I think we've served the town well

Last updated : 21 April 2009 By Tony Scholes
Whilst Kevin Blackwell was doing the television interviews it was a familiar face that arrived to do the press interviews in our former assistant manager Sam Ellis, now in the same role at Bramall Lane.

Ellis said: "We were disappointed with our performance more than anything else. We were second best and they were better than us on the night, that happens in football matches.

"Burnley didn't surprise us, we knew they are a good side. Their league position and cup exploits prove that, so there is no shame in losing to them, just disappointment that we did.

"It is the first time for a while that we have been outmanoeuvred. They won most of the balls in the air and most of the second balls which game them more possession, so we can't have any complaints with the result or the referee who I thought had a good game.

"Burnley, going for the play offs might have been apprehensive, but they weren't, they were good and we are the outside of the two teams going for automatic promotion.

"But it was first defeat in twelve games and at the beginning of that run we were going for the play offs, and in the last two or three we have been shooting for automatic so we have done really well."

A delighted Owen Coyle saw the defeat as one that had put extra pressure on a number of sides. "We've leapfrogged Reading and put pressure on the other teams," he said after seeing the Clarets reach 72 points.

"I think people would be looking and saying 'Burnley's in sixth and they're the team to go for'. Preston and Swansea, rightly so, would have targeted that.

"But we've added a little bit to it now because both Reading and Cardiff have to go and win their games in hand, because they know at this stage of the season anything can happen in these games. That's why he three points were massive tonight and we did everything to go and attain them."

Coyle was able to welcome one of his strikers back but warned that the other is still some way away. He said that Steven Thompson was still several days away from returning to training but of Paterson said: "Martin Paterson played for four weeks, possibly five, with a very tight hamstring and wasn't 100 percent, but I asked him to keep playing because we needed him there.

"He was a focal point of what we're trying to do and he did that, probably to the detriment of his own goalscoring. In the end I decided I had to bring him out of things and left him on the bench, but I've noticed him in training in the last couple of days.

"You can see and know when strikers are themselves and he's look so sharp in training. I felt there were goals in him, and so it proved because it was a wonderful finish.

"But I thought we should have added to that. Paddy Kenny made some wonderful saves, but our football and pace we go forward at was very pleasing for this time of the season.

"Aside from the three points, which was the most important, I thought the level of performance was what we're after. At this stage of the season, against a very good side, who are going for automatic promotion and still have a chance of doing that, we more than merited the three points and I'm just disappointed we never added to our goal tally.

I think we've served the town well tonight, the fans were outstanding from start to finish, and I think that made for the atmosphere of the game. I think everybody played their part and I don't think anybody, neutral or otherwise, could have any complaints that we were the deserving winners.