Dave's take on the Great Escape!

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Dave Thornley claims the tunnels are being dug, the papers are being forged and the motor bike is revved up and ready to jump over the barbed wire fences. Ladies and Gentlemen; the Great Escape is on. The week has seen Burnley emerge with seven plump and perfectly formed points to enhance their hitherto meagre collection and restore the spring in the step of all connected with the club.
Following victory at Brighton last Saturday, Burnley’s next assignment was a home fixture against a Tottenham Hotspur team who had only four days before achieved the rare feat of an away win over league leaders Manchester City.
Opponents, therefore, who were most assuredly not short on confidence when the strode out onto a wet and windy Turf Moor (is it too much to ask that just once I would like to attend a game and not return home soaking wet?) last Wednesday evening. What followed was the sort of performance from the Clarets which we have become used to during the past few years, but which this season have been too few and far between. Burnley were strong in defence, aggressive in midfield and scored the winning goal from a set piece.
It was a performance stamped with the manager’s copyright; a Sean Dyche masterclass, if you will. Burnley’s uptick in form has coincided with the arrival of Wout Weghorst to lead the attack. At first glance, his elongated frame looks ungainly and uncoordinated, but put him anywhere near a football and he adopts the poise and balance of a ballet dancer. He has without doubt added an extra dimension to Burnley’s attacking play, between them, Weghorst and a born-again Jay Rodriguez gave the Spurs defence an evening they would probably prefer to forget.
It has helped too, that over the last few games, Josh Brownhill has metamorphosed into a Paul Scholes play-alike, sharp, busy, and probing in midfield, not allowing Spurs time on the ball and able to link attacking play once he had possession. It was Brownhill’s free kick, swung deep to the far post, which Ben Mee headed firmly past Hugo Lloris twenty minutes from time, to give the Clarets a lead which they held onto without undue alarm. It was important that the work done against Brighton and Spurs was not to be squandered in yesterday’s match at Crystal Palace’s Selhurst Park.
Once again Burnley showed strength and resilience to come back from conceding an early goal to take home a point in a contest which, whilst never the end-to end frolic of the 3-3 draw the teams played out in the reverse fixture earlier in the season, was always enthralling enough to grab the attention. In general, Palace had the better of the first half whilst Burnley edged a second period which opened with Aaron Lennon’s low cross being flicked into his own goal by Palace’s Luka Milovojevic.
Burnley’s Flying Dutchman Wout Weghorst had a header turned over the crossbar by Jack Butland in the home goal and had what would have been a winning goal ruled out for a slender offside decision. So all-in-all it was a great week for Burnley and one which massively boosts their chances of escaping relegation. A win over Leicester on Tuesday evening would, if achieved, haul Burnley out of the bottom three. Swapping places with Leeds United, really would be spreading very thick icing on the cake!

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Thanks Dave - reading your reviews are better than the real thing !

appreciated.