Das Football

Thats Not News Epidsode 8

2010-07-22T03:17:00.001-07:00

Season finale

test

2010-07-22T02:47:00.001-07:00

A large broom needed to clean up England's doom

Its been a week since England’s exit from the World Cup and on goes the seemingly never ending fall out in the media, the text message jokes and the angry pub based debates.

It’s fair to say that England’s dismal failings in this World Cup have upset a lot of people. Phone-ins have been littered with cockneys shouting that the overpaid players and manager should now tip up their wages to nurses before being sent to do battle in Afghanistan.

But should we be that upset? Did we not see it coming? How really did we expect players that struggled against the USA and Algeria to come out and knock out a young exciting German team that has played some of the best football of the competition so far?

The answer is of course that we always believe that this team will come good. No matter how they play we are one game away from turning things around and becoming the world force we all hope for. Sadly, it never comes true. Oh there are flashes of hope and promise but that flicker of genius that we all know that’s in there somewhere never fully comes to fruition.

The reason why it doesn’t is never fully clear because of the alphabet of tired and worn excuses being flown around for failure. Tactics, exhaustion, the ball, the climate, pampered players, splits in the camp, coups, affairs and over discipline are just some that have been thrown out over the last seven days.

But while each fan, journalist and ex professional all have an opinion on how to fix our broken national team it’s the men at the top who have to act. But unfortunately our jurassic F.A don’t have the track record to show that a change of approach will be introduced.

In the past they have invested inflated wages in foreign coaches who are just as tactically stubborn as our own, built an overpriced national stadium and thrown money at a Burton training complex which still remains unfinished and unused. Doesn’t fill you with much hope does it?

The foreign coach experiment was supposed to bring in forward thinking football men from the continent who could change the way we approach international football. What did we get? Sven and Fabio, who although they do have individual good points are ultimately flawed by their reliance on an outdated system that does not suit the players they seem intent on playing.

The Lampard and Gerrard situation is a prime example. Capello came and promised to sort out England’s biggest unsolved mystery of how to get these two great players into the team and replicating something near their club form. Sadly as we enter the twilight of their international careers still no workable solution has been found.

Playing Gerrard from the left works when England are setting the tempo and playing well against lesser teams; unfortunately against more intelligent, stronger and ultimately better opposition the system becomes rigid and the players start sticking to their positions when what’s needed for it to work is freedom and flexibility.

It’s extremely sad to see that the most obvious solution to getting two of England’s most outstanding footballers to play together has never been given a run of games. Namely playing both of them together with a holding midfielder with either Gerrard playing off Rooney with a more natural left sided player or with a middle three including Lampard and Gerrard with more forward thinking players providing the width in a interchangeable 4-5-1/4-3-3 formation. Sadly the F.A decided to pay six million pounds to a year to another man who is less open to change than they are.

This is just one element of Capello’s failures during this tournament. The Italian’s become a shadow of the solid, respectable coach we saw during the early days of his tenure. His confusing selection policies, substitutions and contradictory policies over things like contract negations have left a lot to be desired.

The BBC yesterday showed a montage of all the managers that have fallen on their sword since their country’s exit from the World Cup. There were a considerable amount but there was one notable exception, Fabio Capello. The money the Italian’s paid means there is no way he would’ve done the honourable thing and resigned. Now a get out clause in his contract has been removed the F.A can’t afford to pay off the rest of his contract, so now we are left with a manager who it seems nobody has faith in anymore.

The fact is that the sorry circles that the F.A work in has left the England national team in a mess. We will now see Capello in charge for at least the next two years up until the end of the next European Championships. That is perhaps until he’s given a new contract to 2014 after England qualify top of an easy looking qualification group. It really wouldn’t surprise me.

But like it or not we are stuck with him now so let’s hope Capello is as "ruthless" as the press make him out to be and actually ditches some of the old guard who no longer should be relied on to take England forward. What’s needed is a sprinkling of young and exciting talent that Capello says will add “new energy” to the team.

The good thing for me is that at least he recognises that he has to change to save his reputation. Come the opening Euro 2012 qualification game in September must be ready to make regular starters of the likes of Adam Johnson, Michael Dawson and Joe Hart while blooding others like Gary Cahill, Jack Rodwell and Jack Wilshire as regular squad members. Theo Walcott must also return in some form, England definitely missed having a player with pace that opponents actually fear during this tournament.

I’m not entirely sure which of the “golden generation” should survive. One thing that is for certain is that John Terry must go and England must move on from his era in the side. If the Chelsea man can’t be captain he isn’t worth his place and should be replaced in order to form a new partnership’s at the back. Players like David James, Jamie Carragher and Emile Heskey must also be forgotten if we are to start to move forward.

While Capello has decisions to make over which players should go and which young talent he should blood, he must also give them the freedom of expression by implementing a variation of the 4-3-3 system. He definitely needs to experiment to make these group of players into a well oiled international unit.

Let’s start doing things other teams do. Why not start Crouch? The Tottenham man is our nearest thing to someone like Klose, who has an outstanding goal record for Germany but not for his cub.

Let’s play Rooney wide from a three man attack, where he can cut inside and do some damage. At Manchester United there are an abundance of creative players to feed Rooney, England don’t have that. In qualifying he was far more effective and got the team playing from deeper positions which was rarely seen at this World Cup. Let’s not have our best footballer swallowed up by intelligent sides whose centre backs and holding midfielders stunt his influence when he is left to rot up front. We need to srop trying to turn our most naturally gifted footballer into an old fashioned target man. Sir Alex Ferguson can play him where he wants but England need more from Rooney outside the box than United do.

Below is how I’d like the side to set up come September with the players who should be nearest the starting eleven.

GK: Hart

DF: Johnson Cahill/Dawson/R. Ferdinand A.Cole

HM: Hargreaves/Rodwell

CM: Lampard/Gerrard/Wilshere/Milner/Huddlestone

AT: Lennon, Walcott/A. Johnson/Crouch/Rooney

Other squad members; Foster, Green, Gibbs, Barry, J. Cole, Defoe, Bent.

It may not be overly radical but for England the change in formation is the most important part of how we recover from this dismal showing in South Africa.

For me it’s the grass levels of the game that needs to see wholesale changes; for starters we need a more workable solution to getting more English youngsters into Premier League sides must be achieved. At a much lower level the FA must now champion skill and technique by getting more children playing football in the right way. Sir Trevor Brooking is currently trying to implement this and I wish him well in his attempt to single headedly move our tired old FA into looking at 21st Century models like the one that is seeing Germany storm into another World Cup semi final with a young and vibrant side.

England may have been unlucky in that Lampard’s goal was never given in that quarter final a week ago today. But in fact that non-goal may have done us a huge favour as without the total capitulation that followed it may not have given us the chance to force changes to the personnel, the way we play our football and the whole way we approach developing our young talent. Sweeping changes are needed across the board, now can someone please get Fabio and the rest of the F.A a big brush and tell them how to use it?

A large broom needed to clean up England's doom

2010-07-04T03:22:00.000-07:00

It's been a week since England’s exit from the World Cup and on goes the seemingly never ending fall out in the media, the text message jokes and the angry pub based debates.

It’s fair to say that England’s dismal failings in this World Cup have upset a lot of people. Phone-ins have been littered with cockneys shouting that the overpaid players and manager should now tip up their wages to nurses before being sent to do battle in Afghanistan.

But should we be that upset? Did we not see it coming? How really did we expect players that struggled against the USA and Algeria to come out and knock out a young exciting German team that has played some of the best football of the competition so far?

The answer is of course that we always believe that this team will come good. No matter how they play we are one game away from turning things around and becoming the world force we all hope for. Sadly, it never comes true. Oh there are flashes of hope and promise but that flicker of genius that we all know that’s in there somewhere never fully comes to fruition.

The reason why it doesn’t is never fully clear because of the alphabet of tired and worn excuses being flown around for failure. Tactics, exhaustion, the ball, the climate, pampered players, splits in the camp, coups, affairs and over discipline are just some that have been thrown out over the last seven days.

But while each fan, journalist and ex professional all have an opinion on how to fix our broken national team it’s the men at the top who have to act. But unfortunately our jurassic F.A don’t have the track record to show that a change of approach will be introduced.

In the past they have invested inflated wages in foreign coaches who are just as tactically stubborn as our own, built an overpriced national stadium and thrown money at a Burton training complex which still remains unfinished and unused. Doesn’t fill you with much hope does it?

The foreign coach experiment was supposed to bring in forward thinking football men from the continent who could change the way we approach international football. What did we get? Sven and Fabio, who although they do have individual good points are ultimately flawed by their reliance on an outdated system that does not suit the players they seem intent on playing.

The Lampard and Gerrard situation is a prime example. Capello came and promised to sort out England’s biggest unsolved mystery of how to get these two great players into the team and replicating something near their club form. Sadly as we enter the twilight of their international careers still no workable solution has been found.

Playing Gerrard from the left works when England are setting the tempo and playing well against lesser teams; unfortunately against more intelligent, stronger and ultimately better opposition the system becomes rigid and the players start sticking to their positions when what’s needed for it to work is freedom and flexibility.

It’s extremely sad to see that the most obvious solution to getting two of England’s most outstanding footballers to play together has never been given a run of games. Namely playing both of them together with a holding midfielder with either Gerrard playing off Rooney with a more natural left sided player or with a middle three including Lampard and Gerrard with more forward thinking players providing the width in a interchangeable 4-5-1/4-3-3 formation. Sadly the F.A decided to pay six million pounds to a year to another man who is less open to change than they are.

This is just one element of Capello’s failures during this tournament. The Italian’s become a shadow of the solid, respectable coach we saw during the early days of his tenure. His confusing selection policies, substitutions and contradictory policies over things like contract negations have left a lot to be desired.

The BBC yesterday showed a montage of all the managers that have fallen on their sword since their country’s exit from the World Cup. There were a considerable amount but there was one notable exception, Fabio Capello. The money the Italian’s paid means there is no way he would’ve done the honourable thing and resigned. Now a get out clause in his contract has been removed the F.A can’t afford to pay off the rest of his contract, so now we are left with a manager who it seems nobody has faith in anymore.

The fact is that the sorry circles that the F.A work in has left the England national team in a mess. We will now see Capello in charge for at least the next two years up until the end of the next European Championships. That is perhaps until he’s given a new contract to 2014 after England qualify top of an easy looking qualification group. It really wouldn’t surprise me.

But like it or not we are stuck with him now so let’s hope Capello is as "ruthless" as the press make him out to be and actually ditches some of the old guard who no longer should be relied on to take England forward. What’s needed is a sprinkling of young and exciting talent that Capello says will add “new energy” to the team.

The good thing for me is that at least he recognises that he has to change to save his reputation. Come the opening Euro 2012 qualification game in September must be ready to make regular starters of the likes of Adam Johnson, Michael Dawson and Joe Hart while blooding others like Gary Cahill, Jack Rodwell and Jack Wilshire as regular squad members. Theo Walcott must also return in some form, England definitely missed having a player with pace that opponents actually fear during this tournament.

I’m not entirely sure which of the “golden generation” should survive. One thing that is for certain is that John Terry must go and England must move on from his era in the side. If the Chelsea man can’t be captain he isn’t worth his place and should be replaced in order to form a new partnership’s at the back. Players like David James, Jamie Carragher and Emile Heskey must also be forgotten if we are to start to move forward.

While Capello has decisions to make over which players should go and which young talent he should blood, he must also give them the freedom of expression by implementing a variation of the 4-3-3 system. He definitely needs to experiment to make these group of players into a well oiled international unit.

Let’s start doing things other teams do. Why not start Crouch? The Tottenham man is our nearest thing to someone like Klose, who has an outstanding goal record for Germany but not for his cub.

Let’s play Rooney wide from a three man attack, where he can cut inside and do some damage. At Manchester United there are an abundance of creative players to feed Rooney, England don’t have that. In qualifying he was far more effective and got the team playing from deeper positions which was rarely seen at this World Cup. Let’s not have our best footballer swallowed up by intelligent sides whose centre backs and holding midfielders stunt his influence when he is left to rot up front. We need to srop trying to turn our most naturally gifted footballer into an old fashioned target man. Sir Alex Ferguson can play him where he wants but England need more from Rooney outside the box than United do.

Below is how I’d like the side to set up come September with the players who should be nearest the starting eleven.

GK: Hart

DF: Johnson Cahill/Dawson/R. Ferdinand A.Cole

HM: Hargreaves/Rodwell

CM: Lampard/Gerrard/Wilshere/Milner/Huddlestone

AT: Lennon, Walcott/A. Johnson/Crouch/Rooney

Other squad members; Foster, Green, Gibbs, Barry, J. Cole, Defoe, Bent.

It may not be overly radical but for England the change in formation is the most important part of how we recover from this dismal showing in South Africa.

For me it’s the grass levels of the game that needs to see wholesale changes; for starters we need a more workable solution to getting more English youngsters into Premier League sides must be achieved. At a much lower level the FA must now champion skill and technique by getting more children playing football in the right way. Sir Trevor Brooking is currently trying to implement this and I wish him well in his attempt to single headedly move our tired old FA into looking at 21st Century models like the one that is seeing Germany storm into another World Cup semi final with a young and vibrant side.

England may have been unlucky in that Lampard’s goal was never given in that quarter final a week ago today. But in fact that non-goal may have done us a huge favour as without the total capitulation that followed it may not have given us the chance to force changes to the personnel, the way we play our football and the whole way we approach developing our young talent. Sweeping changes are needed across the board, now can someone please get Fabio and the rest of the F.A a big brush and tell them how to use it?

Can Capello get der Kaiser a beer?

2010-06-24T07:17:00.000-07:00

Well that was much better wasn’t it? England finally started to get going at the World Cup with what was all in all a very good showing against Slovenia yesterday afternoon.

Jermaine Defoe’s 23rd minute strike proved enough to take us out of the group in second place and set up an intriguing last sixteen tie against “them Germans” in Bloemfontein on Sunday afternoon.

Performance wise it was the first time in the competition that Fabio Capello’s men really moved the ball sharply with plenty of neat interchanges and created plenty of very good chances. At the other end David James was cool and calm in goal, while the back four headed by an inspiring John Terry through themselves at everything.

What was perhaps most pleasing was the Terry inspired huddle on the final whistle. That sort of reaction after any important result often shows a strong togetherness, collective spirit and desire to be successful. That’s what England need now; the shackles from the opening two games seem to have been removed and the players now look ready to take on the world again.

But let’s not get carried away with winning the thing just yet. While at times England were brilliantly explosive at others they still had elements of an imminent self destruction about them. Although I believe we will continue to get stronger the more we can progress in the tournament, these defensive frailties can never be fully masked. We must persevere in this manner and hope we can continue to get past teams with more of the same swashbuckling Premier League style performances.

To do that we need to score more goals after a poor return of only two so far. We all know how dangerous the likes of Defoe, Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard and Milner all are in front of goal and if we can open the Germans up with similarly penetrative attacking play then we will hopefully reap the rewards and take a better proportion of the chances created.

The main question now is that does Capello now stick with the same eleven for Sundays last sixteen showdown? Providing Rooney is fit then for me the answer is yes.

I was shocked to hear some journalists calling for Rooney to be dropped even after yesterday’s performance. One such chap labelled him “Emile Heskey like” due to the fact Rooney’s name has rarely appeared on OPTA stats for scoring goals or direct assists.

Although still not at his best, Rooney was at the heart of most of the neat link up play that was coming from England’s advancing midfielders and full backs. His movement and vision with balls around the corner of defenders and through their legs will once again be vital to England’s chances of victory against the Germans on Sunday.

Without him I’d be worried that we’d struggle to emulate yesterday’s performance and slide back into the disjointed England we saw against Algeria. There is little doubt Rooney was one of the worst players in that game last Friday but when England are vibrant so is Rooney and he will only continue to regain his swing the more those around him improve theirs.

When the team plays poorly Rooney’s frustrations often make him a bad player and the shadow of himself that had struggled up to yesterday. Having Jermaine Defoe alongside Rooney also helped as the Tottenham man now takes some of the goal-scoring responsibility off Rooney’s already strained shoulders. While often not involved in much of the general play, Defoe often came alive with his movement in the final third and showed his worth perfectly when stepping across the Slovenian defender to put away Milner’s cross.

Another worthy change made by Capello was bringing in James Milner onto the right hand side. The Villa man almost instantly struck up a very tasty partnership with Glenn Johnson down the England right. It was a very good performance from Milner who crossed effectively, showed he could beat a man and also worked hard for the team especially when helping out Johnson at full back. The partnership was also mirrored on the other side by the terrific Ashley Cole and Steven Gerrard.

At the other end of the field Capello must also choose between Upson and Carragher now the Liverpool defender has returned from suspension. Upson did well alongside Terry and should keep his place at the heart of England’s defence. There are question marks as to whether the pairing would be suited to a less physical and more creative attack than the Slovenians but at this stage we need to stick with a winning team, yet more disruption to the line-up would be unwelcome at a time when we look to be turning the corner.

So what of the Germans? Our old foe have certainly had the better of us in the past at the finals of major tournaments but this is a new era for both sides. The Germans look less like the “efficient” well oiled machine of times gone by and instead play with more openness and freedom than their ununified past. This is something England must look to exploit if they are to get through the tie without the dreaded extra time and penalties.

They do however remain a massive threat that should not be underestimated. Up and coming talent such as Müller and Özil have so far shone while being helped along by the more experienced Schweinsteiger, Klose, captain Lahm and penalty missing Podolski.

Like England, Germany have defensive frailties of their own and if both sides get the ball down and play then this latest encounter between the former enemies could be best of the many “World Cup classics” throughout the years.

Franz Beckenbauer has labelled England “stupid” for finishing second in the group and setting up this mouth watering clash. With yet another derogatory comment from Der Kaiser the question has to be asked, could he be running scared of Fabio Capello’s men? After all Germany have already been beaten during this World Cup while England remain unbeaten despite the slowest of starts to their campaign.

Lets hope England don’t enter into such mind games and just sit back on Saturday night with one of Fabio Capello’s beers and realise that without setting the world alight they could be on the verge of going very far in this World Cup. For the players it’s now all about turning this new found spirit into enough momentum to keep on progressing. Oh, and did I mention the part about having to win a good old penalty shoot out?

Fabio orders fingers on lips

2010-06-21T09:55:00.001-07:00

While a fan that confused the England dressing room with a toilet goes on trial this week in South Africa much of the country is still holding court about that performance against Algeria on Friday.

At the least Pavlos Joseph has an excuse for his wanderings; the stench coming from the England team dressing room after that game probably resembled that of the dirtiest of public lavatories.

It was a truly woeful performance from Fabio Capello’s side, most definitely the worst under his tenure. But what’s changed between the side that cruised through qualifying and the one now trying to stagger blindly into the World Cup’s knockout stages?

Some lament the long hard slog of a European season that has seen not only England but France, Spain and Italy also falter in the opening games, while some say the Italian disciplinarian’s hard line approach is too much for a month long tournament. Other notable mentions include the climate, the Jubilani ball and a simple loss of form.

Whatever camp you fall into the most likely answer to England’s failings would be a combination of the lot; however the dominant and recurring theme seems to be falling at the feet of Capello.

Those in and around the England camp seem keen to point out that the players don’t seem to be enjoying being in South Africa and this ultimately is affecting performances. This is of course in stark contrast to the same group of players who apparently did not enjoy Sven’s gentlemen’s club either.

But is this true and what do the players actually want? John Terry’s Sunday press conference seemed to suggest they’d have lots to say about the style and selection used in the previous group games but according to reports the Italian allowed none of this came to fruition in the subsequent team meeting when he told them not to speak.

“The manager spoke and addressed the Algeria performance” was the view of events expressed by Frank Lampard this morning. By that it seems Capello will continue to keep his strict distance from involving the players and their opinions in his way of doing things by seemingly ordering the players to keep their fingers on lips and cross their legs.

With Matthew Upson set to resume his unbeaten six game qualification partnership with John Terry in the absence of Jamie Carragher, England should once again be able to keep it tight at the back. What we really need is our more forward thinking players to lose their shackles and express themselves.

But what of the introduction of Joe Cole? Time will only tell whether the Italian takes the opinion of not only the team but nation on board and give him a chance on the right, left or even behind Wayne Rooney. I don’t think I care where he plays at this stage, England need some of the intelligence and craft that Cole possesses to try and open up opposition defences that have so far been difficult to penetrate.

After identical results so far the whole country are now hoping for a repeat of what happened in the group stages at Italia 90 when Mark Wright’s goal against Egypt put England through to the knockout stages. Rooney, Gerrard and Lampard must once again try and emulate the likes of Lineker, Gascoigne and Waddle in order to see the team through.

Back in the present day the worrying talk of a mutiny in the camp for the moment seems to have been put to one side. Let’s hope this now silent and hidden discontent doesn’t manifest into the explosion of fury that saw the French in meltdown over the weekend. Anything less than a win against Slovenia could well be the catalyst for it. Not that it will happen of course, this is England and we’re still going to win the World cup; aren’t we?

The price is hype

2010-06-14T10:05:00.001-07:00

An early goal, not one but two injuries, a horrific goalkeeping blunder, one world class save, some spurned chances to win it and plenty of vuvuzela’s; all in all I think I’m quite happy with that point from Saturday’s World Cup opener against the USA.

While the American front pages celebrate the result as a famous moral victory, much of England’s press have gone from the typical hysteria about winning the competition to changing their minds completely and are now finger pointing and worrying whether we’ll even make the second round.

It was foolish for anyone to think the injuries to Gareth Barry and Rio Ferdinand would not affect the spine of the team in the early stages of the tournament. Without Rio we have no real tried and test partnership at centre back and in the absence of Barry we are missing out on what has formed the basis of a successful midfield during England’s impressive qualifying campaign.

The question has to be whether or not England will get stronger from the lessons learnt in the game or will our form continue to suffer?

You have to hope the former would be true and we will learn valuable lessons from this game and go on to beat Slovenia and Algeria at a comfortable pace. However the fact is that after a successful qualifying campaign there do seem to be a quite a few questions about our plan b now we’ve been hit by one or two injuries in key areas.

With Ledley King’s injury Capello must now decide who is best to partner John Terry at the back. After his sub appearance at the weekend Jamie Carragher looks to be the man next in line in the manager’s mind. However the lack of pace he showed at times is a worry, especially alongside the equally slow Terry.

Matthew Upson covered ably for Terry and Ferdinand in qualifying while the form and pace of Michael Dawson must make his inclusion tempting. Whoever gets the nod I think we may have to accept the mistakes will be made while a new partnership beds in at the back.

How quickly Gareth Barry can recover from his ankle injury is now key to England’s progression in the rounds beyond the group stages. The City man made the bench on Saturday so let’s hope its sooner rather than later before he can slot back in in-front of the back four. If Barry doesn’t make Fridays clash with Algeria, Cappello must consider Michael Carrick for the holding role in order to free up Lampard and Gerrard from their restrictive defensive duties and help protect the likely partnership of Carragher and Terry.

Then there is the goalkeeper. There is little doubt that Robert Green’s blunder will have secured his place in the next game as Capello will not want to destroy the confidence of his chosen number one nor appear to panic. However, David James experience and Joe Hart’s form will continue to raise one or to eyebrows about his selection in the first place. Although I would love to have seen Hart take the jersey, at this stage of all three candidate’s careers I would still have given the shirt to David James.

I would also love to know how Joe Cole never got on the pitch. I was quite surprised he didn’t start the match ahead of James Milner on England’s left but was left shocked that Capello opted for Wright-Phillips ahead of him once the Villa man was replaced. The balance of the side didn’t quite feel right with two pacey wingers against a side like the US. I would have been much more natural to have Cole’s guile and craft on the left to compliment Lennon’s pace from the right. Hopefully that will be something that can be rectified against the Algerians on Friday.

All in all we mustn’t panic after drawing with a decent USA side. The American’s are a hardworking, difficult to beat outfit tinged with quality from the likes of Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey. But that result is now gone and we must concentrate on taking maximum points from our remaining two group games against Algeria and Slovenia.

Looking at their game yesterday England should have enough to take maximum points from both of them even whilst still ironing out the creases in Capello’s crumpled squad. And who knows? Two comfortable wins might just get the press and the rest of the country blowing their vuvuzela’s again.

Heartache, a new captain and some dodgy knee's; the World Cup is here

2010-06-05T05:44:00.000-07:00

Well England’s captains armband has fallen to yet another incumbent, the third in the last few months. Steven Gerrard now holds the nations expectations on his shoulders following John Terry’s libido losing him the privilege and now the pain felt by Rio Ferdinand who after suffering a knee injury yesterday must sit out the whole World Cup.

Almost all England fans feel Rio's heartache, losing him is a gutting blow not just for him personally but to the team’s chances of progressing beyond the quarter finals of the competition. Anyone who says they are glad Ferdinand will be missing the tournament should remember that although his likely replacement Ledley King is an excellent defender, his own personal injury woes mean he is unlikely to last the full month.

I couldn’t believe it yesterday when the news came through about the training ground injury he picked up from an Emile Heskey tackle; at first I thought it was some kind of wind up TV prank show fronted by Heskey that sought revenge for Ferdinand’s antics prior to the last tournament. However instead of being “murked”, Ferdinand was instead well and truly “’miled” by the Aston Villa front man.

Heskey’s involvement in the incident sparked the usual anti-Heskey brigade to come out in force with comments like “it had to be Heskey", "that's what you get for taking a lump like that" and most brilliantly "Darren Bent wouldn't have done that". As I said yesterday, some people really make me laugh.

England’s defence may now have to become heavily rotated machine in order to succeed. The likes of Jamie Carragher, Matthew Upson and the arriving Michael Dawson may all have a part to play in helping to cover the backline. A lot depends on Gareth Barry’s fitness and how quickly he is ready to resume his holding role in the midfield after his ankle problem.

While he is out, Lampard and Gerrard look set to resume their unsanctimonious midfielder marriage centrally, which could lead to Fabio Capello opting for the more defensive option of Carragher at right back in order to keep the defence tight without any natural midfielder cover.

If Ledley suffers with those chronically poor knees of his then England may be relying on Dawson or Upson to step up and show what they can do on the world stage. With the plaudits that have been heaped on Dawson’s ever increasing maturity as a defender this season it must have only been Upson’s far greater international experience that has kept him in the squad.

However now that they are both battling it out on the training fields of Rustenburg to be the first choice cover for King it could well be a flip of a coin as to who gets the nod if required. The headache caused by Ferdinand’s injury must now make this particularly delicate balancing act the most important of Fabio Capello’s career.

As for Gerrard as captain, I definitely feel now we have the people’s skipper. His leadership qualities and performances on the pitch in keeping Liverpool in top four contention and European competition in seasons beyond this past one has shown he is able to at times carry those around him.

Last season wasn’t the best for Gerrard but the undoubted boost the armband will give him could really reignite his game. I’m certainly expecting him to make his position in his new role indespensible by showing some of the best examples of a skipper leading by example since Beckham single handedly took England through to the World Cup back in 2002.

One man I was delighted to see make the squad was Joe Cole. One of the most consistent performers whenever he has pulled on the three lions in the past it would’ve bean a huge loss if he made not made the final 23. We would’ve definitely lacked his natural flair and experience if he had been omitted; and in my opinion the partnership with his namesake Ashley if selected down England’s left will be vital to England’s progression in the tournament.

For next week’s opener against the USA I will hopefully be rolling in winnings after a day out at York Races. Let’s pray there will be no more injury shocks before then with a well drilled starting eleven ready to embark on the beginning of a full month’s stint in South Africa. Although I remain quietly hopeful of making at least the semi finals, given the loss of Ferdinand I think even if I win big on the horses next weekend I still won't be brave enough to be putting my money on England just yet.

Barry Kilby Interview; the Das Football Podcast is here

2010-05-27T02:43:00.000-07:00

While Burnley are preparing for life back in the good old Championship after a glorious season in the Premier League I'm back here on Das Football after a season in the sun over on ESPN.

Recently I interviewed Burnley Chairman Barry Kilby for local station 2BR. As what happens when something is given a particular time slot, not everyody gets to hear it, so below I've posted it up online for your listening pleasure. Hope you enjoy it.

Click here to download Barry Kilby interview

World Cup blogs will start soon.

All the best.

Sam

A good way to say goodbye

2010-05-11T04:57:00.000-07:00

Well what a way to bow out of the Premier League. For a long time now the fans have needed that sort of result, performance and spirit that the team showed in their 4-2 victory over Tottenham on Sunday.

As supporters we’ve keep going in the face of defeat, each week believing that our turn around was just around the corner. Of course in terms of survival it never came but the way we turned Spurs over in the second half at the weekend helps to reinforce my belief that we will be challenging to make a return to this level come next May.

In the first half it felt like another typical Burnley performance that saw us relegated. Despite some bright spells we conceded the obligatory early goal courtesy of more kamikaze defending, followed by a second to almost kill the game off.

However this is a Burnley side that have begun to find its feet again over the last few weeks and quickly started to make a mense. It was like watching us at the start of the campaign again as our confidence began to grow and grow and once Wade Elliot pulled one back from a fantastically worked move we never looked back.

Many may say Spurs had nothing really to play for following their securing of the Champions League qualification spot for next season in midweek but take nothing away from Burnley, they never gave ‘Arry’s side a minute on the ball and at times played some incredibly probing attacking football.

Martin Paterson in particular starred from the right hand side with a typical workman like display fused with some excellent delivery. I still feel that without his and Chris McCann’s injuries this season the league table may look slightly different right now. The rest of the team rallied too, Bikey and the skipper Caldwell kept things ticking over at the back, while the central three of Elliot, Cork and Alexander dominantly buzzed in midfield.

I know I keep talking about ifs and buts in this piece however those who’ve read this blog over the last few months will testify that it has been my intense belief that if we hadn’t switched to 4-4-2 for vital games against the teams around then we may not be on our way back to the Championship. The same goes for the decision not to play Bikey at centre back until the weekend. For me they are all decisions that form part of the litany of tactical and selection mistakes we’ve made over the past few months.

That swings us nicely onto the future of Brian Laws as manager. I personally still remain undecided. Despite relegation things have definitely picked up for him on the pitch over the past few weeks, a settled side and formation has helped as unlike earlier in his tenure the changes he’s made have pretty much been enforced.

As much as I think we have thrown away survival part of me still thinks he deserves a chance to have a crack at the job away from the immediate glare of the watching eye of the Premier League media’s pressure cooker. It’s definitely been a difficult job for him post-Coyle which is why I’m willing to be more lenient with my analysis of his position.

What we can’t get away from though is that results haven’t been good enough. The failures in tactics and selection in particular have been disappointing and I do remain slightly worried that this naivety could resurface next season in high pressure games now he’s expected to better his best ever finish in the Championship by some way. Mine and others leniency towards Laws may quickly change as we now quickly go from pretty much relegation certainties to expecting a top six finish.

Laws popularity is also a worry, while I try to remain as philosophical as possible in my disappointment with our relegation others do not. The manager was booed by some during the player’s lap of honour on Sunday while the same minority also applauded the Spurs fans chants of Laws imminent sacking during the first half.

Given this I sometimes wonder whether this general lack of acceptance may be too much for him to turn around as a few bad results at the start of next season would heap more pressure on the board to relieve him of his duties after a preseason of allowing him to start to build his own team. Could it be best to get rid now and wipe the slate clean from our Premier League season? I’m still not sure of the answer.

Laws though can go to the board having beaten Spurs and finished above Hull in the table earning the club a tidy eight hundred thousand pounds in the process. This will surely strengthen his case to be given more time, as will the fact he got the club to thirty points and above the rumoured threshold that would’ve seen him paid off on the cheap.

My fear of a mass exodus has subsided slightly although I do remain worried we may lose some key players in the summer. I expect the likes of Tyrone Mears and Steven Fletcher to be courted by others in the Premier League while there are rumours Owen Coyle may be sniffing around the likes of Wade Elliot.

Then there are the out of contract players. With Clark Carlisle seemingly the only one having put pen to paper so far, I’d love to see Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Stephen Jordan, Steven Thompson and Robbie Blake stay to be part of our squad next year.

Finally I’d like to talk about Robbie Blake who looks set to leave Turf Moor this summer. The striker turned wide man is most definitely the most talented footballer I have witnessed during my time supporting Burnley Football Club. Blakey’s flair, quick feet and eye for a goal have brightened up my afternoons watching the clarets and he will be sorely missed if he decides to walk away.

During his two spells at the club I have seen him score some remarkable goals, most notably against Preston in seasons past and Blackburn and Manchester United this term. He is truly the sort of player that I would love to have seen see out his day at Burnley Football Club. I understand his reasons if he does decide to go in search of regular first team football, but I do think he will have a big part to play with us in the Championship if he decides to stay.

As fans we certainly let him know how much he means to us on Sunday and I just hope that was not the last time I see him in Claret and Blue. What I’d really like to say to Robbie is that he could move and not achieve first team football all next season wherever he goes, but what I do know is that if he remains a Burnley player every single fan will sing his name and will him onto the pitch whenever he is not in the team.

Sometimes it is definitely better the devil you know and I hope that he doesn’t act in haste to leave a club that holds him in such high esteem. If it is to be the end then I think everyone will join me in saying thanks for the memories and agree that Robbie Blake will always be a claret.

Down but not out

2010-05-11T04:56:00.000-07:00

It’s taken a while in trying to sit down and give our relegation from the Premier League the justice it deserves and for that I apologise. In reality I should be making the most of this platform as within a month I too will fall through the Premier League’s trap door via the ESPN Soccernet’s Correspondents league table.

I said prior to Sunday’s game that if we were relegated I’d take off my shirt and cry like one of the many fat Geordies I saw on my T.V screen last year when Newcastle went down. Although Liverpool sent us packing back to the Championship it didn’t happen. Sadly I don’t have the tattoos or big enough man breasts to do those boys on the Tyne any justice.

Although it is extremely disappointing to be relegated to the Premier League our fall from grace is softened greatly by our healthy bank balance. After seeing the team I love struggle to combine survival and success on the pitch over the last few years it is amazing to see Burnley Football Club in such a strong financial position.

It has been a joy to watch our small town club go toe to toe with the leagues big boy and even better to turn some of them over, but the way we set up to tackle the Premier League was always going to prove to be more prudent than potent. We go down not only able to compete on the pitch against the rest of the Championship, but for the first time ever we are able to challenge some of the leagues bigger clubs for the best players in terms of budget.

On the whole the season has been an amazing experience, growing up I never thought I’d see the day my team beat the likes of Manchester United in a league match. Of course there are some regrets and little frustrations that eat away at you. In those quiet moments you think about what would’ve happened if we hadn’t suffered the disruption of Owen Coyle leaving? What if we’d have picked up an extra point here, or a win there? And particularly for me, the sadness that we are down with two games left to play.

All season I’ve said that if we go down I’d like it to go down to the final day, then we could go back to the Championship knowing we pushed those around us to the limit. Unfortunately, the likes of West Ham have pulled themselves clear of relegation when in reality ourselves and Hull have not taken advantage of their inability to get results over the last few months.

Looking at the way we played against Liverpool I genuinely believe that if we’d have got that starting eleven set up in that particular way earlier in Laws’ tenure we might still have a chance of staying up. The energy which we showed would’ve been enough to get us wins against Wolves and Portsmouth at home and probably one or two other results too. Instead the manager persisted with 4-4-2 more often than not until that hammering by Manchester City.

That six one spanking and the home defeat to Rovers a week previous will go down as the two major lows on the pitch during the campaign but looking back there are so many more positives to take. I’ve already mentioned the Manchester United victory; then there were the wins over Everton and Sunderland at home, a tremendous night at Turf Moor where we drew with Arsenal and of course our first away win at Hull.

Liverpool weren’t four goals better than us on Sunday but the game proved another harsh Premier League lesson. Our two main faults this season have been defensive lapses and not taking our chances; against Liverpool it was chances squandered in the first half that cost us. The score line didn’t reflect the way we played and the passion that was on show but in the end it didn’t matter as without those three points we were down anyway.

The major low off the pitch is obviously the whole Owen Coyle scenario. Whether he was right or wrong to go our former deity jumping ship in January devastated the football club. In fact the whole town was left rocked as he and the majority of the coaching staff also went “sideways” to the Reebok.

For me he will always be remembered for the remarkable job he did in taking Burnley Football Club into the Premier league. It is a feat that should never have been tainted but sadly it has been as I will always look back on what might have been if he had shown us the loyalty I think we all feel we deserved. Whether we did or not is a different story; football is a fickle game and in truth both Owen and Burnley got what they wanted from each other. We secured our future with a dream season in the Premier League and he got to become a top flight manager beyond this season.

Would we have stayed up with Coyle still in charge? I think we would have. We may have been on a bad run that continued further after he left but with the signings he took to Bolton and the way he picked us up from a poor run of form last season I think he’d have got us getting results again.

That’s not a dig at Brian Laws either, in my view the job he inherited was much more difficult than the one Coyle vacated. Laws has tried his very best to keep Burnley up against a backdrop of rising unpopularity, tales of infighting and post Coyle gloom.

Sadly we lost vital home matches against Portsmouth and Wolves and drew with Stoke when in reality considering our away form we had to take a minimum of seven points from those three fixtures. From then on the gradient on which we were fighting our battle for survival was dramatically increasing week by week.

There is no doubt that the Premier League is an extremely tough place to be. With fewer games to get results that millions of pounds depend on we have often found ourselves up against teams that have spent big in order to simply get their hands on their next paycheque. It’s a viscous circle that is bad for football, especially when you see the likes of Portsmouth and Hull who like us came to the Premier League after spells in the wilderness and blew it all.

Out of the three relegated clubs Burnley will be in the strongest position for a return back to the division next season. Whether that can be achieved is another thing but I am sure that we’ll give it our best shot. Promotion last season was the beginning of a new chapter it the life of Burnley Football Club and I’m glad to say relegation won’t be the end of it.

Whether Brian Laws will be the man at the helm remains to be seen. I have thought he will be given the chance to build his side next season but now I am not so sure. With talks set to take place at the end of the season and rumours abound of points clauses in his contract which could see him paid off on the cheap may make the decision easier for the board.

Talk of a Europa League place if Fulham win the competition in a couple of weeks have also added to this bizarre campaign. Although I would be delighted to see Burnley venture into Europe once more deep down I do feel the place would be better offered to the likes of Everton or whoever manages to finishes highest. Despite this, I’ve still got my “Former Soviet States” holiday brochure on order ready to check on availability for potential destinations for the qualifiers in July.

In all seriousness, I want our only priority to be making ourselves a force in the Championship next season. If that is going to happen we must add to our squad, fight to keep our best players and most importantly learn to win again. There are pros and cons to Europe, it may help attract a better standard of player and help keep the ones we have but it could also go the other way and stunt performances on the pitch.

Whatever happens with that I the future is bright, I remain sure of that and with two games to go in our Premier League campaign I urge everyone who has an interest in the football club to go out on a high.

It has been a real roller coaster ride and one I have enjoyed immensely. Being given the platform on this site to speak about Burnley to a worldwide audience has been a joy. Everyone who has read my words over the season will know how much it has meant to see my team reach the Premier League against all odds. Words can not describe how proud I am of all Burnley Football Club has achieved over the last eighteen months; in fact just thinking about it now is bringing a genuine tear or two to my eyes.

Up the Clarets and remember, Burnley will be back.

Back in the race

2010-04-12T09:49:00.000-07:00

Saturday was a day for firsts, AP McCoy romped home in the Grand National in his fifteenth attempt and Burnley earned their first ever away victory in the Premier League after previously drawing one and losing fifteen. It seemed like the Gods were smiling, except on me who didn’t back either.

After a turbulent week in the history of the club a positive performance and result was paramount for everybody involved with Burnley. After a humiliating defeat at the hands of Manchester City, stories of discontent within the ranks began to spiral out of control.

There was the incident involving Kevin McDonald, who left the ground at half time to spend the second half in a local working men’s club, rumours of bust ups between Brian Laws and Clarke Carlisle and Robbie Blake, as well as Joey Gudjonsson speaking to some website saying that the manager had lost the dressing room.

Chairman Barry Kilby must be thinking he should never leave, while on holiday in January the Owen Coyle saga began and this time he was to return after an embarrassing defeat and the alleged bedlam that was being reported around it.

With growing opposition to Brian Laws from some of the Clarets faithful prior to the trip to Hull the game was becoming as much of a career defining moment for him as it was season defining for the football club.

It was now time to show some spirit and prove to the world that Burnley would not be giving up their Premier League status without showing some fight. While in the car on Saturday flicking between various radio stations I was happy to hear that absolutely nobody gave us a chance. One pundit even predicted Hull could stick three or four past us; it was time to prove everybody wrong.

After a couple of minutes at the KC those hacks forecasts could’ve been proved correct as Kevin Kilbane was left free to put the home side one up. It was a true “here we go again” moment. Thankfully the players showed some fighting spirit and recovered to keep us from falling further behind. Then ten minutes before half time Martin Paterson did the business as he turned and fantastically put away a Tyrone Mears cross.

With the scores level at half time the game was there for the taking but in truth could’ve gone either way. Then suddenly the luck that has deserted us came flowing back as when Michael Duff went down in the box just past the hour mark the referee pointed to the spot and Graham Alexander coolly did the rest to give us the lead.

Six minutes later we got a second penalty, Nugent was felled by Mouyokolo only for Alexander to step up again and send Myhill the wrong way with the outside of his boot. And then as if the result wasn’t already good enough, Wade Elliot added a superb fourth as he struck a fantastic looping free kick over the hapless Hull keeper to mark his 200th appearance in Claret and Blue.

It was a tremendous result and one that now gives us a fighting chance of survival. Great credit must go to Brian laws and the players for coming back from all that’s happened recently. The manager in particular has come in for all sorts of stick and for me did well in asking the players to respond not for him, but for the fans and their own pride.

If we can now build on this result and get some momentum going then anything is possible. If we show the same passion and character as Saturday in our away games against Sunderland and Birmingham then we could take advantage of the fact that both sides have little to play for and get two positive results.

With Liverpool seemingly now concentrating all their hopes on winning the Europa League after yesterday’s goalless draw with Fulham I wouldn’t put it past us to get a surprise result against them either. Especially as Rafa is likely to field a weakened team as the game is sandwiched between their semi final clash with Athletico Madrid. That would leave a final blockbusting game against Tottenham at the Turf which may decide our fate.

Defeat against Hull at the weekend would’ve killed the season off but now we can look forward to next Saturday knowing another positive result would keep us within touching distance of safety. As our old boss Stan Ternent used to say “one swallow doesn’t make a summer” but it’s most definitely a start. Some may say this result has come too late to help us after our recent poor form but I disagree. “Half a loaf is better than no loaf at all” was another Ternent idiom; and as long as survival is still possible, I’ll keep on believing.

Goals galore for goatless City

2010-04-06T07:19:00.000-07:00

Well, where do you start? Burnley received a total thrashing by City at the weekend and for the first time in recent memory Shaun Goater was nowhere to be seen. The free scoring “Goat” once banged in back to back hat tricks at Turf Moor and often cited it as his favourite ground during interviews. I think after Saturday the likes of Adam Johnson, Emmanuel Abebayor and Carlos Tezev may be redrawing their lists of their most successful stomping grounds.

Six one at the final whistle tells one hell of a story, but the fact it was three nil in less than seven first half minutes gives you all you need to know. It’s disheartening enough when your team concedes one early goal but when three go in all you can do is choose whether to laugh or cry.

During the rest of the eighty three minutes where three more goals went in, I like those who chose to stay had to let my anger subside and enjoy one of those rare “we’re bad but we know it” atmospheres. The fans stayed in good voice and got behind the team and at times made fun of our plight. There was however a chorus of boos which rang out particularly at half time where the fans voiced their dissatisfaction.

I’m trying to remain philosophical about our season as the Premier League was always going to be tough for a club the size of ours. Of course like many, my expectations rose slightly with our early season home form and those victories over Manchester United and Everton. However I always knew our form would stumble and the season would get invariably harder.

It has for a long time now been a struggle which was made much worse by the departure of Owen Coyle. Whether Brian Laws will ever prove himself to be the right man to take Burnley forward remains to be seen but at the moment things are not working out for him.

The team’s regular lacklustre starts to games are adding to his detractors claims that he cannot motivate the players who many believe don’t want to play for him. While stories true or not supposedly coming out of the dress room don’t fill people with confidence either. Away from the confines of the dressing room Laws also receives criticism about his body language. At times he looks and speaks like he is already consigned to the fact we will be back in the Championship next season. That frustrates fans who look at the table and see us not getting vital points when West Ham and Hull continue to falter.

While I don’t agree with all of this anti Laws stuff, I do share some fears. My worry is that we have moved straight from an arm over the shoulder manager in what as a “successful” side to a polar opposite who is more likely to get his point across by throwing tea cups or in his case chicken wings. This in theory should not be a problem but it could be if the players don’t think the manager has a worthy track record to back up his voice.

I was also utterly bemused to hear Laws tell a reporter after the game that he learnt against City that we can’t play just two central midfielders against anyone in the Premier League. This was blatantly obvious games ago and something I wrote on here at the time. Had it not been for losing the midfield battle in our home defeats to Pompey and Wolves as well as our draw with Stoke we may now be sitting level if not above our relegation rivals.

Restoring both Blake and Eagles into the line-up was a very brave attacking move in a 442 formation and unfortunately it backfired massively for him. I still believe one if not both of these two hold the key for us getting a positive result or two before the end of the season. They just need to be played in the right system.

At five nil at half time things couldn’t get much worse. In the days of my undistinguished football career when we were on the end of an irretrievable first half spanking we were always taught to try and redeem some pride by going out and winning the second half. Burnley fought out a one all draw but did show much more of a fighting spirit.

The second half performance was a small positive though, it showed that one or two of our players do still have a bit of fire in their bellies as Nugent in particular tried to take the fight to City. Sub Jack Cork showed glimpses of the performance he put in away at Villa while Wade Elliot also looked better than in recent weeks.

As the rain poured and the crowd chanted for a hopeful postponement the game descended into chaos at times as the ball struggled to run freely. To call the game off at five nil would’ve been as harsh on City as it would’ve been embarrassing for us to have a result that never was hanging over our heads. Things got so bad out there that I thought Laws’ third substitution was going to see Rebecca Adlington enter the fray.

As the message boards descend into meltdown, a chorus of dissatisfaction about our current plight rings loud and clear. Some are calling for Laws to resign or be sacked but it is almost a certainty that he isn’t going anywhere. A win at away Hull at the weekend would give him a massive boost in what is going to be a season defining game at the KC.

Three points away from home in the Premier League would give the manager a platform to build on in his quest for acceptance in doing something that Coyle never did. Whether we now stay up or go down we need to get back to 4-5-1, get the balance of the team right and give it a good go.

Mistakes have most definitely been made along the way and whether Brain Laws is the right man for the job or not getting our arbitrary hammering from City at the Turf is much better happening in the Premier League than it was in the dark days of Division Two.

Bragging rights stay on the wrong side of East Lancashire

2010-04-06T07:18:00.000-07:00

The fallout continues. Burnley’s one nil defeat to Blackburn at the weekend has once again raised more questions about our underperforming players. In short, we weren’t at the races on Sunday lunchtime as Rovers completed the double over us without ever really being pushed.

In the last few months there is no doubt Burnley have lost their way. Competing week in week out in the most physically demanding league in the world has caught up with us and has shattered our confidence.

The weekend’s defeat was the first time we’ve failed to score at Turf Moor this season, a stat that given our form at home may be surprising to some neutrals. However the fact we’ve lost perhaps our only decent record left intact in a one nil defeat to our fiercest rivals is hard to take.

The overall lack of creativity, competitiveness and desire to get a result was also difficult to swallow as barring the first fifteen minutes in the second half when we actually showed some fighting spirit there wasn’t enough on show throughout to warrant us deserving at least a point.

If we had started the game with that same high tempo that we started the second forty five then things may have been different as for fifteen minutes or so we genuinely looked like we were starting to make life uncomfortable for our neighbours. But instead of carrying on that fight, once Rovers showed they were more than capable to standing up to us we stopped getting in their faces and went back into our shell.

It’s blatantly obvious to say the belief has gone, we’ve stood up to bigger and better teams than Blackburn in the past and won but sadly we don’t look to have it in us anymore. Those who blame Laws entirely for this fall from grace are being unfair. Yes he has made mistakes during his short tenure and maybe out of his depth at this level but the fact is we were never built for Premier League football.

We lack the pace, power, experience and physicality that the division demands. Two of Blackburn’s last three managers in Mark Hughes and Sam Allardyce have recognised this and cut their cloth accordingly. Just look at the two sets of team sheets on Sunday, Rovers have plenty of players with a mix of these attributes, Burnley don’t.

Even a player we brought in to add some power to our side has been badly misused over the course of the season. Playing Andre Bikey in the middle of the park has always been a mistake and now we find ourselves with perhaps our only centre half with all the raw attributes to be a Premier League defender completely out of the side.

This use of Bikey points to a lack of strength in depth in the midfield area in the first place. In fact, we must go down as the only Premier League club in history to have one fit recognised central midfielder for much of the campaign. In this I’m not counting Alexander, a converted defender and Elliot a converted winger, but after Chris McCann’s injury having Kevin McDonald as the only natural one left was bemusing. There is no doubt losing McCann, our best player, has been the major disappointment of our season as with him we would still have some of the drive and competitiveness that we are so dearly lacking.

Up there with losing McCann is the timing of Coyle’s departure when this squad imbalance could have been rectified. The months of planning by Coyle were taken in one foul swoop across Lancashire to the Reebok. Looking at his signings of Holden, Weiss and Wilshire two out of those three can play centrally. Holden could have been the combative influence we missed with McCann being out, while Wilshire could’ve added to the options in the role that Elliot plays in being the one of the three that can attack and link up with the wingers and forwards.

Instead, when it looked like McCann may return in late January Laws spent over two and half million pounds on a left back and centre back. With Duff, Edgar, Carlisle, Bikey, Caldwell, Long, Jordan and Kalvanes in these two areas in and around the squad you have to look at the necessity of adding both Cort and Fox with the midfield being so threadbare all season. Laws did make some acknowledgement of the lack of depth by bringing in Jack Cork, but after a promising start he has been used sparingly.

What I’m getting at is that last season Coyle did fantastically well in getting the best out of Alexander and Elliot by switching them from their natural positions but then after winning promotion to a league where nearly ever side has a combative midfield neither him or his successor saw fit to add to what we already had in that department. Unfortunately, once the momentum went we were never equipped to scrap it out in a relegation battle against teams that have the basis of a strong spine to their sides. Even the likes of West Ham have struggled with Green, Upson, Parker and Cole making up the backbone of their team.

Maybe Coyle thought his money was better spent elsewhere and in the event of injuries he could ride it out until January and then beg borrow and steal to add to weakening areas. While Laws on the other hand tried to combat the problem by changing system and going 442 until the last couple of weeks. This underlying problem in midfield has been there for far too long and due to the unforseen change in management has left a gaping hole meaning we can barely get a foothold in games.

I can’t believe I’ve gone well beyond the one thousand word point without even mentioning Sunday’s contentious issue. This morning the FA announced there would be no charge for the diving Martin Olson and his admission that he deliberately targeted a penalty hungry referee for the games one and only goal.

With Allardyce’s version of Mike Dean’s thought process it’s hard to see why he gave the penalty in the first place but it was extremely sad that this ended up being the game’s defining moment. Not only because a player’s deliberate cheating has decided the fixture but mainly because Burnley couldn’t find a response.

Without it, Rovers with Olson playing a starring role would’ve probably gone on to win the game anyway but the decision truly took the wind out of our already deflating sails. The game certainly had other moments where the referee’s decisions could’ve turned it back in our favour but it wasn’t to be, the Rovers lot began their much promised Burnley relegation party early in the Cricket Field while the majority of Clarets slumped off home in deep depression.

Dunn who stuck away the penalty didn’t get his wish of “pumping” us ten nil but despite securing the bragging rights offered humility in his post match interview. While his wish to keep these derby games alive looks like an ever decreasing possibility, maybe his advice of playing at least one of Blake or Eagles will be heeded by Brain Laws. Having workhorses like Nugent and Paterson playing wide just didn’t work against a side much more physical than ours. While we needed some of this on one flank, on the other a bit of Eagles pace or preferably Robbie’s skill and guile wouldn’t have gone amiss.

I’m hoping like we all are for a change in performance on Saturday against Manchester City and for the four final games that follow. I still believe a surprise result is in the offing and if we can get it when City come to town it would set up an almighty dogfight at Hull the following weekend.

Promotion and our first Premier League season were only meant to be the start of the journey to try and establish ourselves as a Premier League club. Sides like Bolton, Wolves and Birmingham have all tasted success and comeback stronger in subsequent seasons. But in Burnley, the majority of the town seems to be engulfed in the belief that relegation in just over a month’s time will be the end.

The frustrating part is that even with a bad side we could still survive as others like West Ham and Hull aren’t showing themselves to be that much better. But bigger teams have gone down with bigger and better squads and budgets than ours so there is no shame in going back to the Championship. I know the new fear is that with relegation our slump will continue into next season. Whether it will or not is almost an impossible one to call right now but at this moment in time I’m willing to give Brian Laws the chance to prove himself by building his squad in the summer. Others may not agree; while Brain Laws himself or the board may not if results continue to be bad.

For me too many have gotten immersed in high expectations and the extra deflation subsequent failure brings. The manager, team and club are punching well above their weight in this division and although extremely disappointed with how things are turning out I’m still immensely proud of all Burnley Football Club has achieved over the last two years. My feeling is that although we earned our place in the Premier League last summer we are not looking anywhere near like a Premier League team and if I’m honest I don’t think we were ever equipped to be over thirty eight games.

F is for Frustration

2010-04-06T07:17:00.000-07:00

I think it’s fair to say that Mick McCarthy isn’t one for smiling. However that wry grin he tried to hide during Saturday’s post match press conference told the story of what was another frustrating afternoon for the Clarets.

Big Mick looked a top hat and cane away from breaking out into a song and dance musical number as at the end of an up and down ninety minutes at Turf Moor we had handed his Wolves team three vital survival points.

In truth, neither side looked like the ones who were promoted from the Championship last term. Both have had their confidence shaken by the harsh realities of football at this level. However Wolves still have shades of the highly organised unit that took the title, where Burnley occasionally showed glimpses of the hard working attacking side that snatched promotion via the playoffs.

Unfortunately in a relegation battle it’s often those who have the tightest defences that will pick up important results against those around them and so it proved again at the weekend as for the second time in four days the Clarets failed to take three points from their remaining “winnable” games.

Against Stoke on Wednesday night we succumbed to the Rory Delap long throw despite the best efforts of the advertising hoardings around the Turf Moor pitch. After a poor first half the team rallied in the second and produced a display that showed heart and spirit and was played at a tempo that at times the Potters could not cope with.

David Nugent’s headed finish from Martin Paterson’s superb cross ensured a point in what could’ve been three by the end. You’d have thought that the performance in the second forty five would have been the perfect tonic to take into the game against Wolves.

However after a bright start we quickly lost our way. Our defensive frailties looked a moment away from resurfacing and when Brian Jensen rushed out from his goal to take out the oncoming Kevin Doyle with a diving head butt alarm bells began to ring. The incident would’ve been more at home in an Attenborough documentary as the Beast leapt at the Irishman like an attacking Rhinoceros.

Minutes later we were punished. An innocuous ball over the top was met by the limp head of Tyrone Mears as our normally ultra dependable full back decided it was his turn to throw one in. Matt Jarvis took full advantage of the error to make it one nil to the visitors.

Before the start of the day Wolves had scored the fewest in the Premier League this season so to give them a goal head start in such a vital game was unthinkable. The football for the rest of the half was scrappy as we couldn’t get the ball into the right areas.

The game was crying out for us to switch from the 4-4-2 formation we had started the game with and match the visitors 4-5-1 formation. It could’ve been easily done by moving Pato out to the right and Elliot inside one into central midfield but sadly it never game with both players starved of possession in the first forty five minutes.

Another second period like Wednesday night was called for if we were to get something from this mustn’t lose game. But as the half kicked off disaster struck, within minutes Wolves were two up thanks to a cruel deflection off Clark Carlisle’s heal to give Brian Jensen no chance.
With a mountain to climb action was now definitely needed. After Stephen Jordan had replaced the injured Danny Fox in the first half the gaffer decided that his final two substitutions would see Steven Thompson and Robbie Blake enter the fray.

The board went up and it was Andre Bikey and Chris Eagles who were to be withdrawn. In my opinion it was the right decision but not for the majority of Clarets who roundly booed the withdrawal of Eagles.

I hate those that chose to boo and jeer a manager’s choice even when I think what they are criticising is right. But Laws’ decisions here was straightforward; Bikey had to come off as he was woeful and showed again he cannot play in a midfield two, Elliot was the only one who had the ability to move inside and join Alexander so that left a choice of Eagles or Paterson to come off.

Despite playing well against Stoke, Eagles was flattering to deceive out wide and often choose the wrong decisions in striking from distance instead of building the attacks and trying to feed the front two. And while not being a natural wide man Paterson has been our best performer from the right in recent weeks, creating and scoring goals as well as offering more protection defensively.

For me Laws was proved correct as Thompson got his first Premier League goal in what was almost a fantastic comeback. Robbie Blake was his dazzling best from the left hand side creating more in his cameo role than Eagles has in recent weeks. His opportunist strike that hit the post would’ve been a great reward for what was a superb performance. However we had left it too late and time ran out with the score at 2-1 leaving the home support trudging off in yet more disappointment.

At that point in the game Laws substitutions were right but unfortunately where he got it badly wrong was in the way we set up for the game at the start. I do feel sorry for him in that both Jack Cork and Kevin McDonald fell foul of injury but it has been shown time and time again that the Andre Bikey experiment in midfield hasn’t worked. He can just about do a job when we play three in there but as a two it leaves us open to be dominated.

Under Coyle we played 4-5-1 for the whole of the Championship season and this year in the Premier League too so it’s not as if after twenty minutes when it’s blatantly obvious we are losing the game in midfield that we couldn’t easily switch it to match them up. Looking back at the home games we’ve had against Portsmouth, Stoke and Wolves I believe if we’d have packed the midfield we’d be sitting here with a minimum of six points.

But they’ve gone now and we must concentrate on the remaining eight games that still could save our Premier League status. The road to the end of the season is hard but we’ve yet to face an easy game all season and are still in a position to survive.

What I do like about Laws though is that he has yet to bemoan the injuries that have blighted his short reign as manager. Others in the Premier League would’ve kicked up a fuss if their star striker picked up an injury while on International duty but Laws has admirably got on with the job in hand after losing Steven Fletcher for the last few games. The same too can be said of Chris McCann’s slow progress in his comeback from injury and last week’s knocks to Jack Cork and Kevin McDonald.

After Saturday pretty much every media outlet I’ve heard have already condemned us to the drop with Portsmouth despite remaining 18th in the table. Hull may have a game in hand below us but who knows how their decision to sack Phil Browny-Orange will turn out. Let’s hope it’ll have a negative effect.

As for the rest, Wolves will continue to drop points as will the likes of Wigan, West Ham and Bolton. The last two should have enough to get themselves away from the drop zone before the end but I still feel it’ll go right to the wire. Our run in is hard but a positive result at Wigan at the DW at the weekend could be that catalyst we are looking for.

The pressure is well and truly off us now, we’ve not got the results from our “winnable” games and now to the rest of the watching world we are already down. I have a belief that we will pick up an away win before the end of the season and that we will get a surprise positive result or two when Champions League chasers Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham come to the Turf. Then there’s that wild card fixture when Blackburn Rovers come to town.

It’s going to be one hell of a run in and one I’m going to try and enjoy whatever happens. It’s going to be tough to stay up but as I’ve said before there is no shame in us dropping back down to the Championship. All I know is that if we begin to start games like we have been ending them in the last couple of matches then a shock result or two will come.

Keep the faith and get behind the lads.

Up the Clarets.

Blacklaw & co’s champion’s spirit required to beat the drop

2010-03-02T09:12:00.001-08:00

It felt like the day the dare to dreamers really stopped believing. Burnley’s 2-1 defeat to Portsmouth at the weekend saw many disappointed faces leaving Turf Moor struggling to stay positive about the rest of our Premier League campaign.

Sadly it was another story of the season game with missed chances at important stages then seeing us punished for them at the other end. What was different about this one though was that it was at Turf Moor, where on only two other occasions we have been beaten this season.

While at times we looked disjointed and far too laid back it was still a game we could’ve won. After going one nil down we fought back to be level at half time thanks to a fantastic looping finish from Martin Paterson, his second Premier League goal in two games.

The stage was set for us to go and win it in the second half but like so many other times this season we failed to convert golden chances when we were on top. Steven Fletcher’s missed header from five yards out was a particular turning point. We all know that the longer we go without finishing teams off the more chance there is of those all too familiar individual errors coming back to haunt us.

And they did, this time from current skipper and recent Countdown champion Clark Carlisle. I’ve resisted using one of the many terrible puns I’ve heard about Clark and the letters and numbers T.V show since the weekend, however I must admit when speaking to a friend on the phone on Saturday night his opening line of “I’ve got a four letter word for Carlisle” did lighten my mood.

Normally quite a consistent figure in the Burnley back line the clarets number five made two shocking errors of judgement in giving away two penalties, the first a needless schoolboy foul when there was little danger and the second, a horrendous moment after he failed to realise how many Pompey players were around him when in possession.

While Brian Jensen saved the first, you can’t expect to give two penalties away in a game and not be punished. Despite a late flurry, we let most of the game following that second spot kick peter out as we struggled to carve open the Pompey defence.

There is no getting away from the fact that it was a poor overall performance. For the majority of the game we let Portsmouth and in particular the impressive Jamie O’Hara run the show. While he popped up all over the pitch our midfield pairing looked lethargic in comparison.

In my view it was a mistake not sticking with three central midfielders. As soon as I saw Bikey and McDonald were going to be deployed there I was worried, especially as we have struggled to win the battle in the midfield with an extra body in there this season.

I do sympathise with Brian Laws though because to change one area of our side you have to dilute another and while Paterson had a very good game up front his introduction into the line-up definitely weakened the team in an area where we can’t afford it to get any weaker.

For me it would’ve been much more beneficial to keep Cork in the side and deploy Pato or Eagles from an attacking role on the right. We missed the young Chelsea loanee’s mobility to get up and down and his ability to keep hold of the ball. His presence could’ve also helped to keep O’Hara quiet and give him more to think about defensively.

With so much quality in this division many games are won and lost in the central midfield area and that is where we now need to tighten to help take the pressure off the back four. To a certain extent the gaffer’s hands are tied until Alexander and then McCann return to the squad. Looking at Saturday’s performance we are crying out for Grezza’s leadership and composure and McCann’s drive from midfield.

The other worrying thing for me about Saturday was the crowd. Normally in good voice and behind the team from the start we struggled to get going. The concern from my point of view is that without the twelfth man factor we won’t be able to keep Turf Moor such an intimidating place to visit. Away teams will come in the knowledge that if they can get off to a good start the nervous energy from the crowd will further stunt the player’s ability to perform.

It feels to me like people have stopped buying into the adventure that was created by last season’s run in and cup magic. The spark that was carried into this season was built on daring to dream. And we had, for most of this season Turf Moor has been a noisy and uncomfortable place for visiting teams to play their football. Sadly, I didn’t feel that on Saturday.

As we move into March the realisation for me is that we may only have two months of Premier League football left. At the start of the season the majority made the commitment that whatever happened we’d enjoy the ride; we all hoped it wasn’t going to just be a once a lifetime thing but deep inside we knew it probably was.

So no matter what people think about the way we’ve been playing or the new manager or whatever else they are being negative about they should save it for the pub, Claretsmad or just bother the missus with it when corries on. But for every ninety minutes at Turf Moor we need to be loud, proud and keep on fighting to inspire the team.

More importantly the players must also step up to the plate. As the club mourns the death of legendary goalkeeper Adam Blacklaw they must now show the same commitment, passion and determination to succeed as the Scot and the rest of the 59/60 championship winning squad. Having heard the stories about Adam from his peers and various fans over the last twenty four hours it’s clear to see how good a player he was, the impact he had and how much he will be missed.

It’s heartbreaking to see that with only two months until the whole of that 59/60 team will be honoured as part of the fiftieth anniversary of our glorious triumph that another member of the squad won’t be able to be there to witness it. However I’m sure that Adam and all his fellow team-mates and staff who have sadly passed away will be just as much in our hearts on this wonderful occasion.

