Dave's take on the season...

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Dave Thornley writing for Clarets Mad provides his thoughts at the end of yet another fascinating promotion winning season.

It hasn?t always been thrilling and at times, during the first half of the season, some of Burnley?s matches were tedious to the point of being soporific. As supporters our faith and our patience ware tested to their limits.

Through all that though, the team kept on picking up the points needed to remain in the mix at the top of the table and our patience was rewarded in the second half of the season when Burnley became a juggernaut, a winning machine, storming to promotion with a hundred points.

Leeds? superior goal difference meant that the title and the trophy went to Elland Road, but after the final match of the season, against Millwall at Turf Moor, none of that seemed to matter as we gathered to pay homage and give thanks for a truly remarkable season of achievement by Scott Parker?s Clarets.

You all know the statistical records broken by this team; unbeaten in a club record thirty-three league games; unbeaten too at Turf Moor throughout the whole of the season; a mere six**** goals conceded and never more than one in any league game; a record tally of clean sheets and (perhaps most impressive of all) only two defeats in the league all season.

One of those defeats came early in the season at Sunderland, when the transfer window had stripped Burnley of a huge swathe of the team Scott Parker had been hired to manage. Odobert; Amdouni, Weghorst, Vitinho, O?Shea and Gudmundsson all featured in the first two games, by the time the transfer window closed, all had gone, leaving Parker to re-shape virtually the whole squad. To do this and still maintain a successful promotion challenge is a managerial achievement of Fergie proportions.

To put that achievement into context, Jimmy Adamson?s ?team of the seventies?, which I have come to regard as the benchmark against which I measure all subsequent Burnley teams, were beaten four times on their way to winning the second tier championship in 1973; the two promotions under Sean Dyche were both achieved by accruing 93 points and five defeats; whilst Kompany?s team of two seasons ago lost three matches.

It is unlikely that, when regaling my soon-to-be-born grandson with tales of Jaidon Anthony, Josh Laurent and Lucas Pires, that I will do so using the same reverential tones I reserve for Leighton James, Martin Dobson and Keith Newton, but the aforementioned trio performed with splendid consistency in Burnley?s cause.

Indeed, all of Parker?s recruitments in both transfer windows added value to the team. Amongst them Ashley Barnes, whose return gave a lift to the supporters and became a source of experience, know-how and inspiration in the dressing room and on the training ground, a shrewd move by the club.

The Clarets? astonishing levels of consistency were underpinned by some memorable victories and inspiring moments; the early season win at Elland Road; the Boxing Day victory away to Sheffield United; James Trafford?s two astonishing penalty saves to preserve a point at home to Sunderland; the now customary win over Blackburn at Ewood Park and of course, securing promotion with a 2-1 home win over Sheffield United. But the success of the season rested to a large extent on the defensive trio of James Trafford in goal and Maxime Esteve and CJ Egan-Riley at centre back.

Esteve matches the timing of Ben Mee with the aerial power of James Tarkowski and the composure of Jordan Beyer, whilst adding wonderful recovery pace. He may well be the best central defender I have ever seen in a Burnley shirt. As for Egan-Riley, put simply he plays like Bobby Moore.

The work now begins on getting the team ready for the enormous challenge of the Premier League. Hopefully, the mistakes made last season will be avoided and a more sensible recruitment policy will manifest itself, including one or two hard-working, solid professionals with 200 or so Premier League games under their belt, just my opinion, but I felt we were lacking such a presence last season.

A final thought. Burnley?s last four Championship seasons has seen them finish second, first, first and second. We are the Manchester City of the second tier.

Editor?s note: Well, we are back in the English Premier League after yet another short stay in the Championship. Can we end the yo-yo cycle and stay at the top table of English football for a while longer this time? I hope so.

[outwoodclaret]

An excellent review by Dave Thornley brilliantly capturing the swings and roundabouts of our quite remarkable season. As it happens I just
finished writing my own Season Review this morning. Apologies for repeating facts and observations Dave has already covered.

