The longer the game went on, Just as away at Portsmouth and Everton, the home side slowly took control, seized the moments that scoring chances provided, and took them. The longer the game went on the more you sensed that Utd would score. Proud but disappointed was the concensus, but at least, Mr McCarthy, we put the first team out.
was the chant. “We’ve got more cash than you.” “Where’s yer money gone?” was another, the papers having been full of the news that Man U were £700million in debt and the Glazers anxious to put ticket prices up and even sell the stadium. “We support our local team,” the fantastic away support chanted in solidarity, a mantra that stuck two defiant fingers up at the man who will never be welcome in Burnley again.
“Not a good day for Owen Coyle,” announced SKY’s Richard Keys at the end of the televised Bolton versus Arsenal game. Arsenal won 2 – 0 to the delight of every Burnley supporter. Other teams around us picked up single points in 0 – 0 draws. Blackburn won. Wigan beat Wolves. Just one point separated Burnley and the bottom three on Sunday January 16th; not a good weekend for us, but neither were we in the bottom three – just yet.
To add to the delight, a few days later, Bolton were stuffed again by Arsenal; this time at The Emirates. To our astonishment and horror Bolton went into an early 2 – 0 lead. Justice was done when the final score was Arsenal 4 Bolton 2. Coyle was not best pleased and ranted at the injustice of things after the game. On the bench he looked tense and strained. During the post-match interview suddenly he looked a lot older; he sounded stressed, angry and under pressure. Following this result Bolton stayed in the bottom three. The next League game – Bolton versus Burnley; I made sure I had tickets.
Prior to this there was some light relief in the form of the Cup-tie at Reading. It was no foregone conclusion with Reading out to settle an old score – the defeat Burnley inflicted on them in the play-offs. Plus, astonishingly, Reading had beaten Liverpool at Anfield in the third round replay. A banana skin waited. Their position in the bottom three of the Championship invited the Clarets to give them a lesson and a defeat. If only football was so predictable.
The airwaves, websites and messageboards, and presumably the pubs, the marketplace, the chip shops, and kebab shops hummed with indignation and anger at the sorry display that Burnley put on in complete contrast to the one at Old Trafford. This was a truly poor performance, quite the worst since the Cotterill days, said some. Reading won 1 – 0 with an 87th minute goal and in truth they had little to beat so out of sorts were Burnley. You usually feel hard done by and morose when you lose to a goal just three minutes from time, but any moroseness this time was the result not so much because of the defeat, but more because of the performance. Depression had set in long before minute number 87. If the play-off victory there felt utterly euphoric; the feeling this time was funereal.
Here at Thomas Towers we watched a semi-tolerable picture on the internet (P2P4U). It was supposed to be live on the FA’s website. It wasn’t. Technical problems we were informed or maybe they just couldn’t be arsed to show it. Here’s hoping the FA get their World Cup bid better organised. Though slightly hazy if it was on full screen, and the size of a postage stamp if it wasn’t, and with the usual buffering and loss of picture, nevertheless it was good enough to see Burnley’s limitations, lack of energy and pace, the lack of any flowing passing moves, and poor defensive marking for the Reading goal. But, by then anyway, Reading could have been 2 – 0 up when a clear penalty was denied to them, and an open header was put wide.
McCann was back but because of the unavailability of both Kalvenes and Jordan so that he played left back. Gudjonnson came into midfield. Nugent was Cup-tied so Thompson (said to have been ill all the previous night) was the lonely man up front. Paterson replaced him in the second half and fared little better. Take away an occasional run from Eagles and a shot from McDonald, and Burnley were pretty much non existent other than a ten minute spell in the second half. Sadly the game lasted for 90.
Jeff Stelling made a rare mistake on SKY Soccer Saturday. He announced the Reading win as the giant-killing act of the day. It was anything but. It was a poor Championship side beating a very, very poor Premiership side. It was hard to understand, even with team changes, that a performance so good and filled with passion at old Trafford just 7 days earlier could be replaced by something so different at Reading. The nucleus, eight, of the side that started at Man Utd was still there.