Survival this season would be a fitting tribute to those Championship winning players of fifty years ago. With eleven games now left it is still possible. There are thirty three points to play for and still a long way to go. But for that to happen there is no doubt that performances must get better and the spine of the team must get stronger.

I’m still buying into what at the moment feels like the almost impossible dream and won’t give up until survival becomes unachievable. I hope all fellow Clarets will join me and help inspire the team to beat the drop for Adam Blacklaw and the rest of the our historic first division winning squad.

The year of the cup final continues

2010-03-02T09:10:00.000-08:00

If there is anyone out there that still doubts the fact that football can be a cruel, cruel game then will somebody please show them a DVD of our trip to Villa Park on Sunday. In fact, just show them the twelve second half minutes where we suffered a horrific collapse even an England batting order would struggle to emulate.

From one nil up to five two down at the finish, the story of our away season continued with great aplomb as once again what seemed to be looking like a competent performance was shattered when put under pressure.

The most frustrating thing about the games we’ve had that have been similar to Sunday (to varying extents at Portsmouth, Manchester United, Everton and Chelsea) is that in each and every one of them we were well in the game until we switched off.

Goals one to five all combined an all too familiar disastrous formula. First comes the simple lack of concentration which quickly manifests into a major loss of confidence, sadly when the two combine at this level you will be punished each and every single time.

The question that has posed two managers this season is how do we stop it from happening?

Certainly Coyle seemed to believe our gung-ho approach would eventually pay off while Laws is busy trying to mend the psychological damage of the formers approach. Sadly the gaffer can do all the work he wants during the week but he can do nothing to stop the self belief draining once Downing’s first was quickly followed up by a second deflected effort to make it three one.

If survival hinges on picking up at least one away win from the six that remain then I’d suggest that the one at Wigan remains our best chance of picking up three points on our travels. Barring that, with continued good results at home a point at both the DW and at Sunderland may be enough to help push our heads back above the parapet.

The fitness of Graham Alexander and Chris McCann may be the key to our survival hopes. I’d love to see a midfield trip of Grezza, McCann and Jack Cork who was by far our best player at Villa. It was nice to have a fully mobile midfielder in the young Chelsea loanee, who looks a very tidy player and a good acquisition. Unfortunately the anticipated return of McCann seems to hang in the balance with his up and down recovery seemingly one setback away from surgery. It was also fantastic to see Martin Paterson come off the bench to score his first Premier League goal after being out for much of the campaign.

I wish Aston Villa luck with their trip to Wembley to face Manchester United in the Carling Cup showpiece this weekend. However before the other Claret and Blue’s run out on the hallowed turf of the national stadium there is a more important cup final for us to worry about. Saturday’s visit of Portsmouth is perhaps the biggest of all our final twelve games and is one I’m already nervous about. Three points are essential in what could be a potential banana skin.

The financially stricken club look almost certain to be in administration come the weekend with a nine point deduction to boot. Despite their position Pompey have some good players and have been unlucky at times this season. Too add to that I’m always wary of the wounded animal with the club’s relegation all but sealed if nine points are removed.

Although I have little sympathy with their plight it would be a disaster to see any football club go bust. We’ve struggled to avoid administration over recent years due to a lack of money so forgive me for not feeling sorry for a club that have squandered Premier League riches and massive transfer fees. I don’t want to see their fans lose their team but I hope we can add further punishment in what promises to be a miserable week for their club.

They have to take heart from the fact that with administration the club can go on and start to rebuild. That is the main thing for any club that is facing or will face financial difficulties in the next few weeks, months or years; but as long as we can still see our beloved clubs run out and play football on a Saturday afternoon then all will be well.

In the not too distant future a football club will go bust with probably a few others following suit. But until that tragic day where we will all mourn together we must all concentrate on our own battles. At the moment a survival of a different kind is what Burnley Football Club will be focusing on until May.

Whatever happens after that, whether its Premier League football or Championship, I know that as a result of this magical season that my club needn’t worry about football’s grim reaper loitering around the Bob Lord anytime soon. A failure to win this weekend though and there may be a few more unwanted relegation vultures starting to circle Turf Moor.

Laws time is now

2010-02-02T06:02:00.001-08:00

A rather turbulent month in the history of Burnley Football Club on and off the pitch has finally come to an end and thankfully it’s finished on a positive note. Despite the 2-1 defeat to Chelsea on Saturday, the Clarets showed enough substance to suggest that avoiding relegation remains a strong possibility.

The league leaders were given a real game at Turf Moor; it was certainly a harder ride than what John terry has allegedly been getting from Wayne Bridge’s missus. Or not, it depends how he likes it I suppose. The Blues skipper eventually won the game for his team with a powerful header however prior to that Burnley were more than in the game.

Pundit’s predictions of a “cricket” score were well wide of the mark as we looked much stronger and competitive than in recent weeks. The spine of the team looked sterner; Brian Jensen claimed his crosses, Leon Cort made a comfortable debut alongside the outstanding Clark Carlisle, Steven Fletcher led the line well, while the returning Andre Bikey came back from Africa finally looking like he’d made the transition from centre half into a top midfield player.

Our robust Cameroon international brushed the likes of Lampard, Cole and Ballack aside when shielding the back four, while often gave the simple ball instead of trying to do too much with it in what was a man of the match performance. Elsewhere David Edgar shone when he was brought on for the injured Christian Kalvanes in stamping out the threat from the Chelsea right.

Many would’ve thought that once Nicolas Anelka had put Chelsea one up in the first half that Burnley would’ve crumbled and faced the same fate as Sunderland last week. But that wasn’t to be the case and when Steven Fletcher managed to get himself past Brazilian lump Alex to equalise, a well deserved point looked on the cards until captain infidelity spoilt the party.

The only slight criticism in what was an outstanding display is that we were too stand offish at times, but faced with such quality it sometimes it is hard not to be. But contrast Saturday’s performance to last Tuesdays defeat at Bolton and things couldn’t have been more different.

In what was an uncomfortable atmosphere against our former boss “Moses” Coyle’s new team, early injuries to Alexander and McCann stunted our flow in what became a severely disjointed performance. The mood in the camp at the final whistle certainly wasn’t pleasant, especially when “Moses” took it upon himself to hug each and every one of our players in front of the away following. Although I personally feel the “Judas” tag is harsh after all Coyle has done for the club, I don’t see why he couldn’t have just taken the stick he was getting without having to rile the fans further.

Coyle has got his move so should have been prepared to take a bit of flack. He says he has kept a dignified silence but in my book actions speak louder than words and the way he lathered our boys with affection was more akin to our Wembley triumph than the actions of a recently departed manager. If he was as dignified as he likes to make out then he should’ve shaken the player’s hands and said his goodbyes in the tunnel or at least the half way line.

Coyle’s biblical dig was quite amusing too, as he commented on how quickly he has turned from God to Judas, before then comparing himself to Moses. I know since then Piers Morgan has thrown King Herrod into the ring as an alternative suggestion; and maybe Noah too for the way he led Steve Davis and the rest of the coaching staff two by two to the arcs above the Reebok. Coyle was right though, that place really does have Premier League infrastructure, there’s a Subway, McDonalds, Pizza Hut and even a KFC on that big old heartless industrial estate.

Thankfully, Coyle’s name wasn’t mentioned at all by anyone in my vicinity at the Turf on Saturday. Hopefully the majority of fans can now begin to move on and help us achieve our goal of staying in the Premier League. For me, Brain Laws will be judged purely on results from now on; the transfer window is shut, we have our new signings and more importantly a run of winnable fixtures on the horizon.

This starts with West Ham at home on Saturday, with games against the likes of Portsmouth, Stoke, Wolves and Blackburn all at the Turf before the end of March. It is vital we take as many points as possible from these fixtures and then try and break our away duck in the matches against Fulham, Villa, Arsenal and Wigan that are sandwiched in between our home games.

With the news that Nugent is staying until the end of the season and that Jack Cork has come to enhance our midfield options from Chelsea, I feel that there is real competition for places and a good balance within the squad. Laws has done well in the transfer market, now all he needs to do is to turn good performances against the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea into results against the teams around us in the league. If he can do that then I have no doubt we will stay up and then just maybe the old Burnley bible will come out again to christen Brian Laws as Burnley’s second coming.

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Check out the latest Vblog below; not sure why when put online its transformed into a badly dubbed film but nevermind. Enjoy!

You can also check more recent ones out at tv.espn.co.uk/talkoftheterrace

Clarets move forward together.

2010-02-02T06:01:00.001-08:00

After all the action that's taken place off the field over the last couple weeks it was a relief to finally watch a game of football. A trip to Old Trafford was undoubtedly one of the highlights in terms of must see away clashes this season but nobody could've expected to go there in the circumstances in which we did.

Our first game in the post Coyle era couldn't have been harder. It was certainly a baptism of fire for our new manager Brian Laws but to be honest I think it made it all the more special. The match ended three nil, however the result was never important. This was a day to show that Burnley Football Club was together and can never be ground down.

It was certainly a special atmosphere amongst the fans that’d made their way to the Theatre of Dreams to follow the mighty Clarets. The air was filled with pride and passion as we welcomed in a new dawn but at the same it was also tinged with hurt following the unsavoury managerial departure we had endured.

This was evident as the players made their way onto the pitch; “BRIAN LAWS CLARET AND BLUE ARMY” was the unwavering chant from the corner of the East Stand. As Brian made his way down the touchline towards the fans it felt like we could go on forever, each round not only gave our new boss our seal of approval but also provided us with some much needed therapy to help heal our emotional scars.

After singing out a few frustrations and giving our new man the thumbs up, all that was needed now was a performance. And the players didn’t disappoint. We were more than a match for Manchester United for the majority of the game. It took them sixty four minutes to break us down before Berbatov and the superb Rooney gave them a two nil cushion within minutes. But before that it could so easily have been Burnley who were in front.

Fletcher and Nugent in particular had chances in the first half but poor finishing and decision making saw us fail to take our chances. Then in the second, Nugent again wasted a golden chance as he toed the ball wide after being brilliantly played through by the excellent Chris Eagles. That’s not to say United didn’t have their chances, they enjoyed much of the possession in the first half, but like us picked the wrong options and rarely troubled Brian Jensen when they chose right. They most troubling thing at the break was Steve Fletcher’s injury, after he limped off with an ankle injury.

Valencia was seeing much of the ball on the right flank with United making the most of the cross field ball. Eagles was failing to support Jordan at left back but the centre half pairing of Duff and Edgar rarely put a foot wrong in dealing with balls in the box. Special praise must go out to these two; Duff, who started his career in non league football, has played out of skin ever since getting his place in the side, while Edgar made a superb debut after not being anywhere near the first team after signing from Newcastle in the summer. After being ignored by Coyle, his emergence could prove to be another positive from the change in regime.

While Eagles didn’t help much defensively he more than made up for it going the other way. The way he runs at defenders is frightening at the moment, not many have been able to cope with his pace, skill and balance. At times there is a lack of end product, but he certainly looked more dangerous than the likes of Valencia and Nani on the day.

Despite going two nil down it was great to see the players continue to take the fight to United. We continued to press and push for what would have been a well deserved goal. Unfortunately the impressive Steve Thompson’s header hit the post and we were denied a cast iron penalty as Wade Elliot’s cross was handled by Gary Neville after Tyrone Mears free kick was saved. Then cruelly, United got a third after sub Diouf headed over Brian Jensen after latching onto a through ball from Valencia. It was to finish there, three nil, a more than flattering score line for the champions.

But like I said earlier this was about more than the result. The day showed the solidarity amongst Burnley fans who not only vocally showed their backing for our new manager but also for our chairman when the chant of “there’s only one Barry Kilby” broke out. In what must have been a hard couple of weeks for him, it was only right we show our appreciation for the man who has transformed Burnley Football Club from a finically stricken league one side to debt free Premier League upstarts.

In contrast, on the rare occasions the almost mute Manchester United fans broke their silence was to vent their anger at the Glaziers and the clubs spiralling 700 million pound debt. They were fully mocked for it by the Clarets faithful with chants of “where’s your money gone”, “USA” and “we’ve got more cash than you”. Sadly my self-penned “we’re gonna buy your ground on ebay” didn’t get off the ground, but I encourage fans of any other clubs to give it a whirl.

The fact is Burnley fan can be proud to boast about the state of their finances to most clubs in the Premier League. Money may have been a key issue in Coyle’s departure and even in Brian Laws appointment but I wouldn’t change a thing. Burnley may be an unfashionable club, but with people like the Glaziers around the way we are doing things may soon have to become the latest “in” trend in the Premier League. And if Brain Laws can inspire us to more spirited performances like the one we saw at Old Trafford then I have no doubt that that is where we’ll stay; and continue to be a small town club breaking the mould in the big league.

Brian Laws is the fairest of them all.

2010-02-02T06:00:00.000-08:00

So there was a late twist in the tale after all. Perhaps we should’ve known that if the press were reporting O’Driscoll had got the job, then it would actually be Brian Laws who would be crowned the winner of “Barry Kilby’s Beauty Parade”. I know the announcement originally under whelmed a lot of fans and I hope like me, the majority have now all come round to the idea.

The mantra from a lot of people seems to be “he wasn’t my first choice” which I think is natural given the list of names that were touted as Owen Coyle’s successor. The fact Law’s was only sacked by Sheffield Wednesday a month ago hasn’t helped many either but if you look beyond these two factors then it looks like the board have made a very sound appointment.

First and foremost Brain Laws is a Claret. He started his career at Turf Moor and played almost two hundred games for the club. He is a man who won’t jump ship when a slightly better job comes around and will fight for our cause. If anyone doubts this then just look at his press conference yesterday, he spoke with passion and commitment. If that’s not enough to convince you, he even smiled after being made to wear one of those horrible club ties.

Of course, if passion and commitment was enough then we’d all have applied for the job but Law’s CV doesn’t scream of failure. His promotions with Scunthorpe speak for themselves, while keeping Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship in a period of financial and political turmoil off the field for the club shouldn’t be overlooked.

Many though have complained at the fact he has a lack of top flight experience as a manager but then offer up alternatives like Lee Clarke or O’Driscoll, who have both never managed in the top division either. We need to remember that although we are a Premier League Club in terms of league position, in terms of infrastructure and budgets we are not yet at that level. We are hardly likely to go for a “Curbishley” when we wouldn’t stretch our budget to keep Owen Coyle.

Some fans need to stop believing the hype, take look at the budgets, the squad and recent results and remember who we are and where we’ve come from. Burnley Football Club is a work in progress and let’s be honest it’s not stay up or bust for our beloved side. The Premier League is where we all want to be but we’ve planned to go down and will still be debt free if we do.

Brain Laws is a man who can work well to a budget, as shown by certain “surveys” which put him at the top of a list of managers who’ve had success compared to their budget. He also is a man that likes to play good football, not only as we witnessed in his team taking six points while scoring eight goals against us last season but also in the many other times he has brought one of his teams to Turf Moor.

Laws may have run out of ideas after three years at Wednesday but that can happen to any manager when results destroy confidence. Just look at Steve Cotterill, a man who assembled a good side at Burnley that lost its way, only to be picked up, strengthened and tweaked slightly and taken to promotion the following year by Owen Coyle.

In Laws we also have a man who has obviously kept a close interest in what’s been going on at Turf Moor. Reading between the lines it seems that it was him that suggested Graham Alexander should become part of the backroom staff during his first interview, a move that has not only pleased lots of the Burnley public, but could also prove a masterstroke in instantly bridging the gap between the new gaffer and the dressing room who may too be slightly disillusioned by his appointment.

It seems as though all the Coyle compensation is going towards the current budget, as I imagine is the difference between Laws and Coyle’s wages. Some may accuse the board of “penny pinching” with this appointment, but I’m sure they’ll all change their tune with a couple of new signings to bolster the ranks.

It’s already been reported Matt Kilgallon has turned us down after a fee of around one and a half million was agreed, while today’s papers have linked with a move for Sheffield Wednesday’s keeper and former Burnley loanee Lee Grant. It also seems that the club are trying to do all they can to extend David Nugent’s loan deal until the end of the season. There’s no doubt a couple of timely signings would certainly help sooth some of the resentment towards our new manager.

Laws is also a fighter. He has an impressive history of inspiring his teams to winning derby’s, becoming the first manager to do the double over Sheffield United in 95 years. How we’d love him to have the same success against Bolton or Blackburn in the next few weeks? Also think how we’d love him to show the determination in keeping Tudgay when we courted him earlier this season when Coyle returns for one of our players in the summer?

The press too can condemn this appointment all they want. Sarcastic headlines and snidey pieces about tight arse Lancastrians stroking their whippets have been written too many times for me to care. I trust our Chairman Barry Kilby to make the right appointment for Burnley Football Club, not for the media. Although what better story could there be than Brain Laws keeping in the Premier League and making all those know it all hacks and pundits eat their words. I for one would love it.

What they fail to understand is Burnley is about doing things right, we aren’t going to blow our budget and end up like in the doldrums like so many illustrious clubs before us. Now lets all get behind our new manager and continue our fight to stay in the Premier League starting with the long awaited trip to Old Trafford on Saturday. Now just how long have we waited to say that? All hail Brain Laws, our new Mr Burnley.

O'Driscoll to pip Miss World to Clarets job?

2010-02-02T05:59:00.000-08:00

Well our Chairman Barry Kilby’s self proclaimed “beauty parade” looks like drawing to a close in the next day or so (what a great idea for a new TV show by the way- ‘Barry Kilby’s Beauty Parade’). In a radio interview last night our leader said he hoped the new man would be in place before the weekend’s trip to Manchester United.

It’s been a turbulent week for the club as after losing Owen Coyle and his backroom staff, we’ve been left looking for a new manager in the middle of a transfer window with a run of games coming up against Manchester United, Bolton and Chelsea. By the time caretaker manager Steve Davis and goalkeeping coach Phil Hughes left on Sunday it was anyone’s guess who’d be taking charge of training for the next week. In the end it was decided Martin Dobson and Terry Pashley would step in, only just pipping Chris Eagles hairdresser and Clarke Carlise’s former AA councillor to take over first team duties.

It still feels strange to be looking for a new manager after having our old one “poached” by another club. Apart from the possible exclusion of Adrian Heath resigning to take up a position on Everton’s coaching staff, the rest have either been sacked, jumped before they were pushed or just stepped down; citing retirement, the pressure of the job or in the case of the now sadly passed Tommy Cavanagh, a dodgy hip.

Given this I think Coyle may have done us a favour. After his gloriously successful era on the pitch in terms of getting results, many have said they would have happily seen him walk away in the summer and applauded and sung his name on every return. Looking at the history books, this could’ve easily seen our next appointment in the post Coyle era almost certainly end in disaster, with no man able to fill his god-like boots.

The fact he has left under a cloud means things are now different as everybody is likely to get fully behind our new manager whether they like him or not in order to try and out do Coyle. This shift in attitude could be key in the new man succeeding, especially if the club go for another young and hungry manager from the lower leagues, which is looking increasingly likely.

Today it’s being widely reported that Sean O’Driscoll has been offered the job at Turf Moor. I must admit O’Driscoll’s name was one that hadn’t immediately sprung to mind but by the time he was mentioned to me on Sunday I began to remember what a fantastic job he’d done at Doncaster. His team pretty much outplayed us on both occasions last year getting four points from a possible six, they were well organised, kept the ball on the floor and played and beat us at our own game.

There’s not too much else I really know about him, apparently known as “noisy” he is a quiet man, who keeps himself to himself and lets his results do the talking. I’d certainly be quite happy with his appointment if the Burnley board were to announce he’d got the job.

Whether this is just more press talk who knows, the favourites have certainly changed quite a lot over the past week. Out of work managers like Alan Curbishley, Paul Jewell, Brian Laws and Steve Coppell have been mentioned, as well as some up and coming bosses like O’Driscoll, Paul Lambert, Simon Grayson and Lee Clark, while not forgetting some rather interesting, farfetched outsiders like Slaven Bilic, Sven Goran Erikson, Gary Neville, Tony Blair, Simon Cowell and even the reigning Miss World (it is a beauty parade after all). Unfortunately, I still can’t see the lovely Kaiane Aldorino swapping her Miss World crown to become the Premier League’s first “Gibraltarian” manager.

Over the last couple of days it seemed like Clark, O’Drsicoll and Laws were the remaining candidates. Clark looks to have drifted now, possibly making it a two horse race. Despite being an ex claret, the mere sight of Brain Laws surging to the top of the bookies list was enough to make some fans shudder. He seems an unpopular choice and given the fact he was recently sacked by Sheffield Wednesday, a team at the bottom end of the Championship. Surely he would become the luckiest ever man in football to land a Premier League job just over a month after getting the boot from a side a league below?

Once likened to Brain Clough in his management style, some will see Laws’ reign at Sheffield Wednesday a success, keeping a once illustrious club in the Championship despite financial difficulties while the likes of Leeds United, Southampton, Norwich and Charlton all went down. Others will say it wasn’t, as often clubs with huge debts live far beyond their means in the red.

He does have one good thing in his favour though and that is his tenacity. After we won promotion, Coyle tried to sign striker Marcus Tudgay from Wednesday and Law’s bitterly fought tooth and nail to keep his star man; a quality we may need if our former manager comes sniffing round our players in the summer?

I’m sure it’s been a difficult task for Laws at Hillsborough, but then looking at O’Driscoll he’s done all that and more on a smaller budget at a less glamorous club. But whether or not the press and the bookies are to be believed or not is another matter, for all we know the likes of Sky Sports News are just trying to keep the story alive until a decision is made.

After the last couple of weeks, nobody could possibly rule out a late twist in the tale but I for one can’t wait to get back to the football with whoever is chosen to take us forward. But as this beauty parade moves into its final swimwear round, it looks as if the 33rd manager in the history of Burnley Football Club is under 48 hours away from being named. Incidentally, can anyone tell me the odds on the new man being made to wear a crown and a sash during his opening press conference?

Coyle leaves; a good day for atheists

2010-02-02T05:57:00.000-08:00

Well that's it, he's off. Some have likened it to their wife running off with another man and I'm pretty sure plenty would've probably preferred to see their wife go instead, but Owen Coyle is no longer the manager of Burnley Football Club.

Now making snowmen on gardening leave, once compensation is agreed the Scot will exit Turf Moor for his former club Bolton with the promise of bigger and better budgets, stadia and infrastructure to compete in the top flight. I've been left like many feeling a strange mixture of disappointment, frustration, anger and total bemusement at his decision, but also of huge appreciation for all he's done during his time at the club.

Yes, leaving us midseason is extremely low and for that I can never forgive him, but at the same time he's ditched us as a Premier League club with a great chance of survival. I look around and see Preston sacking Alan Irvine, who joined them at the same time Coyle moved to
Burnley and am thankful we're not in their position. If we're going to be done the dirty on then I'd rather it be while we're in the position to attract a manager with the ability to keep us up.

For many, it was inevitable that Coyle would leave but what hurts most is the timing and the club he leaves us for. I for one will never be able to understand why he hasn't chosen to finish off the job he started by taking us for better or worse through to the finish line, but it's his choice and just hope he's proved wrong come May. Financially he will be better off if he keeps Bolton up, but if he takes them down then I suspect even a relegated Burnley would be a more viable, debt free option.

As for where he moves to, I said in my last piece it was dangerous to dismiss the lure of Bolton for Coyle. Although he spent only two and a half years at the club, he only played for two other teams longer and during that time earned promotion to the top flight as a semi regular starter in a side with a similar footballing philosophy to the one he's built at Burnley. What leaves me baffled and gutted is why his achievements here don't seem to rank anywhere near what he did as a player during his Burden Park days.

The danger is now that our over achieving team will combust and go into freefall without their deserting leader. The great thing about Coyle was his ability to bring a unique togetherness amongst his players and inspire the fans. Now it is us that must bridge the gap and get behind our team even more than we already do. Coyle has gone and staying in this division is far too important to dwell on his departure. We must put all our faith in Steve Davis to continue his 100% record as Burnley manager when he takes charge against Stoke on Saturday and then continue to support whoever takes on the role.

The uphill task just got much harder and although Coyle may have turned his back on us it doesn't mean we should fear relegation anymore than when he was with us. This act of treachery should act as a catalyst to every player inside the dressing room and to everybody
with an interest in supporting our great team to prove this man was wrong to leave us.

Whatever he did or did not say over the last week, it soon became blatantly obvious his desire was to see what was on the table at Bolton once Saturday’s win over the MK Dons was out of the way. Sadly, that press conference dodging victory was to be his last and it was perhaps fitting that the game was a both a cup and an away win, combining two of the contrasting features of his Turf Moor reign. Let’s just hope our form away from the Turf has a sudden improvement in three weeks time when we visit our old manager in his new love nest at the Reebok.

In the few days in between the FA Cup game and stating his desire to leave, a last ditch attempt to keep him was made by Chairman Barry Kilby. The pair met on Monday night to discuss the future over a vintage bottle of Irn Bru but sadly it seems the teetotaller was already drunk on Gartside’s promises of extra money. A night was taken to sleep on it, which in the end it only served to prolong the inevitable. The club text came through the next day confirming he was on his way.

Although hurting, I do not wish to resort to words of hatred towards Coyle. The last two years has been without doubt one of the best times to be a Claret as we've watched as our great club rise from the shadows to earn what we never thought possible, a place in the Premier League. I will always look back at his era with great fondness despite the crass way he has chosen to end it.

Tuesday’s news that Coyle was on his way was a great day for atheists everywhere, once again reaffirming the belief that God never actually existed. It was however, not only an extremely sad day for Burnley Football Club but also for the sport in general. In a game now filled with greed, a lust for instant success and a lack of morals we thought we had found a rare gem who built our trust with tales of honesty, integrity and family values; but in the end he perhaps summed up best of all what is so very wrong with modern day football.

New year hangovers made worse as Bolton chase Coyle

2010-01-02T04:18:00.000-08:00

I'd not even had time to break any of my new year's resolutions before the speculation Owen Coyle was leaving for Bolton went into overdrive yesterday. Many hung-over Clarets will have sat glued to the addictive repetition of Sky Sports News only to be told of the impending doom they were about to be faced with by some pretty, if slightly too orange blonde.

The yellow bar was out in force with the scrolling "SKY SOURCES: BOLTON WANT OWEN COYLE TO BE THEIR NEW MANAGER" being rammed down our throats. "So bloody what" I screamed at the telly whilst reaching for the comfort of a box of chocolates and a beer to instantly smash both of my well thought out and intentioned resolutions. If the constant din of the telly wasn't enough the bookies were at it too, suspending betting on Coyle taking the job as if they'd got wind that the demigod had already deserted us for the promise of an endless supply of Reebok Classics. My instant defiance was suddenly being met with a bout of worry, what if he does actually go this time?

Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve been a proud follower of Burnley Football Club all my life and am fully of the opinion that no person is bigger than this great club; but the thoroughly enjoyable Coyle era is still in full swing and it’d certainly hurt if it were to be cut short now. Whether we stay up or go down I think the gaffer must give us a full season in the Premier League under his stewardship and take us to the point where ties can be cut amicably if he wishes to go onto the bigger things I’m sure he’s destined for.

For those who say there is no loyalty in football these days, in Coyle we seem to have found a man with integrity. He turned down Champions League football with his boyhood heroes Celtic to stay and guide Burnley into the Premier League and flatly ignored the winking eye of the Scottish FA who saw him as one of the prime candidates for the national team job.

There’s no doubt though that Coyle has emotional ties with Bolton, the fans who serenaded him on Boxing Day clearly hold him in high esteem and no secret has been made about his close links with Chairman Phil Gartside, who previously interviewed Coyle for the management position there and subsequently recommended him to the Burnley board. Back then Owen was seen as too much of a gamble to jump straight into Premier League management but now he’s proven his worth the chequebook may come out to lure Coyle across Lancashire.

Bolton have stated their desire for a British manager and while Alan Curbishley’s name is also high on the list of options, the great thing about Coyle is that his employment will bring a philosophy of attacking football that will instantly sooth the hostility of the football hungry Bolton fans who have been starved of attractive play under the popular, successful Allardyce and loathed, unsuccessful Megson.

However popular he may be amongst Wanderers fans, let me assure you that our love for the man who has breathed new life into Burnley Football Club eclipses anything they feel about him over there. I’m not saying this is a tug of war “we love him more than you” situation one bit, but simply that although the draw of nostalgia may loom large for Coyle at Bolton, he should also remember his massive achievements here in around the same time he spent as a player with them. As the old saying goes “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”.

According to the national press certainly, it’s a done deal, but then they said that about Coyle going to Celtic. There’s nothing like a whirlwind of hysteria on a slow news day at Sky Sports News to get everyone on their toes. Although, the amount of coverage the story received was quite surprising given the fact they’re usually only counting down the days to the closure of the reopened transfer window like an impending Armageddon. I’m sure it’s only a matter a time until a window closes with both presenters in their pants, holding hands and quietly weeping.

On the other side of the coin being a wanted man again could be an ideal opportunity for Coyle to squeeze a few more pennies out of the Burnley board. Whether David Nugent is beyond the realms of financial possibility or what has been said recently is just a clever tactic of publicly knocking down the price who knows? We all appreciate the need to keep our finances tight but one or two extra loans at least could make all the difference come May.

All this speculation though is meaningless until that perhaps inevitable approach comes from the other side of Lancashire to test the Burnley board. The answer will undoubtedly be no to such an advance, but those who question football’s loyalty will also tell you that money talks and players and managers ultimately get what they want in the end when wanting to move clubs.

At this stage I’m confident Owen Coyle will continue to be Burnley manager until well into 2010, but that slight doubt does linger somewhere in the back of my mind. I think it is dangerous to dismiss the lure of Bolton as nothing; those who say he couldn’t work with a ugly side should remember how quickly he transformed the confidence of our squad and got us playing the type of attacking, open football we could have never have played under Steve Cotterill. I think every Clarets fan will be praying that Coyle’s New Year resolution was to keep Burnley in the Premier League. If it was, let’s just hope he sticks at his longer than I did mine.

Farewell 2009: the year of the claret

2009-12-29T05:27:00.000-08:00

As we prepare to say goodbye to one hell of a year watching Burnley Football Club we must do so with the pain of another away defeat. It's a shame that the calendar year couldn't have ended with our first premier League away win but sometimes you can't have it all in football; and we've certainly been spoilt over the last twelve months.

Having been away for the disappointing defeat to Wolves I returned a few pounds heavier for the Boxing Day draw against Bolton. It was another one of those games where I'm still not quite sure how we didn't turn one point into three, as after a dull first half Burnley well and truly battered the visitors in the second period.

There was however some gloriously spurned chances which could easily have made it to the final cut of the plethora of football blooper DVDs that had been opened across the town 24 hours earlier. Steven Fletcher in particular was guilty of a couple that in truth looked easier to score. At times I was having visions that comparisons with the likes of West Brom who play good football but don’t take their chances and go down would be coming painfully true come next May.

But there were some extremely encouraging signs, David Nugent was finally given a start alongside Fletcher and the pair linked up brilliantly. Chris Eagles was once again in sparkling form, Kevin McDonald continued to grow into his midfield role and the defensive partnership of Bikey and Duff was no nonsense and solid.

Taking all those factors into consideration, I was expecting us to give Everton a tough game on our final assignment of the year and was quietly optimistic of breaking our away duck. Things looked good for about an hour at Goodison and although the Toffee’s had some decent possession and chances we were having some very good spells ourselves and could have been ahead especially when Nugent saw his effort come back off the post.

As the game reached the sixty minute mark, Stephen Jordan decided to try and undress Steven Piennar as he got himself a fist full of the South Africans shirt. A late tackle on the Russian with the long name had already earned the Burnley left back a first half yellow card and referee Howard Webb wasted no time in brandishing a second and sending Jordan for an early bath. It was one of the few right decisions made by the shiny headed referee, whose judgement seemed to be based on the shouts of the home fans for the majority of the game.

