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It's been that sort of season where it has proved difficult to put any sort of run together where short run of good results has inevitably been followed by a similar series of disappointing results.
A few weeks ago Eddie Howe said we were playing catch up, and we'd all but caught up when we came away from the KC Stadium with that last win. We were right on the heels of the top six and with two games in hand.
Then came one point from two home games followed by a miserable defeat at Bristol City to end a week where it felt as if we were just about back at square one. That's not the case. We've lost one of the games in hand but with most of those above faltering we've not fallen back too far and it is still all in our own hands.
We've still got to play all of the four teams currently occupying the play off positions and we'll need a decent set of results there. But we have to make the most of the other nine games starting with the first of them today against Ipswich. A win could see a much brighter picture by the end of the day.
Ipswich, like us, opted for a change of manager in January. After some 21 months of Roy Keane they finally decided that enough was enough and three days after his dismissal they appointed Paul Jewell who had been out of management for over two years since leaving Derby.
Like Eddie Howe at Burnley he said the squad needed assessing before any moves into the transfer market and his only permanent signing in January was that of Andy Drury from Luton for £150,000.
He also brought in Hull's financial millstone Jimmy Bullard on loan and earlier last month added former Ipswich player Kieron Dyer who arrived on an emergency loan from West Ham.
Similar to us, Ipswich have had a good run and then a not so good run. After winning 6-0 at Doncaster it took them to six games without defeat but then they went on a run of one win in six.
Their latest run of three without a win was ended with a 2-0 win at home to Scunthorpe last time out when they scored two superb goals. The first was from Carlos Edwards, a similar strike to the one he scored against us for Sunderland four years ago, and the second from Bullard.
They are currently 15th in the table. Connor Wickham is the player we'll need to keep a keen eye on up front but their leading scorer is former Burnley target Jason Scotland who has netted 9 league goals this season.
One player definitely missing for Ipswich is Lee Martin. He, like Burnley's Danny Fox, received a 10th yellow card of the season in the last game and now starts a two match ban, and from the squad for their last game they are now without Tamas Priskin who has joined Swansea on loan.
On a positive note they could have Kieron Dyer back after injury. Jewell said it would be a late decision as to whether the loan player would in fact play. He's been struggling with a thigh injury but has returned to training.
Goalkeeper Brian Murphy is fit again but Arran Lee-Barrett is expected to remain in the side with Marton Fulop occupying the goalkeeper's position on the bench.
Ipswich's team in their last game against Scunthorpe was: Arran Lee-Barrett, Gareth McAuley, Damien Delaney, Josh Carson, David Norris, Grant Leaditter, Jimmy Bullard, Mark Kennedy, Lee Martin, Carlos Edwards, Connor Wickham. Subs: Marton Fulop, Andy Drury, Colin Healy, Tamas Priskin, Jason Scotland, Jaime Peters.
Eddie Howe stuck with a settled back four from his first game right through to the home game against Coventry before making a first change at Bristol City when he brought in Andre Bikey for Michael Duff.
Today he has to make at least one more change to that back four and there is every chance there could be another. Danny Fox is out suspended and a new left back has to be found. Immediate thoughts point to Brian Easton but manager Howe was somewhat reluctant to confirm that and it wouldn't surprise me to see, possibly, David Edgar installed there.
New signing Shane Duffy comes into the squad and again it wouldn't be a big surprise if he came straight into the team at the expense of Clarke Carlisle who had a difficult game at Ashton Gate.
Further forward we are without Jack Cork for the first time during Howe's tenure. Jack was taken ill on Tuesday and has returned to Chelsea for tests. We all hope he's back with us very soon. If Dean Marney is fit then I expect him to return for Cork; if not then Wade Elliott could come into the midfield.
One brighter piece of news is the imminent return of Steven Thompson. He's trained this week, and ahead of schedule following his groin surgery, but Howe says he's short of fitness. He could well come on to the bench.
It really is guessing games this week but perhaps the team might be something like: Lee Grant, Tyrone Mears, Shane Duffy, Andre Bikey, David Edgar, Dean Marney, Marvin Bartley, Ross Wallace, Chris Eagles, Jay Rodriguez, Nathan Delfouneso. Subs: Brian Jensen, Clarke Carlisle, Michael Duff, Graham Alexander, Wade Elliott, Chris Iwelumo, Steven Thompson.
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A series of misleading announcements followed. We were even informed that he'd been brought down at 3:00 prompting cries of 'You don't know what you're doing!' as the parachutist continued to stand on the roof.
It was just what we didn't want. The season had started the week before with a 4-1 hammering at Sheffield Wednesday and here we needed to get the season underway. The hold up far from helped and in the end we took another three goal defeat.
In fairness this was nothing like as bad as the Wednesday game and we'd probably been the better side until the first Ipswich goal went in from Liam Trotter, now Millwall, on 34 minutes. Six minutes late and another current Millwall player, Kevin Lisbie, made it 2-0 and we never looked as though we might come back from that.
Stephen Jordan completed the scoring, putting through his own goal after a mix up with goalkeeper Brian Jensen who had replaced the axed Diego Penny for this game.
No points from two games; seven goals conceded. It did eventually get better, much better.
The teams were;
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Graham Alexander, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Stephen Jordan, Joey Gudjonsson (Kevin McDonald 56), Chris McCann, Wade Elliott, Robbie Blake (Ade Akinbiyi 55), Chris Eagles (Alan Mahon 83), Martin Paterson. Subs not used: Diego Penny, Christian Kalvenes.
Ipswich: Richard Wright, Alex Bruce, Gareth McAuley, Richard Naylor, Ben Thatcