Dave does gloating rather well I think!

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Barnesstorming Burnley Batter Blackburn in Latest Cotton Mill Derby.

An exuberant Dave Thornley reflects on a whopping win for the Clarets as they thrash Blackburn Rovers at Turf Moor.

There is a large group of people for whom following a football club involves latching on to a team purely and simply because they are regularly successful, play at huge stadia, enjoy a massive global profile, and boast the best players on the planet.

Burnley and Blackburn Rovers tend not to attract that kind of following; instead, they draw their support largely from their immediate locality. For those supporters, their team is so much more than a mere fashion statement or a trendy whim; it is a physical, visceral attachment; it speaks of a person’s identity, values, and heritage. It is who you are and where you belong.

So deeply ingrained are those values that the assumption of local supremacy by one team over the other assumes considerably greater significance than the mere award of three points.

Establishing dominion over local rivals is one of the most delicious sensations a football supporter can experience and for clubs like Burnley and Blackburn Rovers, who are unlikely ever again to contest for the game’s most glittering prizes, it is of profound and paramount importance.

It is a rivalry steeped in the traditions of the English game and dating back to its very origins. Despite this, meetings between the two are relatively rare, which only serves to further inflame the rivalry and the urge to right ancient wrongs: the Martin Olsen dive or the David Dunn offside equaliser long after the additional stoppage time had expired.

It is a fixture which can bring out the worst in the more extreme, fundamentalist wings of the two sets of supporters, so much so that when the two teams met each other at Turf Moor yesterday, the atmosphere had a cutting edge of tension and a mutual antipathy one could almost taste.

Moreover, it occurred at a juncture where both clubs were doing well. Burnley began the game second in the table and Blackburn third. A close fought game equal to the tension cascading down from the stands seemed certain to transpire.

In the event, Burnley romped to a clear and decisive victory, outplaying and outclassing Rovers in every department of the game.

A big occasion needs a big hero and who doesn’t love a story of redemption? At Bramhall Lane last week, Ashley Barnes was seen vacating the Burnley subs bench and marching down the tunnel, according to some reports, in a state of high dudgeon. He had been a remote and peripheral figure for much of the season and seemed unsuited to the way Vincent Kompany wanted his Burnley team to play.

Injury to Jay Rodriguez however afforded Barnes a starting role yesterday however, and he responded with a performance that showcased Barnes at his brilliant, horrible, robust best.

Two goals and an assist were his tally yesterday; a header from Annas Zaroury’s perfectly flighted cross to open the scoring on 55 minutes; then a fierce volley deflected by the Rovers goalkeeper into the path of Zaroury whose composed finish slotted neatly into the corner of the Blackburn net.

A few minutes later Josh Brownhill’s left-wing incursion produced a cross which Barnes collected, then a sidestep and a shot past the keeper via a deflection completing a performance which is certain to confirm Ashley Barnes as an authentic Clarets legend.

It would be erroneous to portray the win as a one-man show, every player in a claret shirt, with the possible exception of Aro Muric who might just as well have spent the second half reclining in a deck chair and whose shirt isn’t claret in any event, was magnificent and their combined effort could easily be described as their finest of the season, alongside the demolition of Swansea, but afforded much greater emphasis by the occasion.

A special acknowledgment should go to the holy trinity of the Burnley midfield; Jack Cork and the two Joshes, Cullen, and Brownhill. Their dominance of the middle of the pitch provided the Clarets with their springboard from which to launch Zaroury and Manuel Benson to attack down the wings.

All in all, as complete a performance and as emphatic a victory as it would be possible to imagine, a performance and result to linger long in the memory and provide solace in the dark winter evenings as attention is turned to the least anticipated World Cup since 1962.

With Burnley restored to the top of the Championship table and local bragging rights firmly lodged in our possession, it is a good time to be a Claret.

Attachment 22900

[Claret_Matelot]

"Burnley and Blackburn Rovers tend not to attract that kind of following; instead, they draw their support largely from their immediate locality".

Lets test that. For those on Turfites, where was your "Immediate Locality" that made you a Clarets Fan?

I'll start - Todmorden

[barrie_burn]

Edenfield

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Accrington.

[alfinyalcabo]

Nelstan

[Swissclaret]

Nelstan

Burnley born and bred.

[outwoodclaret]

Fareham, Hampshire. However my father, grandfather and great grandfather were all from Burnley.

[Claret_Matelot]

Fareham, Hampshire. However my father, grandfather and great grandfather were all from Burnley.

I live in Portchester. Ian Rigg from Walsden lives just up the road.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

I now live in Bolton but make the pilgrimage to Burnley every home game and manage a few away games as well.

[sinkov]

Accrington