This time it was act of stupidity that cost us, as Jordan’s offence was committed in an area of no danger to the Burnley goal with plenty of men behind the ball. Sadly, he let down his battling team mates, his manager and fans as from then on David Moyes’ men took a stranglehold on the game. As a result the lively but tiring Nugent was replaced by Kalvanes and our best hopes of snatching a victory slipped away. Soon after sub James Vaughn opening the scoring as he tapped in a cross from short range. Coyle claimed that Yakubu was standing in an offside position blocking Brain Jensen’s view, but the replays show that in the eighteenth phase of the offside rule he was played on by a loose strand on Tyrone Mears’ bootlaces.

A lovely move finished off by the excellent Steven Piennar in the end condemned us to a two nil defeat. It was a crushing blow for the players who battled hard and looked extremely disappointed at the final whistle. Nevertheless the Burnley fans provided a fantastic atmosphere without much help from the subdued home crowd (the um-pa-pa dancing to the announcement of “Police Operation Goodison” was a particular highlight).

Yesterdays result means we finish the year in thirteenth place in the Premier League, a whole twelve league places than we were at this time in 2008. It’s been a tremendous achievement by all the players and staff at the football club and a year I will never forget. Games like the emotional rollercoaster of the Carling Cup double header against Spurs, that joyful tear-jerking noisy night at the Madjeski, the thrill of Wembley and beating Manchester United in our first ever Premier League game at Turf Moor are now forever etched in the memory. Now we must continue to move forward as we continue in our quest for Premier League survival. Here’s to 2010 being another vintage year for Owen Coyle’s Clarets.

As early Chrismas presents go...

2009-12-29T05:25:00.000-08:00

...that was a bloody good one. What another fantastic night of football at Turf Moor. Last nights one all draw with Arsenal was a thoroughly enjoyable encounter, one that's still got me smiling like that rather wet Geordie kid that won the X Factor.

For those gooners who dismissed Burnley before this game, next time you come to Turf Moor be prepared for another long ninety minutes. Owen Coyle's men did what the gaffer promised and went toe to toe with the Gunners for pretty much the whole ninety minutes in what was a superb display of counter attacking football.

We know how good Arsenal are and how well they move the ball so for the most part had to make sure that when we had our share of possession we kept the ball and made the most of it. Although things didn’t get off to the best of starts as within the first sixty seconds we almost gifted them a goal. Then minutes later, in between Arsenal almost putting the ball into their own net, we did just that, as Andre Bikey’s demand for too much time on the ball allowed Fabregas to easily dispossess him before the Spaniard neatly slotted the ball past Brain Jensen.

It was a hammer blow, a moment of utter deflation for the raucous Turf Moor crowd. But as ever Burnley showed the heart, desire and true bravery that has and will continue to get them back into many a game. Arsenal looked vulnerable at the back when under pressure, while for all their neat play around the box were lacking a true centre forward and in my opinion were wasting their creative gem Arshavin by deploying him as the lone man up front.

The visitors then could’ve had more; as Fabregas broke through and found the side netting before Arshavin saw an effort come back off the post. Then Burnley began to get it together again and just shy of the half hour mark Bikey showed his less casual side as he broke into the box only to be clattered by Vermaelen. Graham Alexander stepped up to take the penalty and as usual made no mistake by smashing the ball home to draw things level.

Fabregas’ hamstring couldn’t take much more and was withdrawn before the half ended, which finished with Vermaelen almost atoning for his error by forcing Jensen to tip over a thundering header. Despite these chances Burnley were very much in the match and were starting to compete with Arsenal in every department. In the second period, Burnley’s part grew as they began at times to completely dominate proceedings. Arsenal were left frustrated and rarely threatened the Beast’s goal despite their methodical build up play.

The Clarets pressed and almost took the lead as a mazy run and shot from the outstanding Chris Eagles came thundering back off the post. Minutes later a controversial moment saw the linesman’s offside flag raised as Steven Fletcher tapped home a Kevin McDonald cross. At the time most inside Turf Moor thought it was a goal and almost all probably still do having seen the replay from the comfort of their living room. I said before this game Burnley would have to ride their luck to gain a positive result, but in the second half the same can be said for Arsene Wenger’s men who were fortunate not to be trailing.

Before that Wenger had taken off the ineffective Theo Walcott who was never in the game thanks to a Stephen Jordan carried the glass produced England winger in his pocket during his time on the pitch. Even when Arshavin moved over to the right hand side the Burnley left back looked solid and assured.

As the game drew to a close, things became stretched and end to end but neither side could clinch a winner. Burnley had taken points off yet another one of the Premier League big boys at Turf Moor, that’s now three of the current top four that have failed to secure a single victory here. The likes of McDonald, Eagles, Jordan, Fletcher and Alexander were in truly inspiring form and looked like they’d been playing at this level for years.

After the game both managers were asked about our next opponents Wolves’ decision to make ten changes to the side that beat Tottenham against Manchester United. Wenger spoke about having to match Manchester United over 37 games and not 38 while Coyle rather diplomatically played down Mick McCarthy’s decision.

In my view McCarthy not only short changed the fans who travelled to Old Trafford but the players who fought so hard last season to pit themselves against English football’s elite clubs. Although it’s incredibly flattering to have a manager resting his entire team so they are fresh to face Burnley it’s a tactic I’m not a fan of. Here’s hoping to it backfiring dramatically come Sunday; and if it does I suspect there will be some grumblings not only from the vast majority of the Molyneux crowd; but also from inside the home dressing room as well.

Wolves may be holding up the white flag when it comes to the big four; but as Arsenal learnt last night that will never be the case for Owen Coyle’s Burnley. The only flag that mattered to us last night was the linesman’s wrong one which denied us the chance of another famous victory.

Coyle to grapple Wenger in Turf Moor carpark

2009-12-16T03:19:00.000-08:00

Tonight's night really can't come quick enough for me as we welcome back Arsenal to the scene of their Carling Cup decline last season with the prospect of another tough night in the north ahead of them. The fact that Owen Coyle has demanded his players go "toe to toe" with the Londoners should make things particularly difficult for Arsene Wenger's men (we're not ruling out an ambush as they get off the team bus).

Night time Turf Moor triumphs over the likes of the Gunners and Manchester United, as well as the Tottenham semi final epic have set the bar as some of the most memorable evenings in our recent history. The darkness seems to descend a special atmosphere around Turf Moor that makes the hairs on the back of your neck instantly stand to attention.

I’ve had a feeling for a while now that this game could provide another similarly thrilling encounter where we run our big time opponents close, ride our luck and in the end secure a positive result. After four games without a win upsetting the form book with a surprise three points isn’t beyond the realms of possibility. That’s especially the case when you look at Arsenal’s injury problems. Arsene Wenger is already without Van Persie, Clichy, Gibbs and Eboue and also has doubts over Fabregas, Arshavin, Gallas, Walcott and Traore.

Prior to tomorrows game, one of our other Carling Cup Capital Punishment victims of last year Fulham escaped further retribution with a one all draw at the weekend. Back at the Turf after two defeats on the road we earned ourselves a hard fought point against Roy Hodgon’s men. The Cottages produced an extremely organised display and have definitely been put together tremendously well by the man with the game’s greatest accent. The spine of their team is pretty solid and is sprinkled with talented footballers all over the park.

Burnley’s best play in the first half came down the right hand side as Chris Eagles and Tyrone Mears time and time again threatened with excellent link up play that kept Paul Konchesky on his toes. But other than that it was a fairly disjointed performance in the opening forty five minutes as we struggled to make an impact in midfield while our back four were kept busy by the lively Duff and Zamora.

The breakthrough came when we were punished for not reacting to a quick free kick and as the skipper Steven Caldwell misjudged the resulting ball the excellent Bobby Zamora was left through on goal to open the scoring.

Zamora may be criticised for his lack of goals but his hold up play was sensational as he time and time again brought his midfield into the game. If he can continue such form and start to put the ball in the net on a regular basis then he could definitely be challenging Carlton Cole to replace Emile Heskey as England’s target man option after next years World Cup.

With a second home defeat of the season staring us in the face, the crowd rallied as Burnley surged forward to try and make amends. After a fantastically whipped low cross from Stephen Jordan was only half cleared the ball dropped Wade Elliot who drew things level with a fabulous volley. Hopefully the strike will give Elliot a touch more confidence as he seems to have struggled to make an impact over the last couple of games he's played in central midfield.

Once we switched to 4-4-2 we looked more much comfortable, the introduction of the lively David Nugent always seems to help the side look more dangerous and provide us with the extra dimension we sometimes so desperately lack. Kevin McDonald also adds more balance and substance to the midfield, but never seems to be given his chance in our regular system of three central midfielders. Against Manchester City he was deployed on the left hand side and in his start against Pompey and the majority of his other subs appearances he’s played alongside Grezza in a reverted 4-4-2.

I would love to see both Nugent and McDonald included in the starting eleven tomorrow night; but whatever eleven is picked by Owen Coyle I’m sure that with another electric atmosphere inside Turf Moor we will raise our game and get at them from the first whistle. If we can keep things close who can bet against us pushing Arsenal all the way and making it another famous night on the pitch (and carpark) in the history of Burnley Football Club.

England: C is for Caution

2009-12-05T03:22:00.000-08:00

While many in the press are getting about giddy England’s World Cup draw I can’t help feeling that perhaps the majority of us should be keeping our feet on the ground.

Hailing our Group C opponents as the “easiest” of all time is perhaps a little strong as while the USA, Algeria and Slovenia are hardly names from footballs illustrious past, they all represent that tired old cliché that “no games at this level are easy”.

Watching the first part of the draw on the BBC before leaving work to tune into the rest on the radio I must admit that the drawn out bore-fest made better listening than it did viewing.

The best bit of the pre draw entertainment was wondering which of Cape Town’s nightspots the likes of Lineker, Motson and Lawrenson were heading to afterwards, with all of them looking like a muggers dream in their chinos and tucked in shirts pressed to perfection.

Then came the star of the show; the draw’s host South African superstar Charlize Theron. Never before has such elegance been made out of wood; but the Monster actress managed it with her Eurovision Song Contest style presentation skills fused with Hollywood glamour. No wonder FIFA President Sepp Blatter was left slumped in his front row seat mopping his oversized brow.

After Theron had feigned interest and let some other FIFA dignitary warble on about how the draw works and what we should do if we wanted to take our own life if the draw got too much, the main event was ready to begin.

With no need for a ball by ball account of what happened next, we all now know England were handed the afore mentioned USA, Algeria and Slovenia while other group highlights included the Group of deaths such as Group G (Brazil, Portugal, Ivory Coast and North Korea) and our neighbouring Group D (Germany, Austrailia, Serbia and Ghana).

While there is no doubt that England should progress to the knockout stages, winning the group must be our priority and we will get off the toughest possible opponents on June 12th against the USA.

Our American cousins have shown in recent years that they should not be mocked as the “soccer” remedials who are more likely to catch a cross field ball than volley it. They have come a long way since the “miracle on grass” that embarrassed England in the 1950 World Cup Finals in Brazil. Almost sixty years later the American’s sit four places adrift in terms of FIFA rankings and looked extremely dangerous at last summers Confederations Cup in South Africa were they knocked out Spain in the semis before scaring Brazil in the final.

Uncle Sam’s squad boasts an impressive talent pool. AC Milan’s Oguchi Onyewu is strong in defence, the likes of Clint Dempsey and Tim Howard are well respected amongst Premier League opposition while Beck’s sparring partner at LA Galaxy Landon Donovan will be wanting to prove that he is a star worthy of the world’s biggest stage.

If there is a danger of underestimating the strength of the USA, then the same can be said of our next two opponents Algeria and Slovenia. The Algerians have four players based in England themselves and will not fear us, especially after going toe to toe with rivals Egypt in somewhat of a bloodbath to make the finals. The well organised Slovenians will also be tough to beat. This is their fourth trip to a major tournament despite only playing their first match as a country in 1992. Any side that can knock out Russia in the playoffs is more than capable of causing an upset on their day.

But while I will be quietly expecting us to win the group I don’t expect it to be as “E.A.S.Y” as today’s Sun’s front page would suggest. But all this excitement about is pointless as even in one of the stronger groups I would still be expecting England to progress. Our trouble will come in the last sixteen and beyond where we will see just how much we have improved under Fabio Capello.

If all the bigger sides progress the way the form book would suggest then the Italian could take us to the semi finals where Brazil are our likely opponents. A win there would perhaps see Spain in the final. So lets not get carried away, we are guaranteed to win nothing and will only be successful if we maintain the professional attitude and keep improving on the level of performance we have achieved so far under our new manager.

It may sound boring but for the first time where England are concerned I am not letting myself get carried away with thoughts of World Cup glory; instead I’m doing things the cautious Capello way.

The happiest of unhappy draws

2009-11-24T06:04:00.000-08:00

After our late point stealing antics at Manchester city last time out it was perhaps just a matter of time before footballs funny old symmetry came back to bite us in the backside. Sadly it spun round all too quickly to see us walk away from Turf Moor with just a single point on Saturday after leading Aston Villa for the majority of the game.

The days swirling wind and rain was hardly the perfect tonic for good football but this was still a game I was really looking forward to as I saw Martin O'Neil's men as the perfect side to measure how our Premier League credentials were coming along.

For the first forty five minutes we were once again looking comfortable as we dominated much of the proceedings. We were winning the first and second balls in the middle of the park, our full backs were snuffing out the danger from England wide men Milner and Young while Agbonlahor and Carew were kept quiet by Carlisle and Captain Caldwell.

It was the skipper who added to his impressive defensive performance with the opening goal nine minutes in as he met a perfect Robbie Blake free kick to loop the ball past the heavily booed, flapping Friedel. In contrast to Villa’s underperforming England stars, it was the Burnley wide men who were creating the majority of the problems as the pace of Eagles and craft of Blake threatened to add to our lead.

Villas best chance came when Agbonlahor, who seemed to be playing far too deep for a player with his pace, chased down a through ball that looked destined to be met first by the oncoming Brain Jensen; but the England striker got there first and with the goal gaping laid the ball back to Ashley Young who failed to find the target.

While we bossed the first half, the second was to be a different story as Villa started strongly and got better and better as the game progressed. We desperately needed a second goal to give us some breathing space as the pressure on our back line kept building. Chances came in the form of a free kick from Tyrone Mears and an excellent effort from Steven Fletcher while at the other end Brain Jensen kept out Agbonlahor’s break away effort with a fine fingertip save after some route one football from Brad Friedel.

The delivery of Villa’s set pieces was getting more and more robust, especially from Ashley Young who was whipping them in with great quality. That combined with the worsening weather kept every claret hoping for another Turf Moor victory on the edge of their seats. Emile Heskey and Stuart Downing were brought on to add to the away sides attacking threat while Coyle tried to sure things up by withdrawing Eagles, Fletcher and Blake in favour of McDonald, Gudjonsson and Nugent.

As the game entered its latter stages an extremely tight offside decision managed to go against us, being pretty much level with the incident I was sure Nugent had got himself back in line with the last Villa defender before he was played through to audaciously lob the ball of the oncoming Friedel; the linesman thought otherwise.

In a cruel twist of fate two minutes later Villa were level; Brian Jensen managed to come and punch away a cross before the ball was returned by James Milner only for the Beast to this time stay on his line as the ball was met by the head of Emile Heskey, who out-muscled the otherwise exceptional Stephen Jordan to guide into the net.

With only two minutes left of normal time it was a gut wrenching blow as a potentially vital two points slipped from our grasp. On reflection it was a fair result with both sides dominating a half a piece but many leaving Turf Moor at full time were left with that strange feeling that only football can bring; prior to the match nearly everybody would’ve been happy with drawing against Villa yet after ninety minutes many were left disappointed with taking a solitary point.

It’s now been two years since Owen Coyle’s first game at Turf Moor, when he took to the dugout as the club celebrated 125 years of existence with a nil nil draw against Stoke City. Since then we’ve been completely transformed and have just made it three games unbeaten in the Premier League. Not only has Coyle given the fans an exciting two years of football but he has also taken the club out of the financial mire. Last weeks release of the previous years books showed a 9 million pound loss, something that promotion has wiped out. Nobody at that game against Stoke would’ve thought we’d be where we are now, completely debt free and slightly disappointed at taking a point against Aston Villa to keep us in the top half of the Premier League.

Saturday also saw us get somewhat of a backhand compliment from Martin O’Neil as he described Burnley as a “notorious” venue to visit in his post match interview; comments which instantly propelled Turf Moor just ahead of Compton in the rankings of the world’s shadiest places. The good news is that after O’Neil’s kind words we are now only a couple of places behind Baghdad and Kabul.

But if that is the case then next Saturday we must clamber through the hoards of cockney gangsters, pimps and prostitutes in order to reach our destination of the Boleyn Ground in the heart of the “notorious” East London. If we manage to get there alive we will look to add more misery to the side that are cuurently bottom of the Premier League’s Claret and Blue mini league West Ham United and maybe just maybe get that first away win of the season?

The sweet, sweet taste of an away point

2009-11-08T05:56:00.001-08:00

Saturday's thrilling three all draw away at Manchester City was one of those few occasions in football where a single point felt like three.

Having yet to pick up anything away from home so far this season there were few who gave us any chance if turning our fortunes around, especially when Mark Hughes' starting eleven came through with the likes of Tevez, Adebayor and Bellamy all included.

But that very same team also had Kolo Toure and Joleon Lescott at centre half with a midfield packed with largely attack minded players. Reading their line up gave me more confidence than fear as I knew that we could hurt City if they allowed us too much time on the ball and the space to create chances.

Fortunately that's exactly how the first half panned out, we passed the ball brilliantly and regularly found Chris Eagles in acres of space on the flank as he and the likes of Steven Fletcher, Wade Elliot and Tyrone Mears created wave upon wave of attacks down the right hand side. And not just that, whenever we gave the ball away we were quickly getting men behind the ball and thwarting the home sides advances.

Eighteen minutes in a ball from the Claret's right back was slapped behind for a corner by the hand of Lescott to earn us a penalty. Graham Alexander stepped up and for the second week running gave the keeper no chance and Burnley a one nil lead.

While City probed for an equaliser, things were about to get even better. Another impressive bit of play down our right hand side saw Chris Eagles perfectly slide the ball across the City goal for the oncoming Steven Fletcher to take full advantage of to double our lead. The upset was now most definitely on, little Burnley were teaching the rich kids from the City a well deserved lesson.

Sadly, although it was a much improved away performance we were about to be taught another timely lesson ourselves. The impressive Shaun Wright Phillips gave City hope just before half time as he rather fortunately pulled one back via the cutest of deflections off the boot of Stephen Jordan. With the home side buoyed it was now our job to continue with the same work rate and concentration levels in the first part of the second half that kept City at bay for the majority of the first period.

Unfortunately when the onslaught came we weren't prepared and crumbled, Kolo Toure levelled within ten minutes of the restart before Craig Bellamy gave City the lead just short of the hour mark. With the game spinning out of our control Owen Coyle made a couple of spectacular tactical changes to get ourselves back level. On came Joey Gudjonsson and Kevin McDonald in a double substitution to bolster the midfield, while David Nugent was thrown on ten minutes later to add some spark in attack.

Coyle's attempt to nullify City's threat and make the game ugly worked to perfection; patience was now to be the key as it was inevitable that we would create another chance before the end. Nugent was working hard in the channels and his dogged persistence paid off with four minutes to go when he swung in a cross from the right hand side which was perfectly headed down by Steven Fletcher for the oncoming Kevin McDonald to smash past Shay Given. For the third time in the game the travelling Claret's went wild as we secured a much deserved first away point.

After the results we've had away from home so far this term this result is a timely reminder that if given the time and space to punish teams we most certainly will.

What we saw yesterday was two teams on very different learning curves. While we are still very much a work in progress in terms of becoming a fully fledged Premier League side, Manchester City are still working out how they can make the breakthrough to rejoin English football's elite.

The young City fans chatting behind me on the way out reminded me of the gulf between the two sides financially when they decided 50 million pounds worth of new players could solve City's problems. Unfortunately, throwing money around isn't the solution to all of their woes as while City are an impressive attacking force, they are largely an imbalanced side desperately in need of a leader at centre half.

For Burnley, we still need to keep learning about the art of closing games out and at times making the game ugly at this level. Yesterday we did it but far too late to turn one point into three. But we've spent a fraction of what City have and are always going to concede goals against opponents with such quality. For us any point away from home in this league will be treated like a victory and Saturday was probably the greatest example of that we will find this season.

No luck for Halloween Hull

2009-11-04T07:00:00.000-08:00

The decision of quite a few Hull City fans to come to Turf Moor in Halloween fancy dress was perhaps always going to turn out to be an ominous one, especially when I spotted the Grim Reaper strolling down Harry Potts Way; although I'm still not sure whether he had actually taken the official supporters club travel.

The pressure on the visitor's manager Phil Brown in the week building up to the game had been mounting considerably, which lead him to illogically insist that his players were "one million percent" behind him. So if this game was to be a "six pointer" in terms of Burnley's survival hopes then using Browny's school of maths who knows how many points a win would've been worth to them?

Burnley started the brighter of the two sides without really making their possession count while the Tigers looked quite shaky and nervous. They seemed to happy to conceed needless throw-ins and corners when more confident players would've cleared the ball up-field or passed it out of defence.

As the first half was descending into a scrappy affair the breakthrough came. Wade Elliot played in Tyrone Mears whose air shot was judged to be a foul by Stephen Hunt on the Burnley full back. A sheer stroke of luck, although to be fair to the referee Mike Jones his view was severely restricted. But the ball still needed to be put away and it was with aplomb from Graham Alexander on his one hundredth appearance in Claret and Blue, earning me a more than welcome fifteen quid in the process.

From then on the remainder of the first half was largely Burnley’s; the man mountain Zayette blocked a fierce Blake drive, while Bikey, Elliot and Eagles also went close. The failure to see off the visitors was to almost prove costly though as a different Hull came out of the away dressing room after the break. They began to get a hold on the game and pushed Burnley back especially after the introduction of Mendy and Altidore.

Thankfully Brian Jensen was back to his commanding self and proved vital in taking the pressure off especially when saving well from the lively Ghilas. I must admit concern was growing, especially after the way we fell apart after taking the lead in our last two games against Blackburn and Wigan.

Thankfully lady luck was about to shine for us once more, in a rather big way. A questionable free kick was awarded to the visitors on the edge of the Burnley box which Giovanni lined up and beautifully found the top corner of the net. Sadly for Hull the man in black proved vital again, blowing up for a foul in the wall before the ball found its way beyond the outstretched Jensen. I was beginning to think that hidden under that Grim Reaper’s outfit was a referee’s uniform.

If that wasn’t enough of a blow for Hull then Giovanni’s booking for dissent being quickly followed up a second for a foul on Fletcher saw them down to ten men. Then stepped forward Alexander once more, as the Scot drove forward a pass to the overlapping Tyrone Mears looked certain until he unleashed a superb drive past Matt Duke into the bottom corner.

The strike was the perfect way to answer the critics that have called for him to be dropped or rested from the side. That has never been an issue for me, especially at a time when Chris McCann is absent, the experience, leadership and calming influence of the man they call Granddad is essential to the makeup of the team. Grezza’s situation has been compared to that of Ryan Giggs, but while Manchester United have the luxury to rest players Burnley do not and personally I wouldn’t want it any other way.

While Hull City’s fans will lament the referee’s failure to deal with the games controversial moments, over the course of the ninety minutes Owen Coyle’s men were well worth their victory. Saturday’s result is even more important to us as we are still producing far from our best form. We’ll now use this three points and clean sheet as a springboard to somehow get a result at Manchester City next weekend; but for Hull I’m pretty sure the Grim Reaper will be following them back to the KC Stadium for Saturday's visit of Stoke City.

To Hull and back; an almost perfect symmetry

2009-11-04T06:59:00.000-08:00

Almost two years ago on a freezing cold Tuesday night in November at Turf Moor one of the worst games of football I'd seen in a long time took place. After an exhausting ninety minutes viewing from my seat in the Bob Lord Stand Phil Brown's Hull City came out one nil winners over Steve Cotterill's Burnley.

That was the last time we were to be known as that as Cotterill was later dismissed by the Burnley board in a sacking probably best remembered for him turning up to his own funeral as he sat looking glumly in the resulting press conference as Chairman Barry Kilby delivered the club's reasoning to the press.

I remember thinking that both sides weren’t really up to much that night; the Claret’s looked weak and drained of confidence while Hull simply relied on their intimidating physical presence and organisation. Either way I didn’t foresee much success for either of what seemed to be the Championship’s also-rans.

But how times quickly changed; somehow the Tigers managed to put an astonishing run together and lift themselves into the playoffs that season, only to then earn a smash and grab promotion via the playoffs courtesy of a beautiful volley from local lad Dean Windass. Meanwhile on the other side of the country new Claret’s boss Owen Coyle was busy improving on his work in progress at Turf Moor.

Then while Hull were impressing all in the Premier League with fantastic early season wins away at Arsenal and Spurs, Burnley were doing the same against the big boys in the Carling Cup where we also upset the Gunners, along with Chelsea whilst giving Tottenham a scare in the semis. Now after Hull’s last day survival and Burnley’s play off promotion tomorrow we come face to face once more but this time as heavily tipped Premier League relegation candidates.

It’s been a tough time recently for the boys from the Humber as the club seems to be going through turmoil on and off the pitch. The clubs finances are in a mess with their share of Premier League gold seemingly disappearing into an over ambitious black hole. Just imagine what state they’d be in if they were paying Michael Owen’s wages on top of what they are already shelling out? This financial mess has led to Chairman Paul Duffen resigning this week with the returning Adam Pearson ready to step into the chair.

The loathable leather faced Phil Brown has also been under lots of pressure but for the time being looks like keeping his job. It’s a difficult one with Brown, for Hull fans he will always be the man who took them to the Promised Land and kept them up but does that success mean he is immune from the sack even if results and performances remain consistently awful? The Tigers currently sit in the relegation places and in their last two games his team have only managed two shots on goal.

Now this weekend it is our turn to heap further misery and pressure on the club as we must get back to winning ways after back to back derby defeats against Blackburn and Wigan. Last weekend’s first home defeat reminded me of when Roberto Martinez came to town with Swansea last season. The performance of his Wigan side was very similar as they work hard for each other and passed the ball well, while their lone striker Jason Scotland once again was enough on his own to occupy both of centre backs.

That game changed when we suffered the unfortunate injury to Brain Jensen in the build up to the Wigan equaliser. It was probably the most bizarre goal I’ve ever seen at Turf Moor to see our goalkeeper collapsed in a heap on the floor while the ball was stroked home into an empty net by Hugo Rodellega. Who needs beach balls eh?!

While the Beast clutched his ankle the crowd scratched their heads as to whether Jenson's injury was serious or simply embarrassment at his indecision. The verdict from the Turf Moor medical staff was of slight ankle ligament damage. Let’s just hope he can get himself back in goal on Saturday and put the last two weeks behind him.

The rest of last Saturday’s performance saw us in and out of the game. Sadly when we were in it we were largely ineffective. There were one or two bright moments particularly from Chris Eagles but in the end we were well beaten.

It seems to me we are losing the battle in central midfield. Ever since Andre Bikey moved into the spot vacated by the injured McCann the balance just hasn’t been right. The Cameroonian has done his best but now needs to be back in his best position at centre half and be replaced by someone who can start and finish attacks and move the ball from side to side.

That man for me is Kevin McDonald. The young Scot has so far failed to live up to the potential he showed when he first arrived at the club. Injuries have blighted his progress and perhaps by his own admission he will say he lost his way slightly last season. But certainly in his cameos in the last two games he’s looked bright, hungry, composed and well worth his opportunity in a midfield lacking spark.

Towards the end of last weekend’s game the Wigan fans sang “It’s just like watching Brazil” as for the first time in a long time we were outplayed at Turf Moor and gave up the ghost before the final whistle. This weekend when Hull come to town things will be different as sadly for their well pruned and over tanned manager Phil Brown the only thing that could ever be Brazilian about him is his pubic hair arrangement.

Hull will come to Burnley with their usual physical, get men behind the ball mantra and try to frustrate us. But unlike the last time the two sides met at Turf Moor under Steve Cotterill, Owen Coyle’s new look Claret’s are more than capable of putting this game to bed and stretching the gap between the two teams to seven points.

Both Burnley and Hull may have enjoyed similar fortunes over the last two years but one thing is for sure; neither side will want to end up back where the started in the Championship next season. As the clichéd six pointers go, we may only be a third of the way through the season but this game definitely has the feel of one.

Hoofball 3 Football 2

2009-11-04T06:58:00.000-08:00

Having been barely able to crack a smile since our derby day defeat on Sunday I've taken the time to digest exactly why we left Ewood Park with no points.

My conclusion? Well, that's pretty simple; Blackburn deserved their victory on the day. That's not because they outplayed us as a football side, instead they earned their victory in typical Sam Allardyce fashion. Rovers were simply more physical than Burnley, they pressed us better and picked up more of the second balls.

From the moment that Robbie Blake wonderstike hit the back of the net we were second best for the rest of the first half. We stood off Rovers, gifted them plenty of possession and handed them three goals.

Despite the Dunn equaliser and Chimbonda third being well worked moves, the ease at which we let it happen was laughable. It was almost like a training ground demo as we limply opened ourselves up.

In the build up to the second goal there was a foul on Stephen Jordan by Franco Di Santo that was missed by the referee which forced the Burnley fullback to obstruct the oncoming Brain Jensen. That incident aside, we hadn’t learnt from any of the lessons that lost us the game at Stoke as a side with exactly the same long ball and throws tactic punished our naivety once more.

In the second half we improved as the likes of Wade Elliot and Robbie Blake tried to get us playing the football we had come accustomed to. Sadly it just wasn’t happening for us and time and time again we needless gave the ball away.

The introduction of Chris Eagles helped as he immediately took the fight to Rovers. His cameo performances have been of a consistently high standard since the start of the season and must soon surely earn his place in the starting eleven. It was nice to see him show some fight and he deserved his last minute goal, even though it merely served to give the score-line a fairer reflection of the game. Kevin McDonald also did his claim for a starting berth no harm as he looked composed and assured when he was brought on for Andre Bikey.

Eagles post-match comments impressed me too, as our number 33 stated that on our day Rovers are no threat to us. And I’m with him on that; but the fact of the matter is we lost to an average side who, and it pains me to say this, looked like they wanted it more on the day. Let's just hope a defeat against our most fierce rivals will mean will we finally learn from our mistakes.

Despite our defeat I will always commend Owen Coyle and his team for at least trying to play football. For the most part we weren’t at the races on Suinday and let ourselves down; but I’d rather keep the ball on the floor and take the chance of our play not coming off than have our goalkeeper take free kicks on the half way line and lobbing every throw in thirty yards.

The East Lancashire derby part one may have been won by Blackburn; but until our chance to put things right at Turf Moor next March we’ll just take keeping ourselves above Blackburn in the league; starting with a win in our next local derby against Wigan on Saturday.

Bring on the Bastards

2009-11-04T06:57:00.002-08:00

It's here, the build up to the first Burnley Blackburn derby in four years is well under way, the first in the top flight for over forty years. This game was top of my list when the fixtures came out, the moment when we can finally face Rovers as fully fledged Premier League equals.

In the FA Cup clash of 2005 and the face offs in the Championship Rovers always had the financial edge with their Premier League bank balance and parachute payments. But none of that matters this time as Owen Coyle has assembled a squad that as a true football team can beat Blackburn on any day of the week.

Not being old enough to see the last Burnley win over Blackburn in 1979, my first real experience of the derby was back in the 2000/01 season where both sides met in the Championship. The “battle of Turf Moor” may have been lost but the sight of David Dunn being sent flying by Kevin Ball was a small moment to savour and has already been resvisited a few times on YouTube this week. The return game at Ewood saw us lose five nil in what was the most depressing journey home I’ve ever made from a game; whilst the FA Cup fifth round tie in 2005 saw us lose 2-1 despite a brilliant goal from Micah Hyde and some of the wildest celebrations over a single strike I’ve ever seen.

Stories from the distant past fill me with hope of what I could be experiencing come Sunday's final whistle. My favourite being a tale from the last time the two sides met in the top flight on New Years Day in 1966. Burnley won the game two nil in a victory that saw a Rovers fan being laid out by Burnley keeper Adam Blacklaw as he ran onto the pitch towards the Clarets’ stopper. Towards the end of that game, many will remember Ralph Coates cheekily sitting on the ball in the dying moments as Burnley cruised to victory. Those were happy moments shared by those slightly older than me, all I have is bitterness and resentment following the three defeats I’ve seen and I’m more than ready to taste our new moment of glory.

