Background
Burke was born in Nottingham, and came through the ranks at Nottingham Forest.
Burke was born in Nottingham, and came through the ranks at Nottingham Forest.
He played as a left winger. His only first-team appearance was on 20 October 1976, while still a schoolboy aged 16 years 22 days, as a substitute in the Anglo-Scottish Cup against Ayr United. He played quite frequently at the beginning of his QPR career, and came on as substitute in the 1982 Final replay, which QPR lost to Tottenham Hotspur.
He had several loan spells towards the end of his QPR career – at Millwall from October to December 1983, at N ottinghamshire County from October to December 1984, at Lincoln City from August to September 1985, and at Brentford from March to May 1986 – before leaving the club at the end of the 1985-1996 season on a free transfer to Doncaster Rovers.
He finished his League career with two seasons at Doncaster, including a loan spell at Stockport County.