A talented keeper, who never got an opportunity at Tottenham to show what he could do, with a number of more experienced goalies in front of him.  Even though he made the England Under-20 team, his lack of progress at club level prevented him moving forward any further with Spurs.

Starting his football playing with local club Larkspur when 10, Rob trained with Bournemouth, but was signed up by Spurs as an Academy keeper in 2000 from his hometown club Yeovil's Under-16s side, where he had been spotted by Tottenham's West Country scout Humphrey Randall.  Burch suffered with injury early in his Spurs career in the Under-17s, picking up a thigh injury in the Milk Cup youth tournament in Northern Ireland in pre-season 2000 and then missing out on the opening three games of the season when he tried to come back to play too soon.  When he started playing regularly, he impressed the management to earn a professional contract in July 2002.  In an eternal enigma for goalies who need the experience, but only get it if the club's number one is injured or suspended, Burch found himself behind Kasey Keller and moves to Woking on loan in 2003 and later to Stevenage Borough in 2004-05 when Paul Robinson came in as the club's first choice keeper, with Radek Cerny as the back-up for the England keeper.

Tall and rangy, the keeper had good handling skills and was a good shot-stopper, but with international keepers ahead of him for the gloves, all he could do is impress while out on loan.

With the reduction of reserve games, it was difficult to get games in and Rob went back to the loan system to play for Bristol City in 2005-06, but he returned on just in time for the end of the 2005-06 season to feature in the Reserve Play-off final against Manchester United, but was unfortunate enough to break his leg in that last match of the season at Old Trafford. 

On his recovery, he got back into playing with a loan spell at Barnet and then back into the reserve set-up at the end of February 2007, sharing goalkeeping duties with Cerny and new signing Ben Alnwick.  With the ex-Sunderland keeper obviously signed as long term cover for the England Number One, it led Tottenham to let Rob leave at the end of the 2006-07 season to pursue his career elsewhere.

Rob subsequently signed for Sheffield Wednesday in the summer of 2007 on a 12 month deal.  Having been unable to hold down a regular starting position, Rob was released at the end of the season and on 1st July 2008 signed a two year deal with Lincoln City.  When that deal ended, he was snapped up by Notts. County on another two year contract.

At the end of his deal at Meadow Lane, Rob returned to Tottenham, where he took over a role as a goalkeeping coach with the Development side at the club.