Prior to kick off next week the Burnley fans will have been bused into Ewood Park by the coach load. A lot has been said about the draconian police measures and loss of human rights etc that our fans must endure. I don’t want to say anymore about that, although I do feel sorry for any Claret not living locally who can’t make the game because of it. Sadly that’s the way it has to be for now and the game must take priority.

The compulsory coaches must now be used a positive and add to the atmosphere of the day. Three thousand Clarets traveling in convoy down the M65 into opposition territory will give us an edge. By the time the players arrive and are ready to warm up there may already be a stand full of clarets waiting for them in good voice in the Darwen End. For the Burnley players it will be a sign of encouragement and hopefully the sight Claret and Blue will add fear and take some of the edge off home advantage for the Rovers players.

The danger man for Blackburn will be David Dunn, who I can actually say without the need for gritted teeth that despite being a crock is a wonderful footballer; unfortunately for us, he is injury free and enjoying a good season playing in the hole.

Although, while I can point to Dunn, I can also look at more than one man in Claret and Blue who is likely to cause Rovers serious problems. If Wade Elliot can continue to drift into play like he did against Birmingham and pick the ball up in a variety of dangerous positions he will hurt Rovers. There’s also Steven Fletcher and David Nugent who are forging an exciting partnership and together will cause the Blackburn defence a whole host of problems. While who can forget our little magician Robbie Blake? In Blakey we have a player who can turn a game in an instant, particularly with his ability from set pieces. And oh how I’ve dreamt of a trademark Blake free kick winning this game for us.

The Andre Bikey and Graham Alexander partnership in midfield will hopefully add the steel we’ve been missing away from home and be more than enough to cope with Rover’s combative style. While the back five will all need to be at their best to deal with the long ball’s and throws that caused us problem in our opening day defeat to Stoke.

There is a slight worry that the referee won't be strong enough to withstand the home advantage and the ballaching of Big Sam, who whenever I've seen him speak would rather point to refereeing frailties than his sides defensive ones. Let’s just hope our attacking style can exploit plenty of the latter come Sunday.

An interesting stat sees Blackburn one victory ahead of us in terms of head to head clashes, something which doing the double over them this season would reverse nicely.

In the last couple of weeks Blackburn Rovers have released a t-shirt reminding their fans that they beat us five nil back in 2001. It’s apparently being sold alongside “a DVD called Bring On The Clarets, as part of a range called ‘get ready for the Clarets’.” While they may want to tell their fans what this game is all about for a very reasonable retail price, over at Turf Moor those gimmicks are not needed.

There’s no smugness or expectancy of an easy victory; all we have is a pure and unadulterated desire to put one over on our enemy and be the ones walking out of Ewood Park next Sunday as the best team in East Lancashire.

Owen Coyle's record breakers...again

2009-11-04T06:57:00.001-08:00

There's only one way to respond to a heavy defeat in any form of football and that's by winning your next game; for any side newly promoted to the Premier League it's all about that old soccer am coined phrase "bouncebackability" and that's exactly what Owen Colye's team showed on Saturday when Birmingham City came to town.

The only change saw Joey Gudjonsson drop out of the side to make way for the skipper Steven Caldwell in a move that saw Andre Bikey pushed into the middle of midfield. As the game began the players showed no ill effects of the 5-0 defeat to Spurs last weekend as they came flying out of the traps.

Birmingham had definitely come with the plan to try and frustrate us; Alex McLeish has built a team that is notoriously difficult to break down with a habit of nicking late goals. Sadly for their fans that's all they have to offer, perhaps that's why so few bothered to make the trip north to Turf Moor.

Burnley's first half probing saw no breakthrough as the blues defenders blocked everything in sight; including a couple of thunderbolts from Bikey. Nugent's shot from outside the box was the only effort of note as Joe Hart saved well. The away side also had their chances; confusion caused by a corner played out to Steven Carr left Lee Bowyer with the goal gaping as he somehow managed to miscue the ball away from goal.

As the half time whistle went the away following began to chant "4-4-2" in a misguided attempt to try and serenade their manager into ditching their policy of parking the bus. Sadly for them, their X Factor audition fell on deaf ears; although they did get changes in the form of Liam Ridgewell as a makeshift left back and the slightly more attacking Seb Larson, who was brought on to add abit of flair to the blue's drab midfield.

Before the oncoming pair had time to find their feet Burnley took the lead. Seven minutes into the second half Tyrone Mears quickly turned defence into attack as he broke from a Birmingham corner to find Steven Fletcher who drove forward before embarrassing Joe Hart to score his first official Premier League goal.

Minutes later Fletcher should've had his second as a beautifully lofted ball from Robbie Blake left the Scottish International one on one with Hart only for the ball to take an age to come back off the post. Turf Moor was once again rocking. It was only a matter of time before we got a second, Birmingham just couldn't cope with the pace of our game. Then came the move of the match, Andre Bikey skilful managed to make space before exchanging a perfect one two with Nugent before knocking the ball into the net past the oncoming Hart. A fantastic Burnley move and as Owen Coyle said, one that was worth the admission fee alone.

Birmingham's last kick of the game consolation couldn't even take the shine off a marvellous performance by Owen Coyle's team. The introduction of Andre Bikey into the middle paid dividends as once he got over a shaky first half due to his switch of position he grew and dominated the centre of the park along with Alexander throughout the second period. The added steel in that department along with the flawless return of skipper Steven Caldwell saw the spine of the team become much stronger than in previous weeks, allowing the likes of Wade Elliot, Steven Fletcher, David Nugent and Robbie Blake to play their natural inventive game.

The full backs are too playing their part, Stephen Jordan has proved all his doubters wrong with his consistency so far this term and Tyrone Mears, dominant in both defence and attack looks to be our signing of the summer. The Claret's right back definitely makes up for our lack of natural width on that flank with his tireless work rate.

At the Turf we continue to look very much at home in the Premier League and at this rate our survival party could be brought considerably forward from the last game of the season in May. If it was, it'd easily be a more debauched celebration than Simon Cowell's 50th. Who's betting that naked bloke in the car had something to do with Louis Walsh?

Saturday also saw us break the record for the number of straight home wins for a newly promoted side, one better than the landmark set by our neighbours Blackburn Rovers. And that's where we head next, to Ewood Park for the most anticipated game in years. Echo the cry with me, "Bring on the Bastards".

Mistakes cost Clarets dear

2009-09-28T04:53:00.000-07:00

Well our away form continued to resemble a retarded abacus against Spurs at the weekend. I'm sure by now even the most unfortunate of children will have mastered their first count to five as it's now a sequence of 2-0, 3-0, 4-0 and 5-0 defeats away from home in the league- if we're not careful that bastard kid will be doing the most complicated times tables by Christmas.

The only thing that's missing in the sequence so far is a one nil away beating, something which I think we'd have taken over the last couple of games away from Turf Moor.

There is no doubt that the Premier League offers us some almost inevitable defeats but the manner in which we lose will always be well within our control. In every match we play we always manage to get the ball down and play some of our trademark good football but that can’t be at the expense of some of the kamikaze defending we saw at the weekend.

As individuals we work hard enough away from home but it’s nothing like the well rounded team performances we see at the Turf. It just seems that despite our fair share of possession, the lack fire in the final third adds to the already considerable pressure being put on our goal.

There were of course chances on Saturday; Steven Fletcher had a perfectly good goal ruled offside to make it one nil, while Robbie Blake couldn’t squeeze in Cudicini’s fumble to get us back into the game at 3-0.

But at both points that’s where we crumbled and conceded killer goals to completely stunt our rhythm.

Elementary defensive mistakes are costing us dear and with the possible exception of Tottenham’s second which should have been a foul in the build up you can point to errors that should not be happening at the rate they are in almost every goal.

Away from home our backline is lacking communication, concentration and at times competence; we definitely need to hope that the skipper Steven Caldwell is fit enough to start sooner rather than later to inject some much needed leadership and organisation back into our defensive line.

The lack of protection they are receiving from the midfield is also seriously adding to our woes.

The hard working Gudjonsson played well on Saturday but again the trio of Joey, Elliot and Alexander played mainly as individuals and not as a unit which left gaping holes for Spurs to surge through and pick more holes in our already leaky defence.

Out wide it seems Steven Fletcher is screaming out to be played down the middle on a more regular basis, while as much as I love Robbie Blake he will always be hit and miss depending on whether he receives enough of the ball high up the pitch to make an impact.

I’m still banging the Chris Eagles drum for him to be given a start in a bid to freshen things up. In one or two positions there is some real competition for places, but it can only be called that if the players knocking on the door are given their opportunity to impress; and as things currently stand Eagles is deserving of that chance.

There have been calls for a change of tactic on our travels but I’m not sure how else we could set up that would offer a better way of protecting the back four and competing with the opposition. Maybe a traditional 4-4-2 (not the one we flitted between at the weekend) would allow us to play further up the pitch, especially with the neat touches and hold up play offered by the likes of Steven Fletcher and David Nugent. That approach is always a tricky one in the modern game, especially looking our previous opponents Spurs, Liverpool and Chelsea who can play from back to front with such devastating pace and power.

We can’t be too disheartened though, although nobody likes to be hammered, the start we’ve had is still better than anything we could ever have imagined. The lack of an away point or goal will come but we must make sure its sooner rather than later as we can’t afford pin all our hopes on what is so far our superb home form. We need to learn our lessons much faster and make sure we give ourselves a chance in football matches away from Turf Moor; especially with that trip to Ewood Park ever looming.

Nugent is most definitely a claret

2009-09-20T06:11:00.001-07:00

Oh, the joys of waking up on a Sunday morning with the incomparable feeling of another three points towards our survival. Our first Saturday win in the Premier League also saw us score more than once for the first time this campaign and turned a once hated figure into a new Claret and Blue hero.

Owen Coyle fairly decided against making changes to the side that has started every game since winning our opening home game against Manchester United giving the eleven chance to answer some nonsense written about them following the whitewashings against Chelsea and Liverpool.

For the majority of the first half it felt like the players were still reliving their ordeals at Stamford Bridge and Anfield as they looked nervous and shaky. Sunderland looked the much better side and took the game to us with neat and incisive play from the likes of Malbranque, Reid, Bent and Richardson.

Despite their early dominance it was the Clarets who made the breakthrough as an Alexander through ball was met by Elliot before he was met by the Ferdinand brother they should’ve kept locked in the basement as Anton clumsily felled the Burnley number 11.

Up stepped Alexander who struck the ball decisively down the middle of Craig Gordon’s goal from the penalty spot. But not even the goal advantage could kick start the Clarets into life as Sunderland pressed and pressed and continued to look extremely threatening.

Our centre backs looked far too casual with Bikey in particular wanting too much time on the ball. Finally we were punished for it as Carlisle failed to step up leaving Darren Bent onside and with plenty of space to pick his spot and coolly slot the ball past the Beast to draw the scores level.

Something was need in the second half if we were to keep Sunderland from taking the ascendancy and we got it in the form of an Owen Coyle team talk. In the second period we began to look more composed and show we could match the Makem’s mix of nice football and physical presence.

Then came Coyle’s masterstroke as the pair probably unluckiest not to start the game Nugent and Eagles were both brought onto the field within minutes of each other. In between their introductions Steve Bruce went all out for the win as he introduced the giant Kenwyne Jones to the action for Malbranque. This opened up the game in the Claret’s favour as Sunderland deployed Frazier Campbell as a makeshift right winger.

Nugent began to have much more of an impact at leading the line than Paterson as he began to make life hard for Ferdinand and Turner by winning the arial battle. Eagles also thundered into the match as he time and time again tore into George McCartney down the Burnley right. The tide was very much beginning to turn.

Then came Nugent’s moment as he started and finished the first of his two wonderfully worked goals. A perfect cushioned header found Eagles who zipped down the line before linking up with the overlapping Mears who touched the ball back for Elliot who delivered an exceptionally inviting cross for Nugent to head home and finish a fantastic Burnley move.

Then with five minutes to spare came his second, a wonderful run from the excellent Elliot was delivered wide to Mears who found the feet of Nugent, only for our new hero to turn and guide the ball into the top corner. Game over- insert coin.

The performance from England one day international was the perfect way to silence the doubters who still see him as a Preston player. Like Alexander, there is no doubt that Nugent is now a Claret.

It was great to see a player so shot of confidence at Portsmouth play with a smile on his face again and enjoy his football. You could tell he loved being back out on the pitch and looked back to the cocksure figure we all loved to hate during his PNE days as he cheekily put linesman flag for a corner after his chasing down failed to win a Burnley corner. Credit Owen Coyle with restoring his confidence in such as short space of time, it just shows what telling a player like Nugent what a good player he is can do.

But it wasn’t just the David Nugent show; all over the pitch we looked confident once we settled into our footballing rythem. Right down the spine of the team we looked solid in the second half, while we are beginning to see some good partnerships forming all over the pitch. Mears and Eagles look promising down the right while the understanding between Blake and Jordan on the left is paying dividends.

A perfect home record was capped off by another sensational win. The good times continue to roll, who can remember the last time an England International scored the winner for Burnley at Turf Moor? Answers on a postcard.

Home is where the heart is

2009-09-16T06:21:00.001-07:00

When in my last piece I spoke of Anfield being a footballing church I didn't expect to be welcomed by the Liverpool fans with a hastily arranged special Saturday service.
Prior to kick off the reds fans roared to their hymn Never Walk Alone which led me to believe that both sets of fans were going to contribute to a fantastic atmosphere. But while the Claret's played their part they were pretty much subdued for the whole ninety minutes despite the 4-0 scoreline. I'm not even sure Emmanuel Adebayor could've got them going.
I truly believe fans in the higher echelons of the Premier League are spoilt and almost can’t be bothered unless it’s a top four clash or a so called “great European night”. I just hope the Debrecen supporters making the trip from Hungary tonight aren’t overly expectant about the Anfield experience.
Unlike their fans, the Liverpool players were excellent and just like Chelsea two weeks earlier showed us exactly what being in the Premier League is all about. In our wins against Manchester United and Everton were we the team that harassed and closed down forcing our opponents into simple errors, but this time we were played at our own game by a tremendous high tempo Liverpoool.
Our midfield were never in the game as Gerrard, Kuyt, Beneyoun and Lucas tore us to shreds while our under the cosh defence understandably succumbed to some sloppy errors.
The great relief after the game was that we were heading back to sanctuary of Turf Moor after two away drubbings against two of the Premier League’s best. Although Sunderland look a good side, it’s against teams like them that we need to pick up points.
Barring Tottenham at the Lane, the next six games represent a real opportunity to add to our already impressive points tally. October pits us against Birmingham, Wigan and Hull City at the fortress while there is also our long awaited trip to Ewood Park that can’t come quick enough.
Some on the phone-ins and messageboards have unbelievably begun to criticise Coyle and call for drastic changes to the team and his tactics. I’m not sure how that’s possible given our last two opponents and I’m quite sure no matter what personnel or formation we’d have applied the results would’ve been almost identical.
There are one or two players though perhaps pushing for a starting berth, Chris Eagles looked hungry and up for the fight when he was introduced at Anfield while its only a matter of time until new signing David Nugent gets his first start after also looking impressive from the bench last weekend.
But whatever eleven starts against Sunderland on Saturday the game represents our chance to really push on and cement our place in the middle of the table for the next month or so. But for the moment I’m just happy to get back to the Turf and hopefully watching us getting a touch of the ball.

Claret's Honeymoon just won’t end

2009-09-02T09:57:00.001-07:00

Thank God for the International break. Prior to the fixtures coming out I was informed by her indoors that I was required to escort her to a friends wedding this coming weekend, my immediate thoughts were one of dread as to which Burnley game I’d be forced to miss. Thankfully an England Slovenia friendly stepped in and allowing me to enjoy the use of the overpriced four start hotel to its maximum.

Although for the price of sitting in a Turkish Sauna this weekend, seven days earlier I could’ve shelled out for an overdraft busting ticket at Stamford Bridge to watch us play Chelsea.

Unable to head south to watch our 3-0 defeat by Carlo Ancelotti’s men due to work commitments I instead had to settle for the fantastic coverage on ESPN (now that’s brand loyalty for you).

The game was probably a perfect example of what most Claret’s expected our previous games against Manchester United and Everton to be like as the Blues dominated from start to finish.

Thankfully our previous point gaining performances at the Turf meant this game was an easy one to write off and forget about as we had lost to a team which look like they could be this years worthy Champions. Although, just wait until we rock the boat when the cocksure Londoners visit fortress Turf Moor at the end of January.

As the weekend ended, thoughts turned to any last minute deadline day deals that might happen. No big deals were touted which led to the sorry lack of any Sky Sports News reporters standing outside the Turf pretending to receive texts from players who were not actually about to sign.

Hull striker Daniel Cousin was heavily tipped to come in on loan and it was a surprise to both us and him when the deal fell through. Poor old Cousin had already stated his elation at sealing a move to play for Owen Coyle whilst also branding his current manager Phil Brown “bizarre and illogical” in the process. Maybe he has a point Phil?

But the real surprise came just after five o’clock when news filtered through that England’s all time leading goal-hanger and former Preston hero David Nugent had signed on a six month loan deal.

The North End fans sobbed that their prodigal son was not returning home to Deepdale as he instead choose to shack up with his new Claret and Blue mistress down the road.

So far opinion seems to be split on Nugent, for years he was the cocky figurehead for all our ill feeling towards the Knob Enders but secretly I think most admired him for being one of the Championship’s stand-out players.

Some have lambasted him for not being a natural finisher- but unfortunately you don’t get natural Premier League goal scorers on loan from Portsmouth.

To be fair to him he never got a fair crack of the whip at Pompey and should be hungry to prove all his doubters wrong. What we are getting is a very good player who will add to the versatility of our squad playing either up front or in the wide positions currently occupied by the likes of Robbie Blake and Steven Fletcher. More options in the attacking third of the field is what we need and with Nugent’s hold up play, work ethic and vision for me he is very much a welcome edition to Owen Coyle’s squad.

Following this weekend’s watching of declarations of holy matrimony will be a trip to the footballing Church of Anfield. Given the Red’s shaky start to the season it is most definitely a game we’re not writing off and we’ll be looking to show people that our Premier League honeymoon is definitely not over just yet.

Clarets swallow toffees

2009-08-26T07:45:00.000-07:00

as posted on http://blogs.soccernet.com/burnley/

This Premier League business isn't bad is it? Two wins in a week at the Turf has transformed our reputation amongst the rest of the country from relegation certainties to well, relegation possibilities. The shift may be minimal but at least we're getting some of the respect we deserve.

Anyone who dismissed Wednesday’s win against Manchester United as a fluke will now hopefully be feeling as red faced as a merlot induced Sir Alex Ferguson. Although these naysayers will probably still be branding our wins as lucky due to excuses such as United’s failure to find their flow following the departure of the heavily relied upon Cristiano Ronaldo or the upheaval caused at Everton by Manchester City's harassment of Joleon Lescott.

The Toffees rolled up at the Turf again without Lescott, who it was rumoured was over at Eastlands having a medical. Although, even if the two clubs’ hadn't reached an agreement over his transfer I'm sure the now released Lockerbie Bomber would've been a more favourable choice at centre half for David Moyes; instead he plumped for the less popular Phil Neville to play alongside Joseph Yobo.

The unchanged Clarets got off to a storming start with Martin Paterson hitting the bar within forty seconds before Tim Howard kept out Fletcher's follow up. The chances kept on coming, Wade Elliot tested Howard, there was another glorious chance for Paterson who failed to glance a header home from six yards out, while Fletcher snatched at a volley. The football was fluent as we kept pressurising Everton's backline, enjoying unrelenting success down the flanks.

The volume inside Turf Moor was once again intensely deafening as we roared the Clarets on to take more Premier League blood.

After thirty four minutes the breakthrough came as Everton's failure to deal with another cross from the left hand side led to Steven Fletcher laying the ball back to Wade Elliot who guided the ball into the corner of the Everton net from the edge of the box. Goal! Another Burnley screamer, another of the league’s top side on the ropes.

At half time all the talk in the concourse was of how we were the better side and deserved to be more than one goal ahead. An Everton onslaught was expected in the second forty-five but in truth it never really came.

There was of course the dubious penalty won by Britain's new diving hope for London 2012 Tony Hibbert. Louis Saha stepped up for the resulting spot kick and well and truly fluffed his lines; it was like watching Michael Carrick on crack.

Despite the likes of Pienaar and Osman looking bright in possession they were more than matched by our full backs. The impressive Jack Rodwell was by far Everton's best player; it's just a shame for them that he played the holding role in midfield. The frustration was there to see as the likes of Cahill and Fellaini gave away needless free-kicks is they struggled to make an impact.

Burnley's work ethic combined with their willingness to get the ball down on the floor once again paid dividends as we out-battled and out-played Everton. Andre Bikey already looks the signing of the season as his strength, composure and leadership qualities helped ensure a second clean sheet in a week for Owen Coyle's men. There were of course some nervy moments towards the end but we held out to take another vital three points in our quest for survival.

The final whistle saw our elevation to seventh in the Premier League. We may only be three games in but what an achievement by everyone in Claret and Blue so far. And what makes the past week even sweeter? Blackburn Rovers sitting down at the bottom of the league without a single point.

Burnley 1-0 Man Utd: Time warp at Turf Moor

2009-08-26T07:44:00.000-07:00

Read the score line again and savour the moment. For ninety minutes on Wednesday night Turf Moor was back in the swinging sixties as Burnley Football Club revisited its glory years.

Owen Coyle has inspired his team to some great nights over the past year, the cup wins over Chelsea and Arsenal, the performance in the second leg of the Carling Cup Semi Final against Spurs, the playoff victories over Reading and our Wembley promotion; but this was to surpass them all.

Every route to Turf Moor was jammed with Claret as the pubs, chippies and street sellers all benefited from the pre match expectancy that filled the air.

Inside the ground Claret and Blue was represented on all four sides of Turf Moor for the first time in years, the pitch was in pristine condition, whilst the players sported their vintage kit complete with the championship winning badge of the 59/60 season and hooped socks.

A glance at the betting coupon gave us little chance of even scoring a goal never mind getting a result. Not that anyone cared, as fans we were just happy to be rubbing shoulders with Manchester United as equals in the Premier League.

Coyle made one change to the side that lost at Stoke, in came new signing Bikey while there was a slight tweaking of the midfield and forward line.

Many fans pointed in awe as the likes of Rooney, Giggs and Owen lined up before kick off. I think it’s fair to say the players were in no similar mindset as they pressed and harried their superstar opponent’s right from the first whistle.

Eighteen minutes in came Robbie Blake's wonder strike. As the ball dropped from Evra's defensive header Blake struck a thunderbolt straight past Ben Foster who could hardly have seen it fly past him. Ecstasy ensued, as the whole place went wild, a real hug a stranger moment.

We're getting used to seeing stunning goals whilst watching Burnley. The last four competitive goals we've seen have been beauties. Paterson and Thompson's against Reading, Elliott's at Wembley and our first Premier League strike courtesy of Blake have all been worthy of winning any game. Its official, wonder goals are the new tap-ins.

Then just before half time came another familiar sight; heroics from Brian Jensen. Bizarrely Michael Carrick stepped up to take Ronaldo's role as United's penalty taker after Blake had upended Evra. Saved. The Beast does it again. And throughout the night he did it again and again and again as the Great Dane bravely thwarted United's attackers several times to preserve the unlikeliest of clean sheets.

United may have lacked cutting edge but take nothing away from the players of Burnley Football Club who throughout the ninety minutes gave their all for the team.

The back four of Mears, Bikey, Carlisle and Jordan were superb, putting their heads and bodies in front of everything United had to offer. In midfield Elliott, McCann and Alexander were not fazed one bit as they competed all night against the guile of Carrick and Giggs. Blake and Fletcher were impeccable out wide, taking the pressure off by helping us keep the ball further up the field whilst also tracking back admirably. Paterson a lone figure up front kept running all night giving the likes of Wes Brown and Johnny Evans a torrid time.

As the game progressed nervy movements followed, how many times have we seen United come back in this sort of game before? On came big hitters like Berbatov and Valencia whilst Gary Neville also took to the field. But it wasn't to be as even a surprisingly short four minutes of Sir Alex Ferguson stoppage time wasn't enough for the visitors to forge a breakthrough.

As Turf Moor rocked towards the final whistle the realisation came that these really are our new glory years. Not since 1968 have we beaten Manchester United in the league and now these days are back as the illustrious history of Burnley Football Club continues under the guidance of Owen Coyle and Chairman Barry Kilby.

Survival is most definitely a real possibility as long as we can keep Turf Moor the fortress that saw off the champions of England.

Last night produced one of the great nights at Turf Moor as the Clarets announced to everyone around the world that they really are Premier League.

Nil points but Burnley are most definietly back

2009-08-16T05:57:00.000-07:00

Well our Premier League debut may well have produced no points but there were lots of pleasing aspects to take away from yesterday’s performance at the Britannia.

Despite being rattled by Stoke’s arial bombardment, when we managed to bring the ball down from its lofty position we looked threatening and definitely produced the more attractive display.

Then again, we all knew what to expect from Tony Pulis and his team. The dull tactic of Rory Dealp’s long throws and their ability to force fouls high up the pitch gave them plenty of opportunities to put pressure on our penalty box.

But credit to them, they may be a one trick pony but it’s most definitely a worth while one; I’m just glad I don’t have to watch it every week.

The long throws in particular left us flustered during the first period which led to panic setting in; poor judgements and elementary mistakes followed, as did the two nil deficit.

But despite going two goals down in what was a fairly even first half we didn’t panic and kept to our principles of playing the ball and looking to pick the holes in the Stoke backline.

Wade Elliot in particular stuck to the task with a tremendous display of skill and endeavour while record signing Steven Fletcher looked the real deal with his neat touches, hold up play and intelligent runs.

All that was lacking was an end product, something which without compromising our style or 20 million pounds worth of centre forward might be a struggle this season.

Every player that took to the field put a shift in to make every one of the noisy claret contingent that made the trip to witness the historic moment of seeing Burnley back in the Premier League proud.

An impressive cameo from Fernando Guerrero was especially pleasing on the eye, especially as he’d come straight from recording an episode of Different Strokes. The tiny Ecuadorian weaved his magic and looked dangerous as we pressed for a late break through.

Despite finding it tough against the rough and tumble of Stoke I think we more than proved we are capable of getting results at this level. Against more open teams than a well organised, disciplined Stoke we will get a breakthrough.

Some in the press may have already buried our chances of Premier League survival but those who walked away from the Britannia yesterday will know that if we can keep playing in the same positive manner then points will come our way.

Starting with Manchester United on Wednesday anyone?

The waiting's over

2009-08-14T06:33:00.000-07:00

It’s strange to think that when the Premier League was formed on the 20th February 1992 that Burnley were well on their way to being crowned champions of the old division four. Since then promotions under Jimmy Mullen, Stan Ternent and Owen Coyle have brought us to the present day, where we’re all but 24 hours away from opening our campaign as Premier League Burnley Football Club.

The transformation has been remarkable, seven years prior to winning the league in ’92 we were a game against Leyton Orient away from dropping out of the Football League completely. And now tomorrow, 83 days after sealing promotion at Wembley our newest top flight chapter begins away at Stoke after a 33 year absence.

While not screaming of Premier League glamour the Potters are instead a familiar old foe from throughout our history, which most recently have been our shared days in the Championship and the old division two.

Owen Coyle began his management of the club with a goalless draw against Stoke at the Turf back in November 2007, while many Claret’s will still have Ally Pickering’s wonder strike in a 4-1 victory at the Britannia which virtually assured our Division Two status during Stan Ternent’s first season in the Turf Moor hot-seat firmly etched in the memory.

One hundred and one years earlier at the end of the 1897/98 season a game between the two founder members of the football league resulted in the introduction of today’s familiar automatic promotion/relegation system. This was after a “Test Match” playoff between first division Stoke and second division Burnley ended goalless in a game described as “the match without a shot at goal”.

Expect no similar stalemate tomorrow as Owen Coyle brings his exciting and open brand of football to England’s top flight. There is no doubt that Burnley will not settle to make up the numbers in the Premier League, our manager insists he will stick to getting the ball down on the floor and attacking the opposition.

The squad that finished last season has been boosted by record signing Steven Fletcher who has been brought down from Scotland to get us goals, while the exciting Fernando Guerrero will assist the likes of Robbie Blake, Chris Eagles, Wade Elliot and Chris McCann in creating them.

Meanwhile other summer incumbents Richard Eckersley, Brian Easton and David Edgar will add youth and exuberance to the backline, while Tyrone Mears at 26 will bring a tad of experience. There is also the prospective transfer of Cameroon giant Andre Bikey from Reading who, if it goes through, will add steel to what a times can look a shaky backline.

Given this, it’s unsurprising that the lack of centre half cover is our main worry for tomorrow’s opener. With Michael Duff and David Edgar already unavailable, skipper Steven Caldwell is now described as a “massive doubt” due to a groin injury picked up in his midweek exploits with Scotland.

Even with Caldwell’s unlikely presence Stoke’s direct style of play will be difficult for us to match. An impressive 12th place finish last season was achieved by a footballing blitzkrieg; when Tony Pulis wasn’t content with his players hoofing long balls into the opponent’s box, Rory Delap was given the task of lobbing them in with his monstrous throw-ins. Either way, their arial assaults were fierce and clinical in nature, especially with the likes of James Beattie waiting to punish opposition defences.

Another thing Stoke have in their favour is their fans. With regular 28,000 sell outs at the Britannia last season, the club’s faithful has done the commendable job of transforming one of football’s new builds into an intimidating caldron of noise, a throwback to the atmosphere of the terraces.

We are under no illusions that there will be no easy games this season; thirty eight cup finals await before our day of destiny next May.

Nobody would have thought that after a 4-1 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday on the opening day of last season that 60 games later we’d have been dancing out of Wembley as Play off Champions. So win, lose or draw tomorrow it will be an incredibly proud moment to see the players of Burnley Football Club take to the pitch tomorrow back in the big time.

Place your bets now

2009-08-14T06:31:00.000-07:00

As a Burnley fan there were many chances to win a bit of extra pocket money by betting on the team last season.

While the squad were busy earning promotion to the Premier League and reaching the Carling Cup Semi Final, seeing off Arsenal and Chelsea along the way, those with an eye for a bet (and the spare money) were able to cash in on our success at the bookmakers.

Although that wasn’t the case for me, while not a natural in the field of betting I’m also as skint as a post divorce Ray Parlour.

I have tried my hand at all sorts with little to no success in the past, punting on the likes of football, horse racing, greyhounds, cricket, rugby, darts and dancing on ice; all of the worlds major sporting events.

However it was the reintroduction of the in-ground betting shacks at Turf Moor that reignited my interest last season. A pre match pint whilst picking out which Claret would score first became a regular feature of my pre match build up in the Bob Lord. In the whole season I won once; it was Chris McCann who stuck me gold (about £13.50) when he thumped in a header on five minutes against leaders Wolves on Valentines Day, needless to say where my winnings went.

Those that stuck twenty or thirty quid on getting out of the Championship certainly paid for their promotion party beer money once or twice over. Although monetary reward for the best season of watching Burnley Football Club in my lifetime would have been no bonus, instead I think I’d have used the money to kit out a few of Burnley’s homeless in full replica kit whilst giving them enough cash to secure themselves a meat and potato pie and a Bovril.

With our first Premier League campaign now just under two weeks away I’ve decided to place two wagers. Given my betting history I’m not entirely sure why, probably because the wait for the season is killing me plus I haven’t written an article on here for a while and think it will make a half decent feature (for those of you that have don’t have faiths that denounce betting anyway).

So here are my punts.

1) Burnley to avoid relegation from the Premier League.
2) Burnley to finish above Blackburn in the table.

I think these two, along with doing the double over Rovers would be the ultimate wishes of any fellow Burnley fans over the coming season.

We know that our finances compared with the rest of the league are for the most part incomparable, but what we do have is our work ethic and undoubted team spirit that may carry us through to safety.

