Dave's take on the Wigan mauling...

Our exuberant Clarets Mad match reviewer Dave Thornley is full of the joys of the Bank Holiday Weekend and writes; As Ian Dury might have put it; “Reasons to be cheerful, one, two, three”.

One, the sun is shining and it’s a bank holiday weekend; two, England beat South Africa by an innings at Old Trafford and three Burnley score five goals away from home in an emphatic demolition of Wigan Athletic.

Shallow? Possibly, but amidst the numerous crises facing all of us as the autumn and winter unfold, we must take our pleasures wherever and however we can find them.

Impressive passages of sumptuous football in just about all of their previous games suggested that a performance and a result such as the one witnessed at the DW Stadium yesterday, was on the not-too-distant horizon. That it hadn’t arrived earlier had been due in no small part to the commission of some unforced errors.

Those errors have not yet been fully eradicated and us supporters will probably have to acknowledge that they will continue to crop up from time to time due to the fact that the way Vincent Kompany wants his team to play carries with it a measure of risk.

The reward for our patience and endurance is a style of play which is fluent, progressive, imaginative and, at times, mesmerising. When it all comes together, as it did yesterday in Wigan, the result is thrilling.

Kompany, when faced with a decision, seems to prefer the attacking option; a laudable tendency but one which takes some adjusting to after so many years of safety-first football. This is not, by the way, intended as a criticism, Burnley in past seasons did what they had to do in order to remain a competitive Premier League outfit.

The point is that Clarets fans’ mental conditioning over the last few years had led to an assumption that Ian Maatsen’s suspension would prompt Charlie Taylor to be moved from the centre of the defence to his more familiar posting at left back and that Egan-Riley would come into the team in Maatsen’s place.

Instead of which, Kompany opted to switch Vitinho to the left-hand side and keep Taylor at centre back. The attacking option paid handsome dividends as he, and us, were rewarded with a bravura display from the gifted Brazilian. His cross from the left after 17 minutes induced a mix-up in the Wigan defence and Jay Rodriguez was on hand to do what all good strikers do, turning on the loose ball and tucking it into the corner of the net.

Ten minutes later and another Vitinho cross, this time met by Josh Brownhill whose first-time finish into the roof of the net was a goal of stunning quality and revealed a player brim full of confidence and revelling in the freedom he has been given to push himself forward into goal scoring positions.

As the half drew to a close, a long ball into the inside right channel saw Aro Muric charge from his line and in the act of pushing the ball away from the feet of Wigan’s Callum Lang, brought the player down to concede and penalty from which Will Keane scored.

Muric attracted criticism in some quarters for his perceived recklessness, but having seen the incident a number of times, he probably had concluded that he had little option other than to attempt to deal with the threat he was facing in the manner he did. A better goalkeeper might have found a better way, but I personally don’t hold Muric’s actions against him, particularly when his save shortly afterwards maintained Burnley’s lead going into the break.

Nevertheless, at the forefront of the minds of Burnley fans during the interval would be the memory of last week’s squandering of a two-goal lead at home to Blackpool and the anxiety that memory induced.

They needn’t have worried; Burnley were ruthless in the second half; adding three more goals from the excellent Nathan Tella (a suspicion of offside, but no VAR to nit-pick over it); Brownhill again following a neat cut inside and finally from Samuel Bastien, whose goal was his second of the week following his winner in the mid-week cup win over Shrewsbury Town. Another break with recent tradition as the Clarets successfully negotiated a cup tie against opposition from a lower division.

As the games come thick and fast Kompany and his team look to build on this emphatic victory and establish some consistency of performance and results. Their next opportunity to do this will come on Tuesday evening at home to Millwall – more of the same please.

In keeping with Dave’s musical style introduction, I will close the report with reference to the great Bunny Sigler tune, “Let the Good Times Roll!” Bring on the Lions. (TEC).

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