At the beginning of the season most of us said we’d enjoy the Premiership ride and accept anything that came our way. There were no illusions about top six, or even top half finishes. The pundits forecast was that a swift return to the Championship was very likely and in the main we tended to agree that it would take a miracle for Burnley to survive. Survival was the name of the game. “Let’s just pay our debts, and then enjoy the visits to new grounds,” we said. “Let’s just enjoy the visits of great teams to Turf Moor.” And then, somehow we picked up 20 points that few experts expected us to gather quite so quickly and our hopes rose. Then, it all ran out of steam from October onwards and the results didn’t come, even when they were justly deserved.
When Barnsley knocked us out of the Carling Cup, yes it was disappointing, but “hey we can concentrate on Premiership survival,” we said. So Reading knocked us out of the FA Cup and “hey, we can concentrate on Premiership survival,” we said again. But one thing was clear after the knock-out; there would be no Premiership survival with more displays like that one. More than one newspaper reported on the lack of ambition in the Burnley display. If verve and spirit were missing, maybe it was not too difficult to see why. An out of sorts Blake and Elliot both ineffective for several weeks with Blake not even starting games, and the absence of Carlisle and Caldwell in the heart of the defence, provided one answer. The latter two may not be the most skilful players in the world but their character and combative qualities were immense in the promotion drive and the early part of the season. Jensen too in a number of games was far from his old self. And then, add to that, Paterson and McCann missing for a large part of the season until their Reading returns.
A January signing was the hardly prolific striker Nimani, a 6’ 4” under-21 French international from Monaco. In truth it seemed a strange signing considering the number of strikers already at the club (unless it was suspected that Nugent would be recalled). The crying need in fact was for a combative box-to-box midfielder. The one unresolved issue was Nugent’s loan spell from Portsmouth. He wanted to stay; Burnley wanted him to stay, Portsmouth wouldn’t say yea or nay, presumably hoping someone would come in and buy him. The most interesting and significant non-signing was Kilgallon from Sheffield United. The two clubs had agreed a fee. Kilgallon, or his agent, or both, I heard, simply laughed at the wages on offer. He went to Sunderland. It showed what Burnley were up against in the transfer window. Which, if any, top player would want to sign for £15k a week when they could get double that at most other places? It perhaps gave an insight into why Coyle upped sticks and left. The most fascinating topic on a messageboard was the one about ‘Brendan’s Loans’ on Claretsmad posted by someone purporting to know that Brendan Flood was feeling frustrated and angry by some of the “thinly veiled” accusations being made against him regarding the loans he had made and the levels and types of repayments. It was almost as if this topic was begun at the request of Brendan Flood or at least with his blessing. Quite simply, many people were not so much surprised by loan repayments, but at the staggering amounts of interest in some cases, as revealed in the AGM accounts and the local Press.
However, all that aside, if people wondered about the likely end to the season, or the merits of individual players, or even the new manager, there was one thing everyone agreed on - and that was simply: “We must beat Bolton and maybe, who knows, provide a massive upset against Chelsea.” No-one wanted to throw in the towel, no-one wanted to embrace ideas about a return to the Championship – just yet.
Dave Thomas January 23rd 2010
There hadn’t been a game since December 28th. We were ready and I made a mental resolve that if we were to be relegated I would not point the finger at Brian Laws. Let’s remember, I thought, that the slump began several weeks ago. One win in twelve and no win in eight were the statistics when the new man took over and during that period some of Coyle’s tactics and decision making were beginning to look iffy to say the least. And what a way to take over, with the three first-choice centre-backs all unavailable, McCann and Paterson not match fit, Bikey in Africa for the Nations Cup, and Carlise and Caldwell still injured. Duff and Edgar, making his debut, took the two places.