Looking at our rivals also fills me with some confidence; we have shown we’re more than capable of competing with our promotion rivals Wolves and Birmingham. I doubt Hull City will be a force, especially with the way their goateed, perma-tanned manger Phil Brown has been behaving, offering himself to Premiership strikers in a manner that would make the sluttiest of wannabe WAGS blush. Portsmouth seem to be in financial meltdown and are having to sell players left, right and centre-forward to survive. Archetypal hoofers Blackburn and Stoke will be hit and miss, while Roberto Martinez’s Wigan may suffer from a post Steve Bruce lull while they adapt to a different style of play. And that’s just a few of the candidates, Bruce’s new club Sunderland may falter, while West Ham and Fulham will find it difficult to emulate last seasons successes and who can forget Spurs, who will probably be bottom until Christmas.

This morning I purchased my tickets for our season opener away at Stoke which made our return to the Promised Land feel even more real. The excitement is building to what will be one hell of a season. If we don’t stay up it will still have been an unforgettable ride; but if we do, I’m sure you’ll help me in making Burnley a place where even the tramps wear Claret and Blue.

Beverley Hills Clarets

2009-07-17T02:30:00.000-07:00

Around ten days ago thousands flocked to L.A to witness a memorial for the King of Pop Michael Jackson. Today expect to see a few less well wishers as the players and staff of Burnley Football Club arrive in the City of Angels for their pre season tour.

The Clarets head stateside for the second year running hoping to recapture some of the American magic that helped them earn promotion to the Premier League last season.

Three preseason games await Owen Coyle’s men, they play VC Fusion, a rumoured behind closed doors match with David Beckham’s LA Galaxy before heading to Oregon to take on the Portland Timbers. I'm sure there may even be time to throw down some jumpers for goalposts and take on a Bloods and Crips XI.

Prior to arriving at LAX the team has already played two friendlies in the less impressive backdrops of Bradford and Morecambe.

A win and a loss from these two encounters has done the trick of loosening a few muscles and sweating out that promotion party booze.

The new boys also got their first taste of wearing Claret and Blue with record signing Steven Fletcher in particular looking sharp, showing several nice touches, intelligent runs and an eye for goal.

In the meantime the squad has also been taking shape; young defenders Brain Easton and Richard Ekersley have joined from Hamilton and Manchester United respectively to take the last couple of seats on the plane.

Owen Coyle has promised more; the Marcus Tudgay saga rumbles on with Sheffield Wednesday getting all menopausal about letting him go despite being in the last year of his contract. Trailists are also being touted with 19-year-old Ecuador international Fernando Guerrero apparently linking up with us in the USA.

With temperatures hitting the mid seventies (in L.A not Morecambe), the boys are in for a tough workout as our day in the sun gets ever closer. Let’s just hope our trip will be far more successful than when Jordan and Peter headed stateside.

The glitz and glamour of Los Angeles could provide the perfect prelude to our Premier League inauguration.

Just don’t expect to read about Chris Eagle’s getting off with Paris Hilton in the glossys anytime soon.

First posted on http://blogs.soccernet.com/burnley/ on 16/7/2009.

Owen Coyle's record breakers

2009-07-02T08:10:00.000-07:00

What a marvellous couple of days for Burnley Football Club.

Owen Coyle has once again continued his good work in the transfer market by bringing in three players.

The club's transfer record was smashed on Tuesday as Steven Fletcher made the trip down from bonny Scotland to put pen to paper on his three million pound transfer.

The fee doubles the reported price paid for both Martin Paterson and Chris Eagles last summer, meaning that if the BBC’s Record Breakers was still on the telly then Owen Coyle’s transfer kitty could’ve become a regular feature for the likes of Ronald Regan Jr, Linford Christie and Kris Akabusi to lament about.

Maybe they should bring it back; surely there is a whole host of talent out there that could front it; perhaps Dwain Chambers, Peaches Geldoff or Michael Jackson’s doctor could do the honours?

Anyways back to events at the Turf.

First to ink his Claret’s contract was Tyrone Mears making him Burnley’s first ever Premier League signing.

At half a million pounds Mears looks a steal, a right back of great ability who possesses the undoubted pace and power that we ultimately lack as a Premier League outfit.

Big money transfers from Preston to West Ham and then from the Boleyn Ground to Derby County shows that he is a player who has been highly valued and sought after. As does Marseille’s desperation to keep him, apparently offering over double our offer as a last ditch effort to secure his services permanently.

There is no doubt that Mears comes with a little baggage. He spectacularly fell out with his old Derby boss Paul Jewell and snuck off to meet the French club’s officials after the Rams decided to turn down their offer of a trial and loan deal for the player.

Such was Mear’s desperation to get away from the scouse Ron Jeremy he apparently climbed through a window in order to crawl past his manager’s office at Derby's training ground to collect his boots before legging it across the channel.

I’m surprised Jewell didn’t give chase in his shag-mobile forcing our Tyrone to bunk down in a HGV posing as a shin-pad wearing asylum seeker in an attempt to escape the clutches of the evil porn star.

Long before all this malarkey the right back decided to switch the name on the back of his Preston shirt from the customary surname to his nickname “Tye”. This unsavoury incident left him looking more like a second rate hip hop artist than a professional footballer.

But now all that’s behind him and he comes to Turf Moor older and hopefully wiser.

Even though injury meant Mears only made a handful of appearances for Marseille, the change in lifestyle will hopefully have been a positive influence on him.

The best thing about this signing is that “Tye” has something to prove. His spells in the Premier League, particularly with West Ham, haven’t been a great success and at 26 now must show he is able to play in the world’s top division.

We must also commend his keenness to get to the club, cutting short his holiday in Marbella to complete the deal.

As the day rolled on, more was to come. News filtered through that Hibernian had given us permission to speak with Steven Fletcher and that he was at Turf Moor ready to discuss terms and complete his medical.

Before the day was out the 22 year old signed a four year deal and became the club’s new record signing.

Like Martin Paterson before him, Fletcher comes with a reputation of being a hard worker and a talented finisher. The Scottish International who has been capped four times by his country and netted over fifty times for Hib’s has also been linked with a plethora of top clubs during his relatively short career, including Real Madrid.

The fans north of the border seem to love him and explain that his less than prolific season last time out was down to their manager’s long ball, unattractive style of play. Given this, his game should fit in nicely with the open and attacking philosophy employed by Coyle.

There is no doubt that he is not the finished article but neither are we as a team and a season in the Premier League will give Fletcher and fellow young guns Martin Paterson, Chris McCann, Chris Eagles, Jay Rodriguez, Kevin McDonald and our third signing of the week David Edgar a chance to develop in English football’s top flight.

Edgar joined on Wednesday from Newcastle with Owen Coyle circling the Fog on the Tyne to pick the bones from a great big Geordie carcass.

Another defensive option at centre half or right back, the twenty two year old known for his leadership skills will add youth and vibrancy to our back line.

The Canadian burst on the scene at St James Park last season with a debut goal against Manchester United; and with him suspended for our season opener at Stoke, lightening could definitely strike twice when the champions arrive at Turf Moor on August 17th.

So what a great week for new arrivals as our Premier League squad begins to take shape; but it sounds as if Owen Coyle is not done yet with reports this morning suggesting Hamilton youngsters James McCarthy and Brian Easton are next on his shopping list.

As the season approaches I’ve no doubt that the Owen Coyle revolution will roll on and continue to try and break records, whether Kris Akabusi and co care or not.

Originally posted on http://blogs.soccernet.com/burnley/

I heart Graham Alexander

2009-06-29T05:51:00.000-07:00

I used to hate Graham Alexander.

When I say hate, I mean the immoderate pantomime loathing reserved for players who associate themselves with Preston North End. You know, the type that makes you shout out things like “Alexander you knob” every time he ran by.

But “Grezza” wasn’t just another Preston player; he was North End’s captain supreme and goalscoring fullback.

He chose Deepdale over Turf Moor in 1999 and then went on to become epitome of everything that was good about Preston who were consistently just doing a little bit better than us.

They finished Champions of Division Two as we snatched second place on the last day of the 1999/2000 season and from then on finished higher than us in the Championship table more often than not.

During that nine year spell Alexander became Preston’s longest serving player and bagged 52 goals.

Admit it; you hated him too didn’t you?

But now I love Graham Alexander.

When I say love, I mean as far as one heterosexual man can go without crossing the great big pink line. You know, the firm gentleman’s handshake, the purchasing of a pint and then maybe a quick kiss on the cheek?

My feelings changed on one Wednesday late in August 2007 when the Scottish International turned up at Turf Moor having signed a two year contract.

Two hundred thousand pounds was paid to Preston for his services. At the time it was seen more as getting one over on our rivals, a bit like having it off with Jordan and then sending Peter Andre the video. It was priceless fun, excuse the pun.

“A captain, a leader and a winner” is how Steve Cotterill described the club’s newest incumbent of the number 2 shirt.

And he brought all that and more. Arguably the best of Cotterill’s signings (probably on a par with Robbie Blake coming back to the Turf) Alexander was eventually utilised fully by Owen Coyle in the centre of the park and added grit, steel and composure to the Clarets midfield.

During our promotion winning season Alexander was exceptional, perfecting the holding role and playing almost every minute of every game. The thirty seven year old was able to break up play and let players like Chris McCann and Wade Elliot get forward and express themselves.

If that wasn’t enough the world’s greatest penalty taker bagged a total of ten goals, mostly from the spot, including a key spot kick in the first leg against Reading at the Turf.

A true professional, Alexander is the perfect example of what makes a great Scottish International- he’s English.

Our promotion at Wembley ended a personal hoodoo for Alexander, it was seventh time lucky for him in May as he was finally promoted through the playoffs following three semi final and three final defeats.

He also managed to end that irritating curse I mentioned earlier, as it is now Burnley that are doing better than Preston. And not just slightly better either.

Now having signed a new one year deal at the club, Alexander’s experience will once again be vital next season.

After everything we’ve been through during our blossoming love affair over the last two seasons it looks like our relationship is ready to go to the next level; from the chastity ringed Championship to the erotically charged Premier League.

Originally posted on: http://blogs.soccernet.com/burnley/

Coyle is Claret's most important fixture

2009-06-20T04:10:00.000-07:00

This Premier League stuff isn’t bad is it?

In the last few weeks Burnley’s name has been added the Premier League section of various websites whilst looking at the new league table certainly makes for hours of entertaining reading.

If things aren’t strange enough already then look at me; A Burnley Premier League blogger.

Things got even better up on cloud nine this week when the fixtures came out.

A quick glance at the opening few games saw us pitting our wits against four of the leagues top five clubs last season. Following our season opener at Stoke its then games against Manchester United, Everton, Chelsea and Liverpool. Talk about a baptism of fire.

But this is what being in English football’s top flight is all about. The games may be tough but it’s certainly a much better option than the trips to Peterborough, Doncaster and Barnsley that we could’ve been facing.

Last season saw us come out of August with two league points and one goal scored so it won’t be a complete disaster if we were to come out of our opening fixtures with little to show from them.

As ever we will be hoping for Owen Coyle’s team to beat the bookies and pick up a few surprise results; and with Manchester United and Everton notorious slow starters in previous seasons who knows?

More realistically we will all be earmarking games we think we can win, most notably against teams like Wigan, Hull, Stoke, Blackburn, Birmingham and Wolves

October in particular is a month in which we could rocket up the form table with games against four of those teams including our most fierce rivals Blackburn.

Not being old enough to witness a Clarets victory over the “bastards” the games on the 17th October and 27th March at Ewood Park and Turf Moor respectively are a mouth watering prospect.

There has however been the sour taste of defeat during Rover’s relegation seasons in the Championship. This time though it feels like we are more evenly matched, we certainly play the better football than Big Sam’s men and hopefully can finally put one over on our six fingered East Lancashire adversaries.

Perhaps the greatest fixture of all was revealed when Owen Coyle announced that he was definitely a permanent one at Turf Moor having signed his new deal this week. There is little need for me to heap yet more superlatives on our Master of Universe, his record speaks for itself and to be quite frank, I’ve already used every delightfully praising adjective I can find in the bloody dictionary.

If we are to survive in the Premier League we will need Coyle’s craft to carefully add to a team that refuses to accept defeat. The defence certainly needs beefing up, however it seems that it’s the other end of the pitch that we could be strengthening first.

A bid of over a million pounds for Swansea striker Jason Scotland has reportedly been made and turned down. The Trinidadian is certainly a handful and has bagged plenty of goals during his time in England. Concerns have been raised over whether he’ll be able to make the step up and at 30 isn’t the type of player that the board suggested we’d be signing. On the other hand I think he’d certainly have an impact and would be a decent acquisition at the right price.

While all the transfer dealings rumble on and agents continue to pimp around their players, signings will be made and some will be missed. All we can do is sit back, relax and put our trust in the manager- and why shouldn’t we? After all, Owen Coyle is God.

Originally posted on: http://blogs.soccernet.com/burnley/

"The Clarets are going up!" - Part three - Premier League lesson one

2009-05-31T05:29:00.000-07:00

Things were about to get much more surreal as Wednesday reared its ugly head with apparently shocking news.

What had happened? Had the Daily Telegraph unveiled the Burnley board’s Wembley expenses? Was North Korea pointing a very large missile in the direction of Turf Moor? Had Owen Coyle contracted Swine Flu?

No, but apparently he was off to manage Celtic.

The speculation was mounting from North of the Border that our Master of the Universe was being tapped up to be the Hoops new boss following the departure of Chesney from Corrie look alike Gordon Strachan.

Apparently we were on the verge of becoming “Managerless Premier League Burnley”.

The news was that the job at Parkhead was Coyle’s if he wanted it and according to the jock hacks he most certainly did.

The Scottish press really did whip up a storm, for all their whimsical scribbling they may as well have said that Coyle snuck out to meet Celtic’s Chief Executive round the back of the Wembley bike sheds while Steve Caldwell was lifting the play off final trophy.

They had started a perfect bit of end of season sensationalism, a quiet newsroom’s wet dream.

The news of their claims filtered down on the wire to be picked up by the BBC and Sky.

That’s when people really began to panic.

“Its on the BBC, he’s off.” said someone with a rare statement of unwavering trust in our broadcasting corporation.

Then there was a newsflash on Sky Sport’s News;

“Sky Sports understands Owen Coyle is interested in becoming the next Celtic manager” the info bar read.

Isn’t it funny how that when that little bar turns yellow it can strike such fear in our hearts?

It brings such drama to the narrative. In truth, understanding that a Scottish born manager from a Celtic background might be interested in managing the club he supported as a boy isn’t that interesting. However if you slap a bright yellow background with the text it makes you feel like the Coyle-mobile is already zooming its way up the motorway to join them.

The club and Coyle were quick to quash rumours of his departure, with Chairman Barry Kilby stating a new contract was close to being inked.

The news definitely made my heart skip a beat. Although I was confident Coyle would stay, I must admit it’s hard not to listen when the national media tell you they’re modern day soothers claiming to know the future.

It was seeing the manager deliver his speech at the staff dinner the evening before that made me unable to believe he’d become our Brutus and stab us in the back. Coyle, as he always does, spoke with great enthusiasm and his statesman like demeanour gave no impression he was towing the party line before jumping ship.

The best bit of the whole saga was Celtics former manager Billy McNeill saying Coyle should choose Parkhead as Burnley is a “fucking hamlet” or “wee village” depending on which newspaper you read. And he would know, he watches Celtic play against one virtually every week.

The fact is the Coyle will be managing in the most competitive league in the world next season. He is a Premier League manager and deserves to go up against the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, Rafa Benitex and Arsene Wenger. At any other point in his career Celtic would provide the perfect position for a man with the abilities of Owen Coyle, but right now, in my opinion anyway, the job he has at Burnley is bigger than the one at Celtic.

On the other side of the coin, he may go away on holiday and think that he might only get one chance to manage his boyhood heroes and want to cash in while his managerial stock is at its highest.

But that’s not the Owen Coyle we’ve all come to adore and if there are to be no more twists in the tale then it looks like he will guide us into the Premier League next season.

There is no doubt if he continues to be successful even bigger clubs than Celtic will come knocking on our door for his services.

Maybe the “Coylegate” incident will provide us all with a bit of media training ahead of next season. After all, this type of mass scale coverage is something we’ll be receiving on a weekly basis when August rolls around.

The first lesson is simple;

Premier League clubs get Premier League speculation.

"The Clarets are going up!" - Part Two - Premier League sticker books, fantasy teams and pie and peas

2009-05-30T03:12:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was a day for confirming reality.

The morning was spent reading as much media as possible, re-watching the action and comparing experiences with friends, all to make sure that what I thought had happened had actually occurred.

Even then it was still hard to come to terms with, I was sure someone was about to slap me round the chops and tell me it was all a dream.

Many questions were posed;

Who will we play opening day? When will we get the games against the big four? When can we beat the bastards? Who will I pick in my fantasy team? Can I complete Burnley in the Premier League sticker book? Am I still actually alive?

Then thoughts turned to the coverage we'll now be receiving next season.

Gone will be the days of ten second clips of goals on Match of the Day on FA Cup third round day. Now we can look forward to Gary Linkers badly attempted “Claret” puns, Mark Lawrenson’s camp post match analysis and Alan Hanson dissecting any “diabolical” defending through those lovely, whisky glazed Scottish eyes of his.

Then I thought about Sky; The Super Sunday’s, Monday Night Football, extended highlights on Football First, the superlatives that may come from Jamie Redknapp’s handsome gob and Andy Gray demanding a Claret and Blue goal scorer to “ take a bow”.

God I wish the season could start tomorrow. The again, even if it did it’d still be too long to wait.

After allowing my imagination to occupy most of the day, the time came to reward the players.

The home coming parade was something to behold. It saw crowds normally reserved for the Pope at the Vatican surround the route from Turf Moor to the Town Hall.

For miles all you could see was Claret and Blue, the town's population had come out to get a glimpse of their heroes. Some had pitched their spot hours before in order to get the best view of the Town Hall balcony. After a long wait, there was an eruption of noise as the team came into view, it was mayhem.

It was great to see the buzz football can create, the town really had come back to life. This club, this manager and this group of players had all managed to unite age, gender and ethnicity to forge a new community spirit under a Claret and Blue banner.

We had come a long way. The journey back to the promised land was a long, hard, thirty three year treck up and down the Football Leagues.

In 1987 things had got so bad we were a game against Orient away from losing our Football League status.

Not many who stood on the terraces that day could have ever imagined that twenty two years and four promotions later we would be leaving the Football League’s jurisdiction out of the front door and entering what was still then an unformed Premier League.

Somehow we'd managed it, we were back at English Football's top table and ready to munch on a giant slice of Premier League pie and peas.

“The Clarets are going up!” - Part One - A day at Wembley.

2009-05-28T03:36:00.000-07:00

After a few days of reflection, our Wembley triumph is finally sinking in. The shock is now beginning to subside and the realisation is now that we will be playing a full season amongst the top flight of English football.

Since Monday, the temptation to attach the words “Premier League” to anything Burnley related has been too hard to resist.

It started as I returned home in the early hours of Tuesday morning and drove past Premier League football ground Turf Moor. Since then it’s become such an addiction that it doesn’t even matter whether the object has any connection to the club, as I now, for example, have a Premier League toaster and do my business in a Premier League toilet. And I don’t mean Ewood Park.

As well as the obvious excitement of playing against Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal, we all know that the fixtures against Blackburn Rovers will be the first we all look for when the fixtures are released in June. I can't wait.

Until that day in just under a month’s time, each and every second will be spent reliving moments from our triumph at Wembley.

The day itself began early, as the alarm buzzed at half past four on Monday morning there was no attempt to hit the snooze button. Up within seconds and dressed in Claret and Blue within minutes, I was ready to make the trip of a lifetime.

As the Claret convoy of coaches pulled away from Championship Turf Moor for the last time its incumbents fell silent as we all sat still and once again dared to dream.

It seemed every car that flew by that morning had Claret and Blue flags and scarves hanging from their roofs and windows, while a quick stop at the services on the M6 toll was more like visiting a Burnley Football Club refugee camp.

As the Wembley arches came into view nerves began to jangle. I felt sick as the coach slowly drew into the car park, the giant curves now towered over us as I suddenly began to realise how gut wrenching it’d be to head back north without promotion.

The approach to kick off was spent soaking up the atmosphere on the steps outside Wembley as we drank, sang and enjoyed the sunshine.

Then the time came. The immense pride of seeing us line up on the Wembley turf was followed by ninety minutes of pure joy and ecstasy. Once again the way we defended was perfect as we sailed through the entire playoffs without conceding a single goal.

Wade Elliot’s goal was one good enough to grace any game. His instant shot into the top-left corner from 25 yards was passed straight into the net at pace leaving Paddy Kenny with no chance.

Like Steven Thompson and Martin Paterson’s goals in the previous game against Reading, the moment Wade's wonder strike hit the back of the net will never be etched from the memory.

Neither will the scenes at the final whistle as the Clarets returned to the top flight for the first time in thirty three years.

Tears rolled down my face as I hugged my family around me. With the brief moment I then had to myself I tried to come to terms with what had just happened. I couldn’t. This was too good to be true.

Through my now red eyes the trophy was lifted by Steven Caldwell to the chorus of thirty six thousand Claret’s in full voice.

It was a moment never to be surpassed.

We had done it, Owen Coyle had done the unthinkable and guided us to the promised land.

The chant as we bounced out of Wembley was “Burnley are back”

Apologies, Premier League Burnley are back.

The road to Wembley starts here

2009-05-22T05:11:00.000-07:00

The build up to our play off final destiny is finally reaching its climax.

This week has been long and arduous. What began with pure excitement and expectation following the trip to Reading has slowly become diluted by firstly nerves and then fear.

For the last few mornings I have woke with a sort of nervous paralysis that has made me physically unable to move until all possible eventualities have vigorously run through my mind.

The dull ache that now sits in my stomach is perhaps only comparable to the feeling a swift boot to the testicles brings.

This is pressure and I’m only going to be watching from Block 126, row 39, seat 87.

As I sit here now words that have flowed all season are suddenly hard to come by. I feel reluctant to write anything that may tempt fate.

All I can say is that I hope the Burnley squad have returned from their Portuguese training camp as men of war ready for a classic battle of the roses.

There is no doubt Sheffield United want this as much as us. They’ve sampled the sweet tasting goods the Premier League has to offer and will be spurred on further by the sour taste of Carlos Tevez’s goal scoring boots.

They will not be softened by West Ham’s oversized charity cheque of recompense and now we’ve reached this stage, our Claret and Blue kit also synonymous with the Hammers will become a goading red rag waving right in front of the noses of Blackwell’s raging bulls.

It’s not that I fear the Blades as a footballing side or think we’ll lose. Like I’ve said before I never go into a game thinking we’ll get beat anymore. It’s just the cruel nature of the “what ifs” that creep inside your mind; the bad penalty decision, the dodgy offside, the unjust sending off, all which if given against us may see us fail to recover.

I think all of the Wembley related Claret and Blue merchandise, from official kits to knock off t shirts, flags and scarves to jester hats, the hastily written newspaper pullouts and pristine match day programmes, it makes me sick to imagine them all becoming a commemorative token of an unsuccessful playoff bid.

There is no doubt that in the ten days since we conquered at the Madejeski I have let my nervous excitement manifest into irrational thoughts and fear. I guess you may have done the same. It’s hard not to go through all the emotional ups and downs when you have so long to wait and only one thing to think about.

Despite all the crazy connotations and tricks of the mind I still believe that come Monday tea time we will be in the Premier League.

As the hands of the clock painstakingly tick towards Monday’s 3pm kick off time, all we can do is let the faith carry us to victory.

Tonight is the night the first few of the 36,000 Clarets will begin their pilgrimage to Wembley.

Over the bank holiday weekend fans from all corners of the globe will gather under the arches to unite in a Claret and Blue roar when the teams stroll out onto the pitch at ten to three in little over 72 hours time.

The streets of our small East Lancashire town will be vacant as the world’s eye turns to the richest match in football.

The players huddle before kick off will produce an intensity unlike anything you may ever feel again.

Take a second savour the moment and then believe, because if you do that potentially unsurpassable feeling will easily be beaten on the other side of the referee’s whistle.

The promised land awaits, let’s just hope the Wembley arches can transform into a Claret and Blue rainbow, complete with a Premier League pot of gold at the end of it.

Keep the faith.

Burnley will be back.

And now you're gonna believe us...

2009-05-13T06:50:00.000-07:00

Words can barely describe what we as Burnley fans experienced at Reading last night.

The emotion, verve and adoration of all things Claret and Blue was summed up by our two thousand one hundred fans crammed into the Madejski.

From well before the first, to long beyond the final whistle, we sang to inspire the team we love.

Two breathtaking goals were followed by equally breathless celebrations.

The ecstasy, mania and madness that followed Martin Paterson’s thunderous drive and Steven Thompson’s execution of technical excellence eclipsed the scenes and feeling that followed the win at Chelsea many months earlier.

In fact, the emotions conjured up by last night’s game betters anything I have felt as a fan of Burnley Football Club.

The collective unity of the Claret and Blue voice in full force is something to behold, something which makes our small town so great.

It is what makes the game of football and privilege of supporting your local team the most addictive and fulfilling drug.

The come downs and lows are brutally hard, but the highs that come with being part of the cause is something truly special.

The voices of the travelling away support were beamed to millions across the world who must now be sitting up and taking note of what this football club could be on the verge of achieving.

What makes it even more remarkable is the use of only twenty three players throughout the season, the tiniest squad in the Championship.

On closer examination you’ll find that Diego Penny and Remco Van Der Schaff only made one appearance each, while Ade Akinbiyi, Alan Mahon and Alex McDonald appeared on only a handful of occasions.

The close knit nucleolus of the squad has fused hard work, quality and belief into the perfectly potent tonic for promotion.

Commiserations to Reading, their supporters who stood to applaud both our team and fans are true appreciators of the game. Their sportsmanship added an extra layer of emotion to what was already a highly charged evening. Steve Coppell will be a great loss to their club and football.

We must now look beyond Reading and ahead to our day of destiny.

As we sang to Kevin Blackwell last night, he and his Sheffield United are next. Our Yorkshire rivals are the only thing that stands between us and a return to the promised land.

Three days after celebrating his nineteenth month in the job Owen Coyle will look to end our thirty three year wilderness from the top flight.

The Master of the Universe was right not to bring the team back out to celebrate with the fans last night.

The players cannot take their eye off the ball until the job is done. They will briefly enjoy the moment before refocusing to make sure we can all stay behind and party together come Bank Holiday Monday.

Most of the town will set sail for the wealthiest game in football under the Wembley arches in twelve days time.

Although after the pride and hope Burnley Football Club instilled in us all last night, I can’t help feeling we are already some of the richest fans in football.

It's time to live the daring dream

2009-05-11T23:48:00.001-07:00

It’s hard to judge whether Burnley are halfway to Wembley or not.

After ninety minutes at the Turf we take our one nil first leg win down to the Madejski Stadium today, but as we’ve already seen this season being seconds away from a trip to the arches doesn’t mean you’ll get there.

The minibus of dreams will head to Berkshire this lunchtime determined to return north having confirmed a weekend in London come the second bank holiday of the month.

Saturday’s game at the Turf was a nerve jangling affair, similar to the tension experienced by an MP who’s just realised they’ve accidentally submitted their rent boy receipts as expenses.

While it wasn’t a vintage Clarets performance we did enough and once again, despite pressure, kept a clean sheet and stole an unlikely victory.

Brian Jensen may have produced a wonder save and Martin Paterson may have cleared one off the line but we fought and battled for our win.

Particularly impressive was Clark Carlisle and Steven Caldwell’s central defensive partnership which has proved stronger than Californian wildfires in recent weeks.

A loss of form saw Carlisle looking shakier than Katie and Peter’s marriage earlier in the campaign but Britain’s brainiest footballer has shown great mental strength and turned his season back around.

He’s once again become a linchpin along the back line, regularly putting his body on the line for the Claret and Blue cause.

Another all action defensive performance will be needed at the Madejski tonight to ensure a showdown with Sheffield United in the final.

In fact, cool heads will be needed all round.

Graham Alexander is one who encompasses all that’s needed at this stage of the season with his clinical finishing from the penalty spot and masterful performances in front of the back four.

There’s no doubt we missed Wade Elliot in the first leg, the game was crying out for his jinking runs from the middle of the park and ability to get people like Chris Eagles in the game by linking up wide.

We can only hope we have both “Billy” and Eagles fit for this evenings encounter to cause havoc on the counter attack.

Reading will also be missing players, Kevin Doyle limped off during the first leg while poor mans Drogba Andre Bikey is still thought to be throwing his shirt around. Apparently he hasn’t even had time to remove the bits of Robbie Blake’s leg from his boots.

As ever Owen Coyle says he will go out to win the game on the night and as it opens up with Reading needing to score we will hopefully be able to capitalise on the gaps left in the Royal's defence.

We must also look to exploit their poor home form and what could be a tetchy crowd if things aren’t going they’re way.

But whatever might happen, everyone involved with the club knows that it all comes down to this.

We must hold our nerve and keep the faith.

We’ve been told to dare to dream all season.

Now it’s time to live that dream.

Coyle's graduation enough to make Coppell weep

2009-05-06T23:20:00.000-07:00

“It best bloody be worth it” my Dad said to me after finally getting hold of our tickets for the game against Reading following a mammoth eight hour queue outside the Turf on Monday.

“Don’t worry, I’ll queue for Wembley” I replied apologetically after work commitments meant I couldn’t take my place in the line.

The playoff double header against Reading is undoubtedly the biggest game in our recent history, something that has been muttered a few times this season.

As the games continue to get bigger and more important for Owen Coyle’s troops I can’t fail to be even more convinced by him.

Maybe he missed a trick being a football manager.

I’m sure Owen Coyle the salesman could convince me a stair lift would be a perfectly necessary feature to add to my dwelling or that a timeshare in the up and coming resort of Kabul would really make a fabulous investment.

Or think of Owen Coyle the Jehovah’s Witness, if he was knocking on my door I’d be straight down the Kingdom Halls with my Watchtower ready to empty my pockets.

Let’s just thank our lucky stars he didn’t end up working in recruitment for Al-Qaeda.

Eighteen thousand and five Burnley and Bristol fans united in appreciation to stand and applaud the Master of the Universe after we made the playoffs on Sunday and there is no doubt the Coyle deserves every credit for what has happened thus far.

If we don’t make Wembley and don’t make the Premier League we will all say what a marvellous achievement this season has been and how we’ve made great strides forward.

I’m sure Coyle would too, but a man obviously so fiercely ambitious wouldn’t want to settle for a token run out in the playoffs.

Standing in our way is Reading, an outstanding candidate for Promotion at the beginning of the season who started strongly but have wained in the final half.

The Royals are without a home win in eight games which can only boost our confidence for the second leg at the Madjeski.

Before then they must come to the Turf where we’ve won our last five scoring four or more on three of those occasions. In the other two one nil victories were secured, which shows we are just as capable of closing out a tight victory as we are free scoring, although lets hope for the latter come Saturday tea time.

The fixture has caused major excitement. The pubs after Sunday’s victory were brimming with Claret and Blue hysteria while the ticket office has struggled to cope with demand since opening Monday morning.

The Clarets will play their 59th games of the season on Saturday with only Manchester United crossing the white line on more occasions.

A 61st could see us reach the Premier League.

Through Owen Coyle and his team I believe and I think you should too.

Reading manager Steve Coppell this week inadvertently described reaching the playoffs as a “blow” as he got "a bit weepy" about missing his son’s graduation in America.

Coppell has been a great boss and his accolade of knocking up over a thousand matches as a league manager is a remarkable achievement. But you can’t help wonder if unrelenting rumours of his retirement in the next two weeks has contributed to his sides perceived apathy towards the back of the campaign.

I’m not trying to underestimate Reading, on their day they are undoubtedly the best side in the division but I think this is not only our day but our time.

Coppell needn’t worry about missing out. Come Tuesday he could be the teary eyed guest of honour at Owen Coyle’s graduation.

Genetically modified butterflies spread Claret and Blue fever

2009-05-03T01:50:00.000-07:00

Forget swine flu, the only pandemic spreading around Burnley this week has been playoff fever.

It would have taken more than a few face masks to stop the infectious swell of positivity that has been circulating the town over the last seven days.

People have been queuing down the stretch of Harry Potts Way outside the ticket office to ensure a sell out of the home seats inside Turf Moor; with each and every soul hoping victory means that Owen Coyle can begin to emulate some of the success of the Claret’s most famous manager.

For me, I remain as supremely confident as ever that we can do it.

