Dave wraps our season up...(again)

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Dave Thornley assesses the last week in Burnley Football Club’s recent travails for Clarets Mad. Swansea are up next.

There are mysteries which continue to confound and perplex mankind: the origins of the Universe; the building of the Pyramids; the Bermuda Triangle and how on Earth Blackburn Rovers are still third place in the Championship despite losing twelve matches and having a negative goal difference. Phenomena defying explanation from even the most learned.

But let us not become embroiled in such high concept matters; because for us Clarets fans, this season is now assuming the characteristics of a relentless march towards promotion and the Championship trophy.

Defeat in the League Cup at Manchester United was hardly a disaster, and Burnley acquitted themselves creditably enough at Old Trafford so as not to hamper either the form or confidence of Vincent Kompany’s team.

The two league matches that followed – at home to Birmingham City and away to Stoke City – have yielded six points, four goals and two clean sheets.

In everyday life I am not one who pays any heed to superstition and omens, when it comes to football however, I am often to be found in the thrall of whatever malign forces combine to cast dark clouds over the coming fixture. As such, a punctured tyre on my way to Turf Moor for the Birmingham game prompted such a surge of foreboding in my breast.

I need not have been concerned; as early as the first minute, Annas Zaroury, returning to the team after World Cup duty, lashed in Conor Roberts’ intelligent cross to give Burnley the lead.

Birmingham were typical of so many of the teams visiting Turf Moor this season; they worked hard, applied themselves to their gameplan but ultimately became undone by Burnley’s superior class and the mounting frustration caused by being starved of the ball for extended periods.

On the stroke of half time, Roberts (who had a storming game) had doubled the Clarets’ lead and administered a terminal blow to any notion the visitors had of getting back into the game.

Nathan Tella’s breakaway goal in stoppage time rounded off a thoroughly satisfactory performance and comprehensive victory.

Last night’s trip to Stoke’s Bet 365 stadium however proved to be a much tougher and harder-fought assignment.

Stoke were troublesome opponents when they visited Turf Moor in October and left with a point. On their home patch, they were similarly obdurate, and the three points earned by virtue of Josh Cullen’s scrappy second half goal perhaps scored higher on the satisfaction scale than burying opponents under an avalanche of goals.

Good teams win hard games, and last night’s match at Stoke was a hard game.

The win restored Burnley’s three-point lead over Sheffield United, who have recently been playing a day earlier than Burnley. The Blades are themselves in excellent form and as such are applying pressure on Burnley which can only be a good thing as the gap to third place and the wilting Blackburn Rovers, becomes a chasm and the danger of any potential complacency disintegrates.

Whilst guarding against tempting fate, Burnley’s current position is so powerful that a whole lot of dissentient events would have to combine to prevent the season from becoming a successful one: injuries, suspensions, decisions going against them at key moments; and another team having the sort of run in the second half of the season as Burnley have had in the first.

So, let’s raise our glasses to welcome in a new year plump with exciting possibilities for Burnley Football Club and all their loyal supporters.

Happy New Year to you all from Dave and everyone at Clarets Mad and thanks for reading and for your feedback and comments throughout what has been a seismically eventful year at Burnley Football Club.

From: The Editor’s Chair at Clarets Mad.

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[Swissclaret]

Good review as ever. It is hard not to be a glass half empty person at times. However, I am really optimistic for the coming months.

It is a quality side at this level, which is all that we need to be.

After years of dreading fixtures and hoping that we will not get slaughtered, it is great to look forward to matches knowing that we can, on our day, play our opponents of the park.

A Happy New Year to all.