In the years to come many comparisons will be drawn between the various promotions from the Championship achieved under Owen Coyle, Sean Dyche, Vincent Kompany and now Scott Parker. Each of us will have particular memories of those seasons and our own personal favourites. I am just glad having come through the years in the 1980’s and 1990’s when the prospect of watching top flight football at Turf Moor seemed about as likely as having my postillion struck by lightning that I have witnessed them all. Here are just a selection of some key games from last season.

Sunderland 1 Burnley 0 (24 August)

Despite the shock departure of former boss Vincent Kompany to Bayern Munich in the summer Burnley had made a surprisingly strong start to the new season following up a 1-4 away win at Luton with a 5-0 home demolition of Cardiff. The August transfer window would now savagely bite with the departures of Sander Berge, Wilson Odobert, Dara O’Shea and Anass Zaroury. Wout Weghorst and Vitinho would soon follow through the exit door on permanent transfers with Zeki Amdouni going out on loan. The depleted Clarets struggled to make any impression in this game as the Black Cats made it three wins out of three to go top of the table. It was a first defeat of the season for new manager Scott Parker and for all the world it looked like a long season of struggle lay ahead with major surgery needed on his team.

Leeds 0 Burnley 1 (14 September)

After a disappointing home draw with Blackburn in his first taste of the East Lancashire derby, Scott Parker took his new look Clarets (with recent signings Humphreys, Worrall, Pires, Laurent, Hannibal Mejbri, Anthony and Flemming all in the starting line up) on the short journey across the Pennines to face Leeds. It proved to be a tight game settled by a single goal scored by Koleosho who made the most of Manor Solomon’s slip to sprint 70 yards before drilling a low shot beyond Meslier. It proved to be Leeds only home loss of the season. Solomon however would have the last laugh on Burnley when his injury time goal in the final match of the campaign at Plymouth Argyle secured the Championship title for the Elland Road side.


Millwall 1 Burnley 0 (3 November)

Burnley suffered a second league defeat of the season that left them in 4th place behind Sunderland, Leeds and Sheffield United. They barely troubled a resolute Lions team. If you had said after the match that Burnley would go unbeaten in the league for the remainder of the season you would have been thought to have gone stark staring mad.

Sheffield United 0 Burnley 2 (26 December)

The halfway point of the season and goals either side of half-time from Brownhill and Flemming gave the Clarets a hard fought victory. It was United’s first home defeat of the season and would not be our last tempestuous clash with Chris Wilder and the Blades. Burnley were now 3rd in the table on 47 points trailing Leeds and Sheffield United both on 48.

Burnley 0 Sunderland 0 (17 January)

The Clarets had begun the New Year with a win at Ewood courtesy of Zian Flemming’s powerful diving header. Sunderland arrived at Turf Moor knowing that victory would enable them to jump above the Clarets and into the automatic promotion places. They had plenty of chances with striker Wilson Isidor hitting the post before Sunderland were awarded not one but two penalties in the closing minutes of the game. Isidor took them both and smashed them both hard to Trafford’s right. Trafford kept them both out with brilliant diving saves and celebrated wildly along with his team mates. If ever a game encapsulated the Clarets ruthless desire not to concede a goal this was it in a nutshell. I don’t think Sunderland ever really recovered from the shattering failure to win this game and they would gradually fade from the
automatic promotion picture.

Burnley 0 Leeds 0 (27 January)

The Division’s best defence faced the best attack. Played out in torrential rain no-one was expecting a classic and it did not disappoint in that respect. 29 games gone now and Leeds remained top ahead of Sheffield United and Burnley.

Burnley 4 Sheffield Wednesday 0 (21 February)

Marcus Edwards had joined on loan from Sporting Lisbon at the beginning of February and had already made his mark scoring the winning goal against Southampton in the FA Cup. The Clarets were now beginning to add attacking fluidity to defensive solidity. The visitors spurned a number of glorious first half chances before Edwards broke the deadlock with a superb solo goal in the 43rd minute. The Clarets were totally dominant in the second half adding three more unanswered goals.

