Centurion Dyche
When Burnley beat Huddersfield 2-1 at the John Smith’s Stadium two days ago, it recorded a 100th league victory for the Clarets since Sean Dyche was appointed manager in October 2012.
In achieving three figures, Dyche has become the first Burnley manager to achieve that since Stan Ternent and they are the only two since Harry Potts who was manager from 1958 to 1970 and then again from 1977 to 1979.
It’s taken Dyche 260 games to get there; Stan was a bit quicker, making it to 100 in 242 games and taking his final total to 108 in 276 games. For the record, both managers have recorded a points per game total of 1.44, we scored more goals under Stan but Sean has the better defensive record.
Our first win under Dyche came on 3rd November 2012. It was a 2-0 win against Wolves with the goals scored by Martin Paterson and Charlie Austin. Three days later, Austin scored again to give us a 1-0 win against Leeds while later that month a Dean Marney goal gave Dyche his first away win, 1-0 at Hull.
That first season was, I think it is fair to say, pretty average from him coming in. We played 33, won 11, drew 11 and lost 11. We’ve since won a further 52 Championship games, 26 in each of the 2013/14 and 2015/16 seasons, and added a further 37 Premier League victories to that total.
We’ve seen 60 wins at the Turf with the other 40 in away games but who have we beaten the most often and which teams have we, to date, failed to beat? Against which teams do we have the best and worst records?
We’ve played against 49 teams and we can boast a 100% record against six of them although for five of those it’s against teams we’ve played just twice and beaten both times. We did the double over both Doncaster and Yeovil in 2013/14 and likewise in 2015/16 against Brentford, MK and Rotherham. The sixth is Bristol City who we have beaten three times. The first was at home in 2012/13 and we then completed the double over them in 2015/16.
Only four of those 49 do we still have a zero against in the wins column. Three of them are from the supposed big six, namely Arsenal, Manchester United and Spurs. The fourth might take some working out but it is Peterborough who we have played just once, drawing 2-2 at London Road. The record against Arsenal is the worst; it’s played seven, lost seven, and no team has scored more league goals against us in the Dyche era. Both they and Chelsea have scored 16.
So who have we beaten the most often? Crystal Palace, Derby, Huddersfield, Hull and Leeds have all been beaten four times but the best of the lot is Charlton. The first time Dyche came up against them, we were beaten 1-0 at home on the day Kieran Trippier was sent off for supposedly handling the ball on the line. Since, we’ve played them a further five times, won all five, scored 14 goals and haven’t conceded any.
We will all have our own views as to which have been the best of the 100 wins and it is easy to go for the most important of them such as the promotion clincher against Wigan, the day we won the title against QPR and probably the win at Crystal Palace in 2017 that eased any relegation nerves. And let’s not forget three successive wins against Blackburn Rovers, the team that hasn’t beaten us now in almost nine years.
I decided to look back and choose my favourite home and away wins during that time and I’ve deliberately not included any of the Blackburn wins, although, rest assured, I loved them, still have them on my Sky box and watch them often.
At home, I’m going for Nottingham Forest in 2014.It was the start of a run of key games with Derby and Blackburn to follow and Forest, like Derby, weren’t too far behind us and were still a real threat. My report headline for that game was Forest felled and flattened by fantastic Clarets and what a performance it was. We simply tore Forest apart in the first half with two goals from Sam Vokes and one from Scott Arfield. That day it was difficult to separate those two for the man of the match award in what was a brilliant team performance.
On the road? It just has to be the opening day of last season. I took a photograph of the big screen at half time which simply read: CHELSEA 0 BURNLEY 3. In the searing heat of Stamford Bridge we were absolutely brilliant, even though, at the time, we had no idea just how good the season was going to be.
Yes, Chelsea came back in the second half and got it to 3-2, leaving us with a few nervous minutes at the end, but what a memorable day that was and what an achievement this is for our manager to reach 100 league wins.
Follow UpTheClarets:
Share this page :