You could compare it to one of those goons off the Apprentice who believes that they are the spawn of Donald Trump when they have as much business acumen as a tramp trying selling his own faeces. Everyone’s got to make a living I suppose.

As the time before kick off gets shorter my nerves expand. As I type, the butterflies inside my stomach are fluttering their gigantic genetically modified wings faster than the way Rick Hatton hit the canvas last night.

The Hitman’s career resembles much of what the Clarets have achieved this season; like Ricky we’ve been the likeable northern underdog who has won many plaudits for our fearless displays, style and ability to box well above our weight.

Let’s just hope that’s where the comparisons end after Hatton’s latest display against Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas.

Although I doubt mid-table Bristol City will pack as much venom as the Philippino, with their threat perhaps more comparable to an Audley Harrison comeback fight.

Instead it’s our Lancashire rivals Preston who will be packing a punch and will be confident after two impressive victories over Cardiff and Birmingham. Again they are facing nothing to play for mid-table opposition and I doubt yuppies QPR will be on their guard.

But what they do won’t matter if Burnley win; we must do what we’re good at, get the ball down on the floor, be patient and take our chances.

The likes of Graham Alexander, Robbie Blake, Steven Caldwell, Clarke Carlisle and Brian Jenson are all seasoned campaigners who will help calm the nerves.

For many of those mentioned this will be their last shot at the Premier League and having already missed out on a Wembley final already this season they won’t be willing to let that happen again.

The crowd must also play their part, the sell out sea of Claret and Blue must sing their hearts out and not get too jittery if things get tense.

If we all stay positive we’ll reach the playoffs and then maybe, who knows, the promised land.

Clarets have nothing to fear...not even Roy Keane's balls

2009-04-25T02:14:00.000-07:00

Since Burnley battled and beat the long ball of Sheffield United on Monday night there has been an air of optimism around the town.

People finally believe we are on the verge of something special.

Today the Clarets travel to Southampton; the town whose docks launched the Titanic are to be sunk into English football’s third tier while Owen Coyle’s men need to take heed of Guy Havard’s immortal words at Plymouth in 1994 and “set sail to the promise land”.

And nobody could say they didn’t deserve a shot at the playoffs.

The one nil victory against the Blades at the Turf shows that Burnley have nobody to fear in the top six.

With Wolves promoted and Birmingham a win against Preston away from an automatic ticket to Premier League riches, it leaves Sheffield United, Reading, Cardiff and Burnley (fingers crossed) as the final four to duel for the final spot in the top flight.

If those three were to be our potential opponents I would be confident that we could beat any of them over two legs and at a Wembley showpiece.

Not that I’m getting carried away, there’s still plenty to be done but I’d challenge any fan not to start believing our play off place in the top six is almost as certain Roy Keane upsetting someone in the near future.

The Irishman returned to football this week looking as much as ever like an action man doll and with an agenda to set a bunch of records straight.

Given his looks it would not be surprising to hear that Keano’s undercarriage was made of smooth, shiny plastic but you only need to hear him speak to realise there’s a couple of very big balls down there.

And Keane is prepared to use them. His introduction to the media was candidly aggressive, as he spoke of his limited success as a manager, the comparisons with his former team-mates Steve Bruce and Mark Hughes, his differences with the board at Sunderland, as well as a dig at comedy Irishmen Tony Cascarino.

Although he has since apologised to his former team mates (not you Cas), the Roy Keane we know and love is back and ready to rant and rocket Ipswich up the Championship table.

There is no doubt Ipswich will be an improved side next term but even if Owen Coyle’s men are still hanging around the Championship come August there will be no trepidation when it comes to the testosterone Keane will instil in his Tractor Boys.

The pride of Turf Moor is certainly back and can only get stronger as Captain Coyle continues to steer the ship.

And with him at the helm, the golden sandy beaches of Premier League shores are so close we can almost see them from the poop deck.

The days of the old school yard

2009-04-18T02:40:00.000-07:00

“Disrespectful and humiliating”.

No not Susan Boyle’s walk on stage at last weeks Britian’s Got Talent but the words used by Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce to describe the behaviour of Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez.

But unlike the virginal Boyle who has had thirty six million hits on YouTube this week, Big Sam’s men were subject to a spot of stage fright at Anfield last Saturday as the red juggernaut sent them back to Lancashire with urine trickling down their shaky legs.

As Fernando Torres put Liverpool two nil ahead, Benitez is alleged to have made a “cut” gesture in the direction of Allardyce.

Watching it back, the movements although maybe suggesting that the game was over was hardly a terrible incident.

There is little evidence to suggest it was made with malice let alone even directed at the Rovers boss and it’s hard to believe a man as big as Allardyce has such sensitive skin.

Maybe he’d forgotten to apply his Oil Olay but to bring that up a week later seems quite petty.

Big Sam then got worse as he morphed into some Bridget Jones style character, complaining about how upsetting it was that Benitez stood him up in his room after the game like some whiney, love-less spinster.

If Benitez had followed David Haye’s example and ripped his shirt open to reveal a beheaded Allardcye on his t-shirt then maybe he’d have a point.

Although many believe that Alladyce was merely applying the rules of the Old Pals Act, opening the way for his friend Sir Alex Ferguson to rip into the Spaniard.

This would make sense, Big Sam is known to dislike Benitez, calling him a “whinger and a moaner” before last weeks game, while Sir Alex will take any opportunity to play mind games with Rafa.

Now it seems the Fergie has become a Malcolm Tucker style Spin Doctor, but with more venom.

During his press conference, Ferguson said that Rafa was arrogant, contemptuous and lacking in humility.

He brought up the incident himself and continued his attack on Benitez despite attempts to divert him.

If Sir Alex is creating his own ammunition then it shows Benitez has become his most fierce rival to date.

Ferguson has duelled with his closest opponents for as long as the afore mentioned Boyle has been waiting to pop her cherry.

In comparison, the rivalry once shared by Fergie and Arsene Wenger seems tame.

Although wait until the two clash in the Champions League Semi Final, Sir Alex will be battling on more fronts the Hitler.

Like a couple of G20 policeman, the team of Allardyce and Ferguson seem to have formed a partnership resembling that of a pair of school bullies by lashing out at the weird goateed kid.

What’s next? Micky Phealan flicking bogeys at Benitez from the dugout? Steve Bruce kneeling down behind Rafa while Mark Hughes pushes him over? Anything’s possible in this fight for supremacy.

It seems Ferguson will doing anything in his power to equal Liverpool’s haul of league titles this season.

It would certainly be some feat for the master of the mind games to eclipse the Anfield club’s record before he retires.

Let’s all just hope nobody buys Sir Alex a catapult and a spud gun for his 68th birthday.

The heartache of Hillsborough

2009-04-15T05:54:00.000-07:00

Twenty years ago to the day ninety six people all went to watch a football match and never came back.

FA Cup Semi Final day for one side is usually a day to live long in the memory, one to never forget.

Sadly for Liverpool Football Club this time it was for the wrong reason.

Their game against Nottingham Forest on April 15th 1989 was only six minutes old when referee Ray Lewis blew the whistle to call the game off.

By this time many of their fans were already dead. Panic, confusion and fear had set in.

Air was sucked from the lungs of those in the Leppings Lane End as overcrowding in the pens meant fatal crushing against against the metal barriers.

The pitch at Hillsborough became a makeshift mortuary as bodies young and old were left cold.

One ambulance made it onto the pitch while a further forty were parked outside the ground, held back by police as they reported drunken fans fighting.

Shamefully, the only fight happening on the terraces was for survival.

Fans were left to look after themselves; people were pulled breathless from the terraces, advertising hoardings were turned into makeshift stretchers while many desperately administered first aid.

While most were lucky to get out alive, the rest were not.

Twenty years on and the ninety six that never came back are kept alive by a city that still hasn’t given up on them.

Beautiful, heart wrenching scenes will be played out at Anfield today, as they are every year to remember those who died at Hillsborough.

And while these emotional moments are what keeps those lost souls alive, the unwavering fight for justice is what keeps the families wounds as raw as they were two decades ago.

Through the Taylor Report the dead left an inadvertent legacy of all seater stadia.

While football got a revolution, the victim’s families never caught a glimpse of anyone seeking redemption.

Campaigners still call for a fresh inquiry or inquest, anything that might bring a morsel of accountability and closure.

Despite questions still remaining about the actions or lack of actions of those working for South Yorkshire Police, the 15:15 cut off point in the coroner’s report and the limitations of subsequent investigations the Government and European Courts don’t want any new evidence to be examined.

The fact is that the people of Liverpool know more than anyone dares to investigate.

It’s just a shame their voices can’t be heard above the silence of the guilty.

Accrington Stanley? Who are they? I don't know but here's 20 grand on them getting beat

2009-04-11T03:52:00.000-07:00

Every now and then we all like a bet on the football.

Some have a punt on their own side, others to make the weekends action more interesting while there is a considerable few who take it much more seriously.

I occasionally stick a couple of quid on what score Burnley might win if they get their arses in gear or which player emblazed in Claret and Blue will pop up to score the first of what we all despairingly anticipate will be many for the afternoon.

But this week four players from Accrington Stanley and one from Bury have found themselves involved in a betting scandal.

No, they weren’t the ones who bet Claire Balding she wouldn’t make fun of that jockeys teeth during last weeks Grand National.

It’s all much more sinister than the harmless banter which saw over a thousand complaints and forced Balding into a grovelling apology.

Stanley club captain Peter Cavanagh, Jay Harris, David Mannix and Robbie Williams were charged with breaching FA rules on betting on their own team, along with Bury striker Andy Mangan, who incidentally used to play for Stanley.

Accrington went on to lose the match 2-0 against the Shakers on the final day of last season two nil.

The players have been accused of betting more than £10,000 on the game, although bizarrely and perhaps somewhat unfairly Cavanagh stands accused of sticking on a five pound accumulator.

Those found guilty will face lengthy bans for stupidly ignoring clear F.A rules.

The story goes much deeper than a bunch of players betting on a game they think they’ll lose for whatever reason.

In total Betfair said £281,000 in bets were placed on the match and that reducing odds prior to the game did not stop the flood of wagers coming in.

That number eclipsed the average amount placed on a League Two fixture fourteen times over.

I doubt even one of Accrington’s more famous residents Mystic Meg would be confident of risking her reputation on predicting Stanley’s form let alone any cold hard cash.

There could be several reasons behind this unusual pattern. Of course there’s the obvious accusation that the players could in some way be behind a pre determined outcome.

That’s something they and their clubs strenuously deny possible, with Stanley boss John Coleman telling me this week he’s satisfied his players did all they could to win the game and pointed to Bury’s keeper being selected in the league’s team of the week as an example of his sides dominance during the match.

Conspiracy theorists may also like to try a Far East betting ring, gangsters, an internet viral that encouraged a punt similar to that which saw Craig David’s Born to do it Album come second in a poll of best records this week or what about Sir Fred Goodwin deciding to blow a couple of months pension by having a flutter?

Not even Benjamin Button could boast this much of a curious case.

The accused have until April 23 to answer the charges and face FA suspensions if the allegations are proven.

If they are guilty then they will surely be the most unprofessional footballers since Hide and Seek World Champion Amir Zaki.

Of course, we must presume all fives innocence until proven otherwise.

That’s the clubs viewpoint, stating that Cavanagh and Williams, the only two involved who remain at the club will continue to be available for selection.

Although I imagine many will have already nailed the players involved to the cross on this one.

For Accrington Stanley as a club, it’s a shame that they and their few disciples are making the trip to Grimsby today with the stench of something fishy already stuck firmly in the back of their throats.

Queasy like Sunday morning

2009-04-05T03:19:00.000-07:00

The pure unadulterated love of football can sometimes, in fact more often than not, leave you with the cruel dull pain of a kick in the testicles way into the day after a game.

I’ve spent countless Sunday mornings nursing that unexplainable gut wrenching stomach pain such a blow can bring.

Yesterday we as Clarets received one of its hardest swings of the boot as Derby’s Paul Connelly’s stoppage time equaliser meant Burnley left Pride Park with a solitary point when all three looked likely.

A win would’ve taken us to within four points of second place with the cement quickly drying on a playoff place. But yesterday it wasn’t to be. Sometimes it just isn’t.

An away point at Derby in most circumstances would be seen as a good result. It’s just when something is snatched away from you at the last second that it feels so cruel. Dropping vital points thanks to a stoppage time goal often causes more devastating deflation than any recession ever could.

It’s sometimes difficult to detach yourself from the reality of what the result actually means.

I remember travelling with a couple of my mates to Bradford City to watch Stan Ternent’s Burnley squander the lead to concede a late equaliser against the Bantams who had been reduced to nine men. For the majority of the furious travelling faithful it was a gut wrenching blow, for one of my friends it was a good point away from home.

Its funny how people have different perceptions of the end result.

You can also look our Carling Cup semi final defeat to Spurs. It would’ve been easy for everyone at Burnley football Club to let that result have a negative effect on the rest of the season but it hasn’t and now we look like making the playoffs.

There will be many fans, players and managers waking up across the country this morning with the same feeling as me.

I doubt there would’ve been many Geordies who didn’t deep down believe that the Alan Shearer impact would help Newcastle get at least a draw against Chelsea.

Thousands lined the streets in Newcastle and London on Wednesday. It could perhaps be said that the protesters at the G20 have more chance of a getting a solution to their worries than the assemblage at St. James.

Nobody needs reminding about the fanciful goings on up in the North East.

Some see the clubs latest move by offering of the celestial Shearer for “eight games only” as nothing more than a PR exercise that will soften the blow of Premier relegation.

Those cynics though are drowned out by the unwavering noises of support and belief that the Toon’s hero can actually do it.

There is no doubt that Shearer will lift the team. With the capable Iain Dowie joining him to provide “not a pretty face but a fresh one”, the pair can definitely forge a great partnership.

To the press Shearer seems au fait and determined to make the players believe they can mount a serious challenge against Championship football next season, which under a week ago seemed almost certain.

Seven games with three winnable home encounters against Portsmouth, Middlesbrough and Fulham will decide the clubs future.

At the moment there is hope in fool’s paradise but without results St James Park will finally fall from the air with a crashing thud.

Another two waking up feeling the strain this morning will be Barry Ferguson and Allan McGregor.

The result of the pair's childish actions while on international duty with Scotland will finally be hitting home as the realisation they won’t be involved in Rangers game against Falkirk today hits home.

An all night drinking binge and swearing at cameras may seem quintessentially Scottish but for these two jocks it’s had career damaging consequences.

Banned for life from the international set up and suspended by their club, the penalty incurred by the duo shows the seriousness of their misdemeanours.

Although the life ban seems slightly harsh, the SFA must be applauded for taking real action against foolish and disrespectful behaviour.

If only the English FA were as hard on some of the divers and cheats we see weekly in the Premiership then we might get somewhere.

I’m not saying throw divers out of the game, but stronger punishments and a governing body with a backbone may help eradicate the problem.

In years gone by drinking so heavily after defeat by the likes of Holland in preparation for your next World Cup Qualifier in less than four days may have been acceptable behaviour.

It just shows how far the game has come that a game against Iceland comes before inebriation.

I recall doing a similar thing in Primary School (swearing not drinking after an important football defeat).

After being told by a stiff and somewhat evil music teacher to put our fingers on lips I decided to use the opportunity to covertly give her the middle finger and occasionally flash the V’s.

I was caught out by this eagle eyed mistress and hauled in for a Saturday morning detention causing me to miss a whole morning of kid’s telly.

Unlike Ferguson and McGregor I was a child and I just hope their case sets an important precedent to the games youngsters who like me needed to learn respect at an early age.

Whether their chastisement and ostracism from the game is a worthy of the crime who knows?

Maybe the SFA should’ve just let George Burley give them both a good, hard kick in the bollocks.

Capello's home movie makes for pleasurable viewing

2009-03-29T05:46:00.000-07:00

While Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was probably charging us for her porn collection again, David Beckham was becoming England’s greatest capped outfield player as he came on at half time against Slovakia last night.

Much has been made of whether he is worthy of taking the accolade from the late, great Bobby Moore which is something I don’t quite understand.

The marking of the landmark has seen usual crop of “Beckham-bashers” crawl out from under their stones to slate him just because he wasn’t as good as Moore.

Many are quick to criticise the former skipper for not guiding the great crop of underachievers to anything more than a World Cup quarter final.

The man has always given his all for his country whether it has come off or not.

People need to remember that Moore’s legacy is not under threat by this achievement and should give well deserved credit to Beckham.

Any player who can make that amount of appearances for their country are well worth being applauded. His passing and dead ball ability as well as his role as an ambassador for the game make him England’s most outstanding footballer in recent years.

Beckham was still showing his undoubted class against the Slovaks by providing a perfectly chipped cross to set up the “crazy” cranium of Wayne Rooney to nod in England’s second.

You’ve got to ask yourself how many of the current crop will now go on beat his record?

Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Steven Gerrard and Ashley Cole are all well on their way to take Beckham’s new title.

Records are there to be broken and Beck’s undoubted mental strength and determination to fight for his place in the England squad has paid dividends.

But his introduction for the second period was only part of a very good night for England.

Fabio Capello again proved he has got the team playing with more fluidity and focus.

Gone have the rigid days of Sven’s unshakable 4-4-2 as we now finally look to be adapting to modern world football.

The players look to have an understanding of what is being asked of them by playing in different formations and systems.

Many of the current midfield and forward line are able to offer Capello a choice of playing them in more than one position which is resulting in a more flexible, interchangeable, aesthetically pleasing England.

While the excellent Rooney became the big daddy, the likes of Gerrard and Lampard both looked more comfortable in an England shirt. Aaron Lennon’s pace was an asset, as was the astute performance of Glenn Johnson at right back.

Although there are still some concerns that better teams than Slovakia may be able to get at us. At times the back four is being made to look extremely vulnerable by our forward thinking midfield.

Plus there’s the mini striking crisis, with Darren Bent now linking up with the squad due to Emile Heskey and Carlton Cole’s enforced withdrawals and Peter Crouch’s severed hip.

But the signs look promising. Next up is the Ukraine on Wednesday with victory imperative to World Cup qualification.

Let’s just hope the players don’t over exert themselves by watching any of Jacqui Smith’s personal favourites on the hotel’s pay per view the night before the game.

Premiership's elite show they have the biggest cahounas

2009-03-21T04:06:00.000-07:00

Not since Puppetry of the Penis has two men fondling balls on stage in a crowded auditorium being so widely received.

Not by me of course, having been subjected to an impromptu DVD airing of the theatrical contortion of the male genitalia during a recent fancy dress party I can confirm it’s not a pleasant visual experience for ones peepers.

I know what you’re thinking, and no, it wasn’t that kind of gathering.

It was one of those moments when the boys cowered in the corner while the women went wild as one of the Australian tosspots tried in vein to get their scrotum to resemble a cuckoo clock.

The big difference yesterday was that the balls fiddled with by UEFA’s General Secretary David Taylor and Roma legend Bruno Conti shaped how Europe’s footballing elite will line up for the run in of its biggest most bulging competition.

It was the Champions League quarter final draw and this time it made salivating viewing for everyone.

The draw itself gave three of the four English sides making up the last eight a great chance of making the semis.

The routine Chelsea against Liverpool tie was confirmed as a formality.

Manchester United were drawn against Porto and Arsenal thrust against the tricky Villarreal.

In the only non English tie, Bayern Munich will pit themselves against the mighty Barcelona.

The giants of Stamford Bridge and Anfield will once again battle it out in the competition for the fourth straight year.

In what is normally a tight, cagey affair the game will be Guus Hiddink’s biggest test since becoming Roman Ambrovich’s wingman.

The Russian will have to conquer the master of Europe Rafa Benitez.

The Spaniard is so successful on the continent we might as well shove a microphone under his nose and kick him on stage as our entry for this year’s Eurovision.

Despite being full of confidence on the back of destroying Real Madrid and Manchester United the draw has swung in Chelsea’s favour with the second leg of the tie at the Bridge.

But whether that will be enough for the revitalised Blues to stop the formidable Torres and Gerrard remains to be seen.

The winners of that tie will have no easy route to the final having been drawn against the winners of the Barcelona and Bayern Munich game.

Arsenals route into the semis is being blocked by a potential banana skin against Villarreal.

The Gunners sank the yellow submarines on their way to the final in 2006 but the narrow margin of that defeat will only spur the Spaniards on.

A reunion with Robert Pires will spark danger as will the abilities of Santi Cazorla and Ariel Ibagaza.

But Arsene Wenger will be confident; especially with the accelerating rehabilitation of Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott and Eduardo who may all be fit enough to play some part in the tie.

Manchester United will believe they have the easiest of the three ties involving their Premiership counterparts.

They face Portugese giants Porto who despite knocking out Atletico Madrid do not pose a significant threat to the current European champions.

If they do conquer the Dragons, an epic with Arsenal may await them.

You can be sure Sir Alex will be unflinchingly focused as hopes of an unprecedented and historic Quintuple remain within the realms of possibility.

Who will lift the glorious shiny European trophy come May?

I think this one’s too close to call, plus I don’t want to end up looking like a penis…no matter what the shape and size.

Coyle’s Clarets are no vultures

2009-03-18T09:43:00.000-07:00

While Sheffield United continue to count how lucky they were to finish as high as eighteenth during their last Premiership campaign the rest of us must stop working out ways we could get compensation off West Ham.

First we had Neil Warnock claiming Sheffield United’s unfair relegation cost him the chance of being a Premiership manager.

Next was the ex players dreaming of cashing in on their faltering careers, while today, the leech that is Ken Bates has stated he believes Leeds should get money for missed out add-ons from the transfers of Rob Hulse, Matthew Kilgallon and Ian Bennett to Bramall Lane.

What’s next? Hotdog sellers, taxi drivers and local prostitutes all complaining at the loss of Premiership pounds.

The compensation culture over this incident has gone mad. It wouldn’t surprise me if Carlos Tevez was taking legal advice claiming the stress was causing him to lose his good looks.

Neil Warnock has now taken centre stage in the saga. It seems his sense of “injustice” has become so strong that when he looks into his wallet he sees his giant head replace Her Majesty’s bonce on all his currency.

A bloke who’d feel hard done by in a lottery win, Warnock’s known for his extreme case of small man syndrome. So small in fact, that if it wasn’t for his gargantuan cranium he would have swapped football for a career with Ken Dodd’s Diddymen.

Perhaps a man whose Crystal Palace side sit ten points out of the playoff places should be concentrating on becoming a top flight manager once more instead of dreaming of becoming the new Declan Swan.

In fact, I can imagine him becoming Swan’s replacement in one of those “Claims Direct” adverts peering worryingly into an incubator hoping his ego doesn’t recover from the trauma of being back in the Championship so he can sue the arse off anyone he can.

If I were a Palace fan I’d be worried, Warnock’s become parody of a hung up bitter old woman who can’t make anymore social bonds because she’s still pining for her bastard ex. I just hope for Mrs Warnock’s sake it’s not the imagery of sitting cosily next to Stuart McCall in the dugout that’s spurring Neil on.

We’ve seen this season that managers embroiled in media slanging matches see their team’s hopes falter almost instantly. And on the day Warnock declares he wants a couple of extra quid because his side were relegated two years ago? Palace were beaten three one by relegation flirting Barnsley.

This is why he should put this to bed and concentrate on proving he is a Premiership manager instead of whining.

Warnock has the option to put all his efforts into becoming a top flight boss once again or fade into obscurity and end up leaving the game with a legacy of bitterness and resentment (although whatever he ends up doing that is still possible).

With the Championship’s run in becoming ever shorter, Palace along with a number of other teams now look to be out of the running. It’s likely that those who currently form the top eight will make up the three promoted teams at the end of the season.

After back to back wins against Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forrest, Burnley’s point away at Ipswich last night was vital in the playoff push.

Currently sitting in fifth place and with seven games to play, our Owen Coyle is still in with the chance of topping off this remarkable season by earning Burnley promotion.

And if President Coyle does pull it off it would be no accident. Not one you he could claim compensation for anyway.

It's back to the grind of the cup...

2009-03-07T04:29:00.000-08:00

Do you know when Burnley last did the double over Arsenal in a season?

Because I don’t; it may have been in our pomp in the sixties or for all I know it may never have happened.

I realise it may not be wise to start an article with a statistic so thoroughly un-researched but I’m no statto. I have far better things to do than masturbating over past encounters of who beat who, when and where.

The internet’s for other things.

This season it could happen though and that’s why tomorrow’s game at the Emirates is so tantalising to every Clarets fan out there.

We’ve enjoyed the ecstasy and its pitying come downs from cup competitions already this season.

The joys of seeing off Fulham, Chelsea and the Gunners still loom large, while who can ever stop thinking about the epic semi final against Tottenham.

The pain of that defeat still hurt at the League Cup’s climax last weekend. If we’d have got there we would have never of been beaten by an Ipod.

Tomorrow will see a convoy of Claret set off before sunrise to the city of dreams, crime, cockneys and Ashley Cole.

Of course this game is a round behind the rest of the teams left in the FA Cup due to the snow that forced Arsenal to call off their game against Cardiff a month ago due to supporter safety.

Fancy a stadium like the Emirates not having under concourse heating? The amateurs.

Arsene Wenger will field a stronger side than the one that appeared at the Turf just over four months ago. The likes of Walcott, Eduardo, Arshavin, Gallas and Van Persie could all be restored to the red and white line-up.

Burnley are shaky in defence with Michael Duff suspended and Rhys Williams ineligible.

But the good news is that Clark Carlise looked more like his old self when he returned to the side against Blackpool midweek, while top scorer Martin Paterson and cup hero Brian Jensen should shake off knocks to take to the field.

Burnley have only lost two of their last eight league and cup meetings with Arsenal and in Owen Coyle we have a man that guided St Johnstone to the semi-finals of both of Scotland's major cup competitions in 2007-08.

Who said I wasn’t a statto?

With Coyle and the rest of the backroom staff pumping the lads up into the same euphoric spirit that dumped Arsene Wenger’s young scallywags out of the Carling Cup in December we can still “dare to dream.”

Those three words seem to have become the mantra of the season so far.

The dream would of course be to win at Wembley in May via the Playoffs and reach the Premiership promise land.

But while we wait for the climax of that, these days out continue to be a welcome distraction.

Of course, our recent form may suggest our cup jaunts have taken its toll at Championship level. But with the form of every team in that division being as wayward as Mr Cheryl Cole after a couple of cocktails we still have a chance.

It means we’re able to forget our playoff push for just one day and go to the Emirates full of hope and spirit for another great day out which could transform into another Claret and Blue coloured upset.

Cowboy Parry ran out of town

2009-02-27T09:22:00.000-08:00

I wonder if Rick Parry woke up with a horse’s head in his bed this morning.

The once immoveable Liverpool Chief Executive today announced his decision to step down at the end of the season after twelve years.

The politics of the Anfield boardroom has finally claimed a major victim just as it looked like Rafa Benitez would be the one to take the bullet.

The goateed one has been a stickler in his contract negotiations; verbally spitting on the latest offering this week.

By wanting exclusive rights to any transfer dealings before putting his quill to paper Benitez may have spelled the end for Parry.

The continued showdown between the two has echoes of the Wild West.

Although I doubt Parry could stand up to Rafa’s gun toting, gum chewing posture, well unless he could finally get Jurgen Klinnsman lined up for backup.

Although the pair have been less friendly than the Israelis and Palestinians for the last few years Rafa is insisting he’s not the one to blame for this one.

The aggressor is hard to determine as the examination of the boardroom politics at Anfield is more complicated than anything I ever studied in History. In fact, countries have gone to war over less.

The two Yankee cigar lovers also both have motive to be the key to Parry's “mutual consent” departure.

Tom Hicks has long been a disparager of the departing chief exec, calling for his resignation back April last year.

While George Gillett JR, who had remained a close ally of Parry seems to fallen out love with the man that brought him to the club.

It brings to an end a beautiful releationship as George and Rick have been in cahoots over many things in the past; particularly signings.

Like two teenage girls drunk off too much coca-cola on a sleepover they seem to have treated the clubs transfer policy like picking their favourite member of Take That.

That’s apparently what happened when Robbie Keane came in over the less attractive Gareth Barry. I think they thought Keane had nicer hair and better skin.

And while Gillett continues to search for a buyer of his fifty percent stake in the club Parry’s departure may have already been inevitable.

The feeling on Merseyside seems to be one of good riddance. Many Kopites will never forgive the “dawdling” that nearly lost their beloved Steven Gerrard to Chelsea.

It seems the reign of Parry will be remembered best for its turbulence and lack of solidarity with those around him. Something which puts Liverpool’s glorious past to shame.

Veggie burgers all round for the all conquering United

2009-02-21T03:21:00.000-08:00

Edwin Van Der Saar has now not conceded a goal in a record breaking twenty one hours and forty two minutes of football.

Ryan Giggs has now scored in every premier league season.

And Paul Scholes remains the greatest ever ginger haired player.

(With Alan Ball a close second and sincerest apologies to Alexi Lalas and Dave Kitson who didn’t make the cut. You were both definitely ginger though.)

Sir Alex Ferguson’s team of insurmountable imps are currently making a mockery title race as they look like Usain Bolt taking on the latest arrivals at Fat Camp in a fifty yard dash.

Liverpool are perhaps the only one of the conventional big four left in the race but even their meaty little fingers are slowly slipping away from the cake tin.

And if their ruthless assault continues United will equal their closest rival’s record of nineteen league titles come May.

In fact a haul of an unprecedented five trophies could still be paraded around Manchester in just a few months.

But who will stop them? Especially with the likes of Fulham rolling over like an in-season dog consciously waiting to humped by the libidinous red devils.

Teams are more than ever before being beaten before they get off the team bus when visiting Old Trafford leaving United with an almost free run at the trophy.

Aston Villa look perhaps the most likely to eventually stand up to Sir Alex but unfortunately an austere challenge may be beyond them this season.

It looks like United just have too much. At the back they are as impregnable, dominating in the midfield, while in attack they are stylishly clinical.

All the talk at the moment surrounds Ryan Giggs, with the veteran making a late shout for the footballer of the year crown.

The Welsh wizard is playing with such youthful vigour that Sir Alex might as well stick him back on boot cleaning duties.

Giggs personifies how the modern day footballer should conduct himself. Quiet and unassuming off the field and uniquely talented and hardworking on it.

The youngster’s who are currently observing him around the first team such as Evans, Rafael, Nani, Possebon and Wellbeck should all be taking notes.

For the man who endorsed Quorn’s introduction into the U.K food markets talents are so strong that they bring meat and leaf eaters together for a nutrition-less Giggsy-Wiggsy love-in.

And come the end of the season the most decorated player in English football history may well be donning more silverware and heading out on the town for a veggie burger to celebrate.

Capello’s England needs to act as a contraceptive

2009-02-14T02:49:00.000-08:00

Many have derided England’s midweek defeat to Spain by saying that as a nation we should be made of sterner stuff.

I think that’s unfair. How many twelve year old Spaniards have you heard about that can impregnate a fifteen year old girl and complete Grand Theft Auto in the same afternoon?

But on Wednesday night hopefully the majority of the countries children were plonked in front of their telly’s watching and learning rather than getting up to any mischief with members of the opposite sex.

We must take a lot from the match in Seville; mainly that we need to become more like the Spaniards.

We need players who are comfortable in possession in any area of the pitch and who dare to play without lumping the ball forward without any clear direction.

At times Spain too play with the old P.E teacher aphorism “if in doubt boot it out” as many times Pique was no-nonsense in defence.

But for England, that style was all too familiar as our attackers struggled to keep possession from hopeful high balls played into them.

There were positives, Shaun Wright Phillips attacked and defended admirably, we welcomed Michael Carrick back to the team, Beckham celebrated 108 caps with glimpses of genius and Carlton Cole looked like he could become a decent member of the squad.

I thought that despite missing Ferdinand, Gerrard, Rooney, Walcott and Joe Cole we did give a decent account of ourselves.

It was definitely a worthwhile exercise and the game has served as a wakeup call to those who feel that England have become Brobdingnagian overnight under Capello.

Even with the return of some big names we’re not and are very much a work in progress.

I’m sure that we’ll top the group in qualifying and give a good account of ourselves in South Africa next summer.

Who knows by then we may have found the right balance of defensive steel and confidence in possession to see us through to that allusive first final since ’66.

God knows we need it…if only to give our school kids something else to do with their time than making babies.

