he says: "I think that was the first time anyone outside my family had seen me crying as an adult. My family were tremendously supportive during that time and really helped me through it. It's behind me now, but one of the things that spurs me on now is the desire to prove the doubters wrong and to repay all the people who showed so much faith in me when I needed support."

His anguish was aggravated by the fact that he had arranged to go on holiday to Magaluf with a group of mates who had all been signed on for another year at the club. "It was very difficult, because all they really wanted to do was to talk about a new season, but because I wasn't going to be part of it, they were too embarrassed to mention football."

At that point the nightmare turned into a fairy-story that is still running. Adrian Heath, the manager who decided that Craig was surplus to requirements, left the club and, when the management took stock of their resources, they realised that Marlon Beresford was the only keeper on the books.

"I'd had an offer at that stage to join Accrington Stanley, but when the offer to rejoin Burnley came, I jumped at it," he said. "Then, within a few weeks of starting another season, I broke my wrist and was out for four months. Even though the injury was accidental, I felt bad about it when people had shown faith in me."

In the event, even in his truncated season he did well enough to persuade Chris Waddle to keep him on and last season he repaid that faith by playing in every game for the Reserves and maintaining his progress.

That sort of consistency coupled with the Young Player's Award, made Craig a banker for a new contract, although he insists that, like every young player making his way in the game, he takes nothing for granted.

"Like everyone else at the club, I can't wait for a new season to start," he says: "The camaraderie within the squad is tremendous and I'm sure it earned us extra points last season. One of the best parts of the recent trip to the Isle of Man was the way in which the new players fitted into the squad.

"From my own perspective, I've still to make my first-team debut and that's obviously my goal. I played with the senior lads for the first time against the Isle of Man and people were very generous afterwards in their comments.

"Obviously I'm still learning my trade and I couldn't have a better mentor than Paul Crichton. He's been tremendous in terms of helping me and I'm sure that when I do get a firm-team chance, he'll be delighted for me. Working with him each day is great, but I feel that I learn so much just watching him play. I think he also wants me to keeping progressing to put pressure on him to keep an edge to his game."

While the view from the Town Hall balcony may be a scene which Craig Mawson will never forget, such lofty imagery does not obscure some of the early influences.

"Ji Mukherjee at Aireville was really supportive," says Mawson: "We struggled to get a team together, but he always worked hard to get us the kind of fixtures we needed, games where the right sort of people would be watching. He helped to get me into the county schools team.

"Steve Morphet at LMS was also really good. There were times when I had to miss training or couldn't make the meeting deadline, but he was always willing to indulge me and make allowances. In a way, I suppose I'm indebted to Bob Wilson, for it was on one of his soccer courses that I was first spotted as "The Most-Promising Under 14 Goal-keeper" and soon afterwards was invited to spend seven months at Leeds United.

"Their decision to release me was another low point, but Brian Miller saw me play and at 15 I signed schoolboy forms for Burnley. Added to thanks I owe those people, of course, I've always had tremendous support from my family, who've never put pressure on me in any way and were there for me during the darker days."

While following a career as a professional footballer focuses his life on Turf Moor, he is by no means consumed by his job.

"Although I haven't played as much cricket this summer as I wanted to, I love turning out for Gargrave." he says: "I'm also totally content just going home to the farm and helping dad or simply going for a walk with the dogs. When I'm training or playing, I'm totally absorbed with the game, but it's also very therapeutic just to be out walking in the open spaces."

That said, the open spaces he would most like to savour are those at Turf Moor when he runs out for his first-team debut. He may have tasted the celebrations, but he knows that the bubbles will be so much more enjoyable when they are a thirst worked up on first-team duty.