Burnley 2 Sheffield United 1 (21 April)

United had begun the month disastrously losing three games on the spin. Lost more games in a week than we have all season, some wag quipped. Wilder was as they say wild. Nevertheless they arrived at Turf Moor on Easter Monday knowing a win would still keep them in the equation for automatic promotion. Josh Brownhill turned goal poacher to fire the opener after Cooper in the Sheffield goal could only parry Cullen’s fierce drive. Tom Cannon equalised for Sheffield but Brownhill restored Burnley’s lead with a coolly taken penalty just before the interval. And that was that. Leeds and Burnley were guaranteed promotion but who would finish Champions?

Burnley 3 Millwall 1 (3 May)

Burnley and Leeds were both locked together on 97 points going into the last game of the normal season. Millwall one of just 2 sides to beat the Clarets knew a win could potentially take them into the playoffs and they began well scoring an early goal but Brownhill quickly equalised after Barnes had charged down an attempted clearance. Jaidon Anthony added a crucial second goal just after the hour before Brownhill notched a third in injury time to seal the win. 100 points achieved but Leeds would not be denied also recovering from a goal down to beat Plymouth Argyle.

There were a whole host of records for the Clarets in a stunning season not least just 16 goals conceded in a 46 game season. There were also 30 clean sheets to equal a league record with 29 of those for James Trafford. I hadn’t realised he had missed one of our league games. Now we have a summer to dream and hope and no doubt worry about next season in the Premier League.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Can I have your permission to spread this across my social media pages please Sir Outwood? Full credits given to you of course.

[outwoodclaret]

Can I have your permission to spread this across my social media pages please Sir Outwood? Full credits given to you of course.

Full permission granted BT.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Full permission granted BT.

Thank you Sir Outwood.

[Swissclaret]

Excellent reviews and thank you to both of you.

What a season. It will remain long in the memory - not least of all because of the hand that Scott Parker was dealt.

We now await the uncertainties of the transfer window. Some may go and some may arrive as we look forward to 25/26, the PL and (for me) the dreaded VAR.

[kritichris]

Two excellent reviews, thank you both.

[sinkov]

A pleasure to read, thanks to both Dave and Sir Outwood.

[outwoodclaret]

Just the 16 goals conceded in a 46 game season. I think this is a record that will stand for a long time. And just for the record the breakdown was as follows.Three teams scored against us twice: Millwall, Norwich, Watford. 10 scored once: Blackburn, Cardiff, Coventry, Hull, Luton, Middlesbrough, Portsmouth, Sheffield United, Sunderland, WBA and another 10 failed to register at all: Bristol City, Derby, Leeds, Oxford, Plymouth, Preston, QPR, Sheffield Wednesday, Stoke and Swansea.

As far as I can see the Clarets only dropped 2 points all season from winning positions. That was on 31 August when they drew 1-1 with Blackburn Rovers when they surrendered a 1-0 lead. In all the other 1-1 draws Burnley hit back after being a goal down.Quite remarkable.

[Swissclaret]

Just the 16 goals conceded in a 46 game season. I think this is a record that will stand for a long time. And just for the record the breakdown was as follows.Three teams scored against us twice: Millwall, Norwich, Watford. 10 scored once: Blackburn, Cardiff, Coventry, Hull, Luton, Middlesbrough, Portsmouth, Sheffield United, Sunderland, WBA and another 10 failed to register at all: Bristol City, Derby, Leeds, Oxford, Plymouth, Preston, QPR, Sheffield Wednesday, Stoke and Swansea.

As far as I can see the Clarets only dropped 2 points all season from winning positions. That was on 31 August when they drew 1-1 with Blackburn Rovers when they surrendered a 1-0 lead. In all the other 1-1 draws Burnley hit back after being a goal down.Quite remarkable.

The one that really stands is the failure of Leeds to score against us. They were scoring goals for fun.