Around Turf Moor at the moment, the first phase of the Player Boards have gone up and it's fantastic to see everyone showing such interest in them - kids asking their parents about all the old players, no doubt wondering if any of them were as good as our current players! These player boards are just the latest thing contributing to the special feel around the ground and I can't wait to see Phase Two. On Saturday, as the rain poured, I stood outside the Park View pub for an hour before the game. In that time, Willie Irvine approached CT and stood with the two of us for 20-30 minutes telling us stories about his best mate, Jimmy Mac and his partner in crime, Andy Lochead. It's the fact that he was happy to stand with us and just be one of us - He loves the club just like every other fan. Still, it was a very surreal moment!
I was told on Saturday that I've been sat in my current season ticket spot for nearly eleven seasons now. I'm definitely one of the younger members of the crop that gather in that particular area of the Longside Upper and fortunately, there hasn't been too much change in my time there, although we do remember Andy fondly, who sadly passed away in the 2013/2014 season and the others around me often talk about Brian (I took his place eleven seasons ago) who also left the Claret family. Everyone up there has their favourites and in the past, everyone has had a scapegoat, but this season seems a lot different. Everyone seems to be on the same page: they can see why Dyche has brought in certain types of players and they can see the job they're trying to achieve within the team. Turf Moor seems to be a very happy place! Indeed, on the messageboard just recently, a thread was started about just how much less bickering there has been of late - everyone around the town in general, seems to be very satisfied with the work they're seeing carried out infront of them. It really is a pleasure to go to home games each week, knowing exactly what you're going to get from your side. Compare that with the 'Throw one in' season of 2003/2004, where one week we outplayed Spurs in the League Cup, but then we'd lose 6-5 at Grimsby, 7-4 to Watford etc. This Burnley side is consistent and knowing what we're going to get doesn't half help the whole club come together.
One of the members of my party last Sunday (the site editor), dared to mention, that we're starting to look like a settled mid-table Premier League team. To say that there were still twenty minutes to play against Chelsea at the time, the runaway league leaders, was a very brave thing to say, yet it was very hard to disagree with the sentiment. We're solid at home and we compete in all matches (even the ones we lose) - we're never too far away from the points. Away from home, we're improving and I'm absolutely convinced that we'll find the magic formula at some point soon, to break the away-day duck once and for all.
I am confident that we'll stay up and I apologise to everyone in advance, if you're one of these people that think people curse things, when they're going well. I'm confident because of the way we're collecting points - we're doing it on merit. This is where the 'progress' part of the subject heading comes in...flashback to 2009...great wins against Manchester United and Everton at the start of the season. In both of those games, we gladly accepted six points, but if you were to take you Claret-tinted specs off for just a few moments and reflect....against United, we created very little indeed and were thankful to a great debut from Andre Bikey and a super penalty save from Brian Jensen to deny United. They were more than worthy of something from the game and they played poorly by their standards too! Onto the Everton game...we started well and Chris McCann had an excellent game, but again, Everton dominated and another penalty was missed. We didn't really know what to expect and the cheer at the end of the game was indicative of the fact that we'd been hanging on for dear life in the second half. After another crack at the big time in 2014-15, Dyche seems to have well and truly got to grips with the top division. Whilst I'm sure he'd admit there is plenty still to learn, he now knows how to set up a side in each of the 38 league games to enable us to compete for points.
On the flip-side, I've turned up to games this season, to witness, quite literally, a tactical masterclass by the Burnley manager, executed perfectly by his fantastic squad of players. After the Liverpool game, Danny Murphy on MOTD commented on how brilliantly organised our defence was, that you could literally join the backline together with a piece of elastic, such was their togetherness, organisation and colelctive movement. This of course was the Opta record breaking game, where Burnley, having had just 19% possesssion, comfortably beat Liverpool 2-0. It was comfortable too - we allowed Liverpool to have the ball and allowed them to have long-range shots, which rarely bothered Heaton in goal. Move on a couple of months to last Sunday and the performance against Chelsea...In the Sky studio, Wales manager, Chris Coleman, commented on just how fascinating the Burnley performance had been for him to watch and that defending with a back six was smart. When the Sky team ran the analysis to show Brady and Boyd tucking in to literally make a defensive line of six (which again could be joined with that magic elastic), it made me realise just how to a man, these Burnley players give it everything on the pitch. The players deserve immense credit, because and as Alan Smith responded, it's all well and good coming up with great tactics (Sean Dyche), but the players have to go and carry them out to the letter...and my goodness they did just that. Later in the day, Ruud Gullitt (again on MOTD) went into analysis on how Burnley had been able to exploit gaps in behind with quicker balls over the top - It was refreshing to hear and not once did he imply that we were a long ball team. I don't think Dyche would care anyway - as for all, he said after the game, that he tries to find different ways of winning football matches - sometimes it won't be pretty, but it'll get the job done!
Tony Pulis, the then manager of Stoke City, once alluded to the fact that you need to survive two seasons in this division (consecutively) to become established. I think that sounds about right, assuming you don't throw away your money on overpriced players and unnecessary huge stands (Wolves). We're in a fine position to survive this time, but that doesn't mean the next year is going to be any more easy. we'll have the extra finances, but for me, next year is about progressing with what we have and only adding top-quality in a few different places. Wholesale changes could spell disaster and I truly believe that that is not the Burnley way.
We're in a fantastic place right now: we've already achieved our 2009/2010 points haul and the sooner we get the next two wins (I'm sure that 36 points will be enough) the better. We've also got a great cup-tie at home to Lincoln City to look forward to on Saturday and I think a quarter-final place (or beyond), as well as Premier League survival, will well and truly make this a season to remember.
Thirteen games to go - Lets see where they take us!
We at least know what to expect from the team though, right?
UTC
