The happiest of unhappy draws

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?