The magic of the F.A Cup…in less than two calories.

2009-02-07T04:38:00.000-08:00

A tiny hard sweet made broadcasting history this week as the 2009 advertising campaign for Tic-Tacs became an image entrenched with the F.A Cup.

It happened as ITV, who were screening the match, accidentally cut to adverts while the game was reaching its climax causing viewers to miss Dan Gosling’s first ever minty fresh Everton goal.

Armchair fans were in uproar as the air in television gallery turned as blue as a Christian Bale film set.

Bale’s outburst made the news this week as he exploded at some poor underpaid lighting bloke whilst filming. It was certainly unexpected to hear him react the way he did, although maybe he just couldn’t get out of character, although this was the new Terminator film and not a biopic of Joe Kinnear.

The whole sorry incident of the breath sweet has caused many to lampoon the broadcaster who has already been the target of much ridicule for its shoddy FA Cup highlights packages.

But their incompetence at programming adverts may in a way have reignited our passions for the cup.

Its authenticity as a serious competition has been much maligned due to dwindling attendances and squad reshuffling by some of the premierships elite.

But it just shows what it still means to the people of this country when we react with such indignation when we see the F.A Cup being abused by lazy broadcasters.

Cast your mind back to some of the competition’s best moments; Ronnie Radford’s screamer against Newcastle, Dave Beasant saving John Aldridge’s penalty against Liverpool at Wembley or the final whistle being blown as Sutton United knocked out Coventry City. What if these memories had been tarnished by visual confectionary pamphlets?

You can widen it up, what if television advertising had ruined Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon by playing out a mistimed verruca advert just as he was about to bark his immortal “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” catchphrase.

And think of the furore if one of those “Had an accident” personal injury claim ads had been cut to during Elton John’s moving performance of “Candle in the Wind” during Princess Diana’s funeral.

What if ITV were to let that happen again in the final? How many millions of people would miss out on Burnley’s winning goal against Manchester United?

I dream of course, because as the haze clears from my sleepy eyes I can see myself running away celebrating with my arm aloft following a thunderous thirty yard strike that left Van Der Saar as helpless as Carol Thatcher at a Black Panther meeting.

In summary of this calorie redundant sweet episode I suppose it’s the old cliché “that’s the magic of the cup” that springs to mind.

ITV have messed up but how probable is it that this misdemeanour could only have taken place during an FA Cup tie?

“It would never happen on the BBC” said one text message to a radio show after the event.

I’ll let you debate their use or neglect of irony.

The crazy, sleepless world of today’s freedom fighting, wrestling, football superstars.

2009-01-31T03:23:00.000-08:00

It’s been a curious old week in the game over the past seven days.

The early season touchline beard stroking and technical mastery of Rafa Benitez that engineered Liverpool’s ascent to the top of the league seems to have been replaced by a frantic flurrying for lost tactic notes in his facial fur.

Things have stopped going right on the pitch for Liverpool and off it things have gone, well “crazy”.

Those five letters may come to resemble the story of Rafa’s season.

The teams crumbling at Wigan midweek followed by the gaffer doing the same in the press room is a clear indiction that Liverpool are bottling it.

The dysphoria that current resides around the Red’s title aspirations isn’t new for prospective new comers in the title race.

It seems to be yet another case of the glorious fall from grace that comes when managers feel that to win the title they have to knock out “Mr Ferguson” with a heavy, well aimed verbal cuffing.

Ever since Rafa’s rant about referee’s favouring United and Fergie’s dismissal of the situation as the “ridiculous” babbling of the “disturbed” the club has been sent tumbling on a downward spiral.

At the moment Benitez resembles a small browbeaten child urged by his father to stand up to his feared rival the school bully. As the concerned dad tells his cowering offspring “change your piss stained underpants, put your head up and walk with your shoulders straight and if he picks on you again kick him straight in the bollocks”.

However, in this case when the goateed child returns to school and is cornered by the brute, the courageous swing of his right peg is dodged and counter-manoeuvred by the bully into a pain staking wedgie before victoriously dumping his victim into a litter bin submitting the poor lad to a lifetime of low self esteem and a career in I.T.

Rafa needs to learn quickly that championships against Manchester United are not won in the press room. He must inspire his side to get back to their early season form on the pitch and keep winning games no matter how well they play and maybe, just maybe they will have a chance.

Other interesting interludes this week have included the goal celebrations of Solomon Kalou and the curious case of Charles Insomnia, err N’Zogbia.

Little Charlie has refused to play for Newcastle again while Joe Kinnear is at the helm due to the managers inability to get his name right on the telly.

“They were schoolboy quotes. I should get a cane and give him six of the best” said the S&M loving Magpies boss.

And after scoring for Chelsea during Wednesday night's match against Middlesborough it was suggested Soloman Kalou’s crossed fist gesture was made in support of imprisoned countryman and writer Antoine Assalé Tiémoko.

Much debate has followed with the most likely conclusions being narrowed down to Tiemoko, the salute of his favourite WWE wrestler John Cena or a nod to his love of Akon’s Konvict Records label.

Whether it’s freedom of speech, bad music or grappling, perhaps it is the latter that should settle football’s scores.

I mean, look at what Rafa's use of freedom of speech has done to Liverpool.

Imagine N’Zogbia and Kinnear rolling round in the mud at the club’s training ground or the heavyweight championship bout between Fergie and Rafa.

Although I suspect if that were to happen Six Alex would have Benitez locked on the floor whilst sat on the Spaniard with a tweezer plucking hairs from his goatee one by one.

Perhaps Rafa should tag his partner Robbie Keane into the ring to help him survive the torment?

You lost but how about a tossing off from old Brucie?

2009-01-22T10:24:00.001-08:00

The dust has well and truly settled.

The reality of the struggle to attain a top six finish against teams with premiership parachutes sewn together with pound notes will come back into play from Tuesday.

I remain a proud Claret in face of the Spurs defeat, that’s one thing that’s unwavering.

But now I would like to mourn the passing of Wednesday’s Wembley opportunity without the continued condescending moral comforting from other clubs supporters.

I don’t need or want a Spurs, Rovers or fan of any club to give me the token “well done” or “you boys deserved it more”.

For all their supercilious good will, they might as well come and whisper “there, there” in my ear whilst patting me on the head or why not go the whole hog and offer me a consolation hand-job to soothe my disappointment.

Football’s a cut throat game where fans biased opinions matter.

Working in a Blackburn office I’d rather have a gloating Rovers fan spouting gash about how great our demise was than seek his solace.

At least then there’s still something to hate about losing.

Today the whole workforce has turned into caricature of Bruce Forsyth, with each well wisher coining the “didn’t they do well” catchphrase.

Last night saw a Tottenham supporting friend of mine send a barrage of pissy text messages about how he wished we’d have gone through instead and will buy me a drink for every underserved Spurs goal.

Ok, I’ll still take the six drinks but depression keeps returning because of these people’s smug sentiments.

Now please stop treating me like a failed game show contestant and get back to your relegation battles.

It’s our loss and our moment that’s passed so let me wave to the camera and say I’ve had a jolly good day out without tickling my bottom from behind.

Because lets face it when things go wrong for them I won’t be offering them my tossing off hand in sympathy.

Proud to be a Claret

2009-01-21T17:35:00.000-08:00

The final whistle blew after 120 minutes of Claret and Blue bravery.

We were 180 seconds away from Wembley.

Three minutes from the promise land.

You look around you in the stand, people had dared to dream. I had dared to dream.

Tears were shed as the gut wrenching blow of Pavlyuchenko’s winner was compounded by Defoe sticking his salty fingers deep into Burnley’s wound.

It’s not unusual for football to put you through every conceivable emotion but tonight was something incomparable to anything I’ve experienced before and perhaps will ever again.

Last time we reached a cup final in 1962 Spurs denied us victory. Tonight was to be no different in the quest to reach our first in forty seven years.

Many who were there that day in ’62 may never get another chance to see the small town club they adore play in another cup final.

And who knows, this may be the closest I ever get.

But I couldn’t ask anymore of those players and couldn’t be prouder.

Harry’s pooch faced smugness was well and truly wiped away; for tonight Houdini’s escape was a bungled effort which left him gasping for breath.

Spurs can have their heartless multi million pound squad; because tonight I saw two teams leagues apart in terms of character, cohesion and spirit.

The level of performance offered by everyone in Claret and Blue was something to behold.

It’s been a great cup run and something that will live long in the memory.

Beating the likes of Fulham, Arsenal and Chelsea on the road to the semi finals was a tremendous achievement, as was taking Tottenham right to the wire.

The thanks and credit must go to Owen Coyle and his team for what they’ve achieved so far this season.

But it’s not over yet.

I said at the start of the piece I dared to dream.

And I still do.

There may be no League Cup final for us this season, but there are still scalps to be taken in the F.A Cup and a trip to Wembley via the playoffs is still on.

Burnley Football Club should believe it.

The dream never dies.

Up the Clarets.

Let us through...we're from Burnley

2009-01-21T07:51:00.000-08:00

As Barack Obama begins redecorating the Oval Office in his paint stained tracksuit bottoms today a similar struggle to gain success is about to take place.

Tonight President Coyle will lead out his beleaguered Claret and Blue troops into battle at Turf Moor.

Our weary Lancastrians have lost five from their last seven games and are faced with righting a three goal deficit after the unjust four one defeat inflicted at White Hart Lane a fortnight ago.

The pain of defeat put a dampener on our planned assault on the Capital’s nightlife afterwards, although it was ruined further by a jobs-worth doorman in Leicester Square deciding a group of six young northern gentlemen was far too many to fill his empty bar on a bitterly cold Tuesday night.

Injuries and suspensions have hit hard this month, while performance levels have dropped faster than the banks share prices.

A seasonal defeat at Preston was typical of the bad luck the team is having at the moment. Not even a wonder strike from Robbie Blake could stop the referee interpreting the rule book with Lilywhite tendentiousness.

While City’s Arabs are being knocked back for attempting to corrupt and seduce Kaka by slipping millions of euros down his jockstrap, the other end of football’s financial scale is hardly as enchanting.

Offloading the likes of Gabor Kiraly Ade Akinbiyi and Steve Jones has become a necessity in order to bring in new faces.

This leaves the club in an arduous position and makes the task of strengthening weaker positions in the team such as central defence and right full back doubly difficult.

But we fight on with what we have. And there’s no doubt that within the current squad there is an abundance of attacking quality and drive in the midfield.

If we can get Chris Eagles, Wade Elliot and Robbie Blake on song with Chris McCann and Kevin McDonald surging through the middle then anything’s possible.

Winning the game would be a fitting end to our life in the competition. The score line might not be enough to send us down to Wembley but it will lift the spirits of the fans when form isn’t great and games are coming thick and fast.

Plus it’ll put a halt to any more altercations with oafish, overly fastidious London door staff.

Although if we do make it to Wembley there won't be any bars in the capital not full of Claret and Blue come the first weekend in March.

The cruel tick of the clock

2009-01-10T03:09:00.000-08:00

Approximately 20:45 on Tuesday night I was in heaven.

The half time whistle had been blown at White Hart Lane where Burnley had outplayed Spurs for the duration of the first period with their slick, open, attractive footballing display.

A brilliant piece of play by Chris Eagles had left the Tottenham defence motionless as he weaved into the box to square the ball for Martin Paterson to make it one nil to the Clarets.

There were scenes of joy and jubilation as the style and level of performance that’d already seen off Fulham, Chelsea and Arsenal looked to be working again. Jermain Defoe must have been pulling that ridiculous hat down over his face in disgust.

Hugs, handshakes and text messages to absent friends were flying around while contact with my Spurs mate had gone remarkably quiet. He must have been feeling a bit of a tit for all his pre match talk of a Claret and Blue annihilation.

The mood was perhaps epitomised by the big screen, which cruelly replayed the Burnley goal at several different angles, with each play receiving an ever louder cheer from the away fans.

The substantial number of “it’s never over until it’s over” clichés will testify that football isn’t a game to be resting on your laurels. Deep down we all know this, however on the odd occasion we allow ourselves to get carried away.

Burnley were leading in the semi finals of the League Cup for Christ’s sake.

But as we cheered and jeered, Harry Redknapp was busy giving a team talk of orgasmic proportions.

Whether he morphed into Coach D’Amato in “Any Given Sunday” or William Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk it certainly worked.

Perhaps ‘Arry had hooked up the action on the big screen through to the dressing room and it was him that was rewinding the video that was sending the fans in the stands as giddy as a teenager drinking their first bottle of blue WKD.

With the restart our joyful marriage to the first half was about to be met with the revelation of a cold, callous mistress.

A four goal humping in the second period left us with a deficit not even Gordon Ramsey would be able to rebuild.

The details of the way we imploded are now irrelevant. Of course, there is a chance of a second leg come back at the Turf.

Believe me, I’ve already dreamt of an early goal multiplying into two or maybe three while the North Londoner’s are still thinking about the shade of their Cup Final suits.

But realistically, the best we can hope for to beat Spurs on the night. Wembley may be a step too far, but Owen Coyle needs to pull up his men’s shorts to cover their red spanked bottoms and go down in a blaze of glory a week on Tuesday.

If we can end what has been a fantastic cup run on a high then I’m sure they’ll be a ground full of even more proud Clarets than there already are.

Gerrard's jukebox and a spot of bother

2009-01-03T03:24:00.000-08:00

Steven Gerrard has found himself front page news this week.

Normally the star of the rear of a newspaper, the England international has been sharing pages with the Israeli attacks on Gaza, the despair in the housing market and Zoë, 17, from London.

He was arrested and subsequently charged with assault and affray following an altercation with the D.J at the vapidly named Lounge Inn in Southport in the early hours of Monday morning.

The whole sorry incident is said to have taken place over the D.J’s refusal to play one of Gerrard’s favourite songs.

A known admirer of the musical ditty’s of Phil Collins, its little wonder the man behind the decks kept his principals and was prepared to lose a tooth to rebuff the request.

If that was actually the case then he must be in line for the “Outstanding Contribution to Music Award” at this year’s Brit Awards.

Perhaps if Gerrard’s alleged misdemeanour had taken place in Knowsley it would have attracted less attention.

As a freeman of the borough, slapping around a part time D.J is surely only secondary to driving his sheep down the main street of his home town.

Whatever went on and whether he is innocent or not, Gerrard is undoubtedly one of the most important footballers to come out of the country in recent years.

His ability, drive, passion and indispensability has carried Liverpool to European success and to the brink of domestic triumph.

Every Red’s fan in the country will have fingers, toes and anything crossable crossed that this won’t influence their title aspirations.

If Gerrard does falter Rafa Benitez will have to hope Fernando Torres can rise from the treatment table to take the mantle and rediscover his form of last season.

But this blow comes at a time when Manchester United have fought their way to a series of one nil victories ready for their traditional New Year blitz on the Premier League.

We all now Sir Alex Ferguson will burst every blood vessel left in his increasingly cardinal cheeks to ensure it’s the Manchester Reds who sit perched at the top of the pile come May.

Gerrard will have to be more determined than ever if he is to be undeterred by the combined pressure of the clubs domestic and European campaigns, the legal process and the impending lambasting from opposition fans.

I imagine the chants of sewing bags, finding a file in the half time oranges and being sodamised in the showers have already been dreamt up.

Not to mention; “You’re just a sh** Joey Barton”.

I’m sure we’ll all be watching and listening intently when he takes to the field at Preston this evening.

If he is to eventually be found guilty and locked up it would be a flagitious blow to Liverpool Football Club’s attempts to rejoin the English Championship winning elite.

However it might provide Fabio Caello with the unlikeliest of solutions to the Lampard/Gerrard debate.

Jack and Rose fail to renew their Rovers season tickets

2008-12-20T02:34:00.000-08:00

While Sam Allardyce will be acquainting himself with the home dugout at Ewood Park this weekend, Paul Ince will perhaps be in hiding, doing a spot of shopping in Woolies.

Blackburn Rovers parted company with the Premiership’s first Black English manager on Tuesday and replaced him with England’s whitest manager on Wednesday.

But while the debate about whether Ince got a fair crack of the whip does the rounds, it is perhaps irrelevant as relegation for a club like Blackburn would be financially disastrous.

The brand the Premier League has created makes it near on impossible for young British managers and players to develop themselves in front of the watching billions and blood thirsty moneymen.

Gareth Southgate has weathered the storm and must be applauded by mixing foreign players with an impressive academy pool.

For Ince, bringing in a League Two journeyman in Keith Andrews may have been an indication that the young Rovers were not to be trusted.

But that cannot be the reason for his failure; inexperience, the lack of investment in a replacement for David Bentley, no resolution being found to defensive frailties and a distinct shortage of creativity can all be lamented for the team taking only three points from the last thirty three.

It seems to me Ince suffered from the impending end of the Mark Hughes era.

Sparky left to join Manchester City knowing many of his over performing stars were beginning to seek moves to bigger, more attractive clubs.

If this were the Titanic, Hughes could not be compared to the admirable Captain Smith. Instead he would have fixed up his grey bouffant and donned a dress in a gallant attempt to steal the spots of women and children on one of the lifeboats before navigating it straight to Eastlands.

But now it is Big Sam who faces the gargantuan task of keeping Rovers in the Premier League.

One of the few men to ever pull off the moustache, Allardyce will be looking to have the sort of impact Harry Redknapp has had at Spurs.

The worrying thing is he definitely has the ability. An inferior tactical nouse to any of managers at clubs near the bottom, Sam knows how to play against and grind out results against most opposition.

He’s also an expert at picking up a bargain in the transfer window.

If he can inspire his team of confidence struggling fellows to survival then it may save them the embarrassment of being bypassed by Burnley next season.

Bottom at Christmas

2008-12-12T09:46:00.000-08:00

Today’s headline isn’t a reference to Dale Winton’s letter to Santa but to the curse that generally means relegation for whichever club is at the foot of the Premiership table come 25th December.

Only West Brom’s heroics in the 2004/05 season have broken the trend in this frightening statistic since the league’s formation in 1992.

With two games to go and six points to play for before the big day, at least three or four clubs will be praying they can yank themselves away from the bottom.

The contenders for this kiss of death are West Brom, Blackburn Rovers, Sunderland and Newcastle.

All four teams have different reasons behind their struggle and are all finding it difficult to pick up points in what has become an incredibly difficult league.

Starting at the bottom we have West Brom, a team promoted from the Championship last season who were renowned for their neat passing football.

The Baggies seem to have kept their philosophy of getting the ball down on floor which may be behind their accumulation of just twelve points.

The Premiership possesses many teams that play excellent football which makes it difficult for them to compete.

The millions of pounds it takes to accumulate a top flight strike force possibly isn’t worth the gamble for a team good enough to come straight back up if they find themselves in the bottom three come May.

Although if they show some of their “Great Escape” spirit of 2005 it could make their final fixture against Blackburn a very interesting one.

And so we come to Ewood Park.

A difficult one to evaluate not only because of the intense hatred and loathing any Burnley fan has for Rovers but also because working for a radio station local to Blackburn I spend some of my time covering them.

During this run, I have joyfully made my way to the Brockhall training ground to hear countless excuses for their inability to win.

It takes some restraint not to laugh, shout “your shit” or break into a chorus of “No Nay Never”, the Burnley version of course.

It’s not that I want Ince to fail, a boyhood hero of mine as a player and a genuinely honest and decent bloke but that rivalry means if he is to become the fall guy in Rover’s descent then so be it.

I’m sure he’ll become a great English manager one day but I do feel he stepped into the lion’s den when he took the job on in the summer.

Ince’s philosophy is to play football, something he is trying to do with a squad inherited from a manager that didn’t.

Mark Hughes’ success at Rovers was built around a solid defensive backbone with a belief of winning at any cost.

He was heavily criticised for his style but no one can deny that it worked. Much like Sam Allardyce’s Bolton, the rough and tumble, workmanlike performances paid dividends in keeping them away from the drop zone.

I think Ince may have tried to have implement his views on the way the team should play too soon, resulting in players who had not been assembled to play flowing, attractive football struggling.

Instead a gradual transition may have been better, giving Ince time to build his own team who are more suited to his style of football.

Instead, average personnel is left playing some very good footballing teams at their own game.

No disrespect to the likes of Aaron Mokoena and Keith Andrews who have been playing regularly in the centre of the park but there are much stronger midfield partnerships in most of other teams in the league.

They may be aided by the return of David Dunn, but with his unfortunate injury record I’d rather gamble on Roy Chubby Brown keeping fit.

Although the way “fat bastard” keeps running off stage at the moment he’ll soon be able to do a job sitting in front of the back four.

The loss of Brad Friedel and Bentley has also been key, match winners at both ends of the pitch, their absence will see Rovers lose vital points they would have taken last season.

The other two teams in touch of being bottom at Christmas both hail from the North East.

Newcastle and Sunderland have also suffered from their managers walking out on them this season.

Kevin Keegan left St James’ Park in September after what he perceived as interference from boardroom level.

Since then the club has been put up for sale leaving Joe Kinnear to try and turn them around.

Having got themselves out of the bottom three they seem to have found the resolve to combine with the player’s undoubted ability to pull themselves out of trouble.

Sunderland on the other hand have seen Roy Keane massively overspend, signing players for fun using Niall Quinn’s consortium's gold card.

The bearded WAG has brought many a spangly accessory to the Stadium of Light who have proved to be about as watchable as an episode of Celeb Air.

Around seventy million pounds has been flashed on assembling a team with little cohesion.

Some of Keano’s choices have also been quite bizarre; many of his signings have certainly been a contrast in character to the man himself.

It’s been like finding Elizabeth Taylor raiding the January sales at Elizabeth Duke.

But having walked out after a few defeats maybe he has lost some of the desire he had for the game as a player.

Without Keane, Sunderland's new manager must firstly evaluate which of the hefty playing squad are up for the fight.

The lazy and lacklustre defending shown against Bolton cannot be repeated in that sort of crunch fixture if they are to avoid the drop.

Relegation for any of the teams with the exception of West Brom would prove to be an unmitigated financial disaster.

At a time when players, managers, directors and fans all start looking for signs, the traditional bottom at Christmas tag will be one that they will want to avoid like bumping into a half cut Kerry Katona.

The art of seduction and semi finals.

2008-12-06T01:46:00.000-08:00

Ah, the sweet smell of success.

Ok, maybe it was the smell of Bovril or perhaps the bogs but it still smelt great.

Or perhaps it may have been the whiff of the same aftershave Arsene Wenger used to seduce Cristiano Ronaldo’s mum emanating from the away dugout.

Whatever it was I inhaled a massive dose of it on Tuesday night.

In fact, anyone that left Turf Moor that evening would have done so sniffing it like a trophy pair of knickers confiscated from their first sexual conquest.

I wonder if Arsene did that with Mrs. Winker’s panties.

Of course Wenger was talking this week about charming her into making her offspring sign for Arsenal but conceded that his advances were not enough as Cristiano was eventually seduced by Carlos Queiroz to join United.

But imagine if Monsieur Wenger had actually had his wicked way with Ronaldo’s mother. It would be the perfect tonic to combat the winger.

Imagine as Cristiano makes one of his trademark dazzling runs down the touchline all Wenger would have to do his step out to the edge of his technical area and say…

“…well, err, your mum, she iz shit in ze sack.”

Forget doubling up or this tactical fouling nonsense, Ronaldo would collapse to his knees in tears wishing his mum would be quick and have it off with the President of Real Madrid.

We must return to Tuesday now, things are getting far too steamy, I don’t think football has been this sexual since Mark Lawrenson used to touch himself on Match of the Day.

Well, Burnley are back…again.

A stunning two nil victory over the Gunner’s superstar youngsters proves things are on the rise in East Lancashire.

The Clarets showed by playing slick passing football that teams such as Arsenal can be beaten at their own game.

The atmosphere was electric as our youngsters showed that playing regular first team football is more beneficial than the good press an occasional outing brings.

The likes of Kevin McDonald, Chris McCann, Martin Paterson and Chris Eagles have all flourished since being given the opportunity to show what they can do regularly.

All had and still do have lots to learn but their education has been accelerated by getting games in a tough league.

Unfortunately for Wenger’s kids they need to spend some time at the school of hard knocks, whether that be in the first team at the Emirates or being loaned out to the Championship.

One man who has had a fantastic season is the “Beast” Brian Jensen.

The hero in the wins against both Chelsea and Arsenal the big Dane is an example to any youngster who suffers a knock back in the game.

Since joining the club under Stan Ternent in 2003 there have been several “replacements” brought in to take the number one spot.

But Brian kept his dignity and worked hard and now finds himself at the peak of his career in the form of his life.

And in my opinion nobody deserves this current run of form more than the beast.

With the semi final draw looming whoever we get will be a cracker of a tie.

Whether we go down in a blaze of glory or reach Wembley nobody can take away the achievement of Owen Coyle and his team.

At the very least this run will open the eyes of many to the good work being done at the club and hopefully help us keep on attracting players of a high calibre.

I just hope once they are interested Mr Coyle is better versed in the art of seduction than Arsene Wenger.

All I can say is God help Ronaldo’s mother if she ever comes to Turf Moor.

Its panto season...but whos playing the back of the horse?

2008-11-29T02:51:00.000-08:00

Its not even December and pantomime season is already upon us.

Not only do we have terrible acting in the form of an attempted dive by Wayne Rooney midweek but we also have more managers playing Widow Twanky than I care to mention.

The only thing that might be missing is a choir of Spurs fans singing risqué double entendre to Sol Campbell.

Although that’s probably a good thing.

This weekend seems to be a week of derbies, with Manchester, the Tyne Tees and London all gearing up for heavily anticipated clashes.

In Manchester, Six Alex, unfortunately not wearing a wig and a dress, has been dismissing City’s chances of eventually overtaking United with their vast new found fortunes and even found time in his analysis to conclude Arsenal are in “disarray”.

“Oh yes we are” screamed Hughes.

“Oh no we’re not” whispered Wenger.

Pantomime villain William Gallas’ behaviour has for a long time been as bizarre as Britney Spear’s reported X Factor demands and it was only right he was dropped as captain.

Now the articulate Frenchman has written a book, which if previous form is anything to go by will probably seal his transfer away from the Emirates.

Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari has backed the Gunner’s insisting they are not out of the title race just yet and a victory against his side on Sunday would get their season back on track.

I doubt Wenger and his players even believe Scolari’s prophecy. In fact it’s probably about as convincing as that old fairy tale where three bears chase away a dirty young scamp for messing around in their bed.

And no, I’m not making more revelations about Boy George’s private life.

As the season hots up, expect more of these mind games, dramas and verbal foul play.

Let’s just hope the jousting continues to be as thrilling on the pitch as it is off it.

For football is a pantomime that’s available to audiences all year round.

It’s just a shame nobody can camply shout “he’s behind you” to whichever players about to be tackled by Graeme Le Saux anymore.

Only joking Graeme.

Forget president...step forward the new master of the universe.

2008-11-14T10:39:00.001-08:00

Last week I called for President Coyle to step forward…now he’s gone beyond that accolade…step forward Owen Coyle- Master of the Universe.

Anything could’ve happened in the world of football this week and it would still have played second fiddle to my chosen topic.

Even Fergie revealing a long standing love affair with Arsene Wenger or Kevin Keegan returning to St James’ Park in a spaceship couldn’t have moved Burnley beating Chelsea from number one.

And remember, this was in a week that Fabio Capello banned tomato ketchup from meal times in the England squad.

So Wednesday saw a glorious victory for Burnley Football Club over Premier League table toppers Chelsea.

It was truly a night of Claret and Blue hearts.

Some might try and diminish the victory by saying it wasn’t a full Chelsea side. But of the fit players available to Luis Felipe Scolari only Petr Cech, John Terry, Bosingwa and Nicolas Anelka were omitted.

The likes of Deco, Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, Flourant Malouda, John Obi Mikel, Solomon Kalou, Wayne Bridge and Alex all featured in the line up and were equally matched by the heroic Championship outfit.

Beating any Chelsea team at Stamford Bridge is some feat and one Owen Coyle’s men did with great aplomb.

Throughout the night over six thousand travelling Clarets sang their hearts out and were rewarded with a result beyond their wildest dreams.

The euphoria that was experienced when Ade Akinbiyi followed up Chris Eagles shot to thunder the ball home was something special.

In fact the whole experience is something that can never be taken away from the club and the fans.

The image of Brian Jensen flying across the goal to save Obi Mikel’s penalty will go down in Burnley folklore.

The only thing that has threatened to overshadow it was the coin throwing incident where Burnley fans and Didier Drogba exchanged loose change.

It’s not something which I wish to dwell on but anybody throwing coins at a football match for whatever reason is an idiot.

The only thing I will say about Drogba is that if he played the game by purely showing his ability as he did for the goal then there would not be a problem.

However the constant petulance and child like manner shown by the man wouldn’t be tolerated at children’s level.

Constant diving and chasing referees may be part of life in the Premiership but not in the Championship where the game is slightly more honest.

In order to achieve true greatness any sportsman must act with grace and the attitude of the champion, something Drogba for all his undoubted power and ability is yet to add to his game.

After over two hours of constant signing my vocal chords were worn thinner than one of Jodie Marsh’s thongs but we were home and dry.

But somehow it never seemed in doubt. Chelsea flattered to deceive going forward and rarely threatened with clear cut opportunities.

It was one of those games where it seemed written in the stars.

Let’s just hope Blackburn Rovers in the quarter finals is carved into the constellation when the draw is made tomorrow.

Step forward President Coyle...

2008-11-08T01:23:00.000-08:00

What a wonderful week for the world.

Barack Obama is the President elect of the United States of America.

Lewis Hamilton is Formula One Champion.

And Burnley Football Club are nestled comfortably in the top six in the Championship.

There’s definitely some sort of new world order.

But while Barack gets his teeth into solving the global economic crisis, steering us away from impending Armageddon and buying puppies, it’s President Coyle that gets my plaudits.

The wee Scotsman is busy transforming the Clarets into a solid but attractive outfit who are playing with great flair, elegance and panache.

The likes of Robbie Blake and Chris Eagles look head and shoulders above anyone else in that department but with the aptitude of Chris McCann, Wade Elliot, Martin Paterson and Joey Gudjonsson they are ably assisted.

The back line has also been excellent, totally transformed from the disorganised bunch of gimps that turned up for the first two games of the season which saw the team ship seven goals.

Much of the praise must go to the gaffer Mr Owen Coyle was who has worked hard to get a team who plays attractive football, rarely concedes and are difficult to beat.

The club's recent success seems to be much attributed to the tremendous team spirit.

It’s great to see players celebrating a victory with such vigour, although their obsession with red underpants is quite disturbing.

Long may this wave of good fortune continue and if promotion was to be achieved then Coyle can expect much more than the honours bestowed on Obama this week.

But as we all know the Championship is a tight league where a couple of wins or defeats could see your position go up and down faster than Amy Winehouse’s knickers…well that’s if her husband Blake got his way after his promise on release from prison this week.

The same thing seems to be happening in the Premiership. In recent seasons there has definitely been almost three mini leagues operating within the twenty team structure but in recent weeks these boundaries have faded faster than John McCain’s Presidency hopes.

Just four points separates seventh and nineteenth at the start of play today with one more win for a rejuvenated Spurs meaning every team will have more points in November than Derby County did last May.

It's anyone’s guess at this stage who will get dragged in to the relegation battle by the end of the season, although on current form those teams facing the drop could easily be two wins away from attaining a much coveted spot in the UEFA Cup.

The performances of the promoted teams Stoke and Hull in particular have thrown the proverbial cat amongst the pigeons.

Hull City have undoubtedly been the surprise package of the season so far. Phil Brown seems to have found an effective way of playing the Premiership's elite and has been getting results.

Although I put it down to his lucky charm. Joes Mourinho had his “lucky” jacket while Brown has his “lucky” tan leather shoes…and skin.

But it is great to see a young fearless English manager not cowering to the bright lights of the big four and getting his team to have a good go at them.

One man who will always have a good go at his opponent is Joe Calazaghe who could possibly be bringing the curtain down on his so far unbeaten career tonight.

The Welshman has been an example to all sportsmen during his forty five fight professional career.

Whatever happens tonight against the legendary Roy Jones JR Calzaghe will go down in history as one of Britain’s great fighters.

Whether he chooses to fight on or not, let’s just hope his professional record reads 46 Wins, 0 Losses, 0 Draws in the morning.