Dave on the Rovers game and other stuff...

We now have an international break to help us integrate our newbies, Dave Thornley takes a deep breath and offers us his insight on the last couple of eventful weeks.

It has been a turbulent few weeks in the recent history of our beloved Burnley Football Club.

We supporters have had to navigate our way through a transfer window the wheeler-dealing of which even peak Harry Redknapp would have considered too much and culminating in Scott Parker being required to field a team of relative strangers and slinging them into the feverish crucible of an East Lancs Derby at Turf Moor.

Happily, the new-look line up for the most part gelled together well, and whilst there are wrinkles to iron out, there is every reason to look forward with some optimism.

It was a little frustrating therefore that despite being demonstrably the better team, Burnley could not underline their superiority with a victory. If Blackburn’s Andreas Wiemann plays until he is fifty, he will never again strike a thirty-yard dipping volley with such velocity and precision as that which provided Blackburn’s equaliser to Lyle Foster’s thumping header which gave the Clarets an early lead.

Throughout the first half in particular, Burnley looked crisp and sharp, with the new faces fitting in well. Hannibal looked every inch a general (historical pun intended) in midfield; whilst Anthony on the left wing provided the cross for the Burnley goal and generally looked a handful. Worrall was composed in defence, and Laurent elegant in midfield.

Burnley’s biggest issue centred around the accuracy of the final ball, which failed to penetrate a massed Rovers defence and became increasingly frenetic as the game wore on.

Blackburn’s Gueye received a second yellow card and trudged slowly and grumpily towards the dressing room in the manner of Marnus Labuschagne after his LBW review was turned down.
The dismissal however only served to cause Blackburn to retreat deeper into their own half and Scott Parker was correct in his post-match assessment that Burnley became more restless in their efforts to find a winning goal, at the loss of some composure and precision.

The match as a whole was frantic, frenzied and more than a little feisty, as a good derby should be. Blackburn fans were probably the happier of the two sets of supporters at its conclusion, Burnley could, and probably should, have won and that is a source of frustration, but those thoughts are tempered by the knowledge that the team showed real promise going forward, and it is still four**** years and counting since Blackburn triumphed in a derby, Martin Olsen’s dive, lest we forget.

Now we have an international break to endure, on the season’s resumption we look forward to another fixture pregnant with historical significance, away to Leeds United.

Spare a thought for our wonderful Brazilian Vitinho who is now homeward bound and also let us all please remember, “We all hate Leeds!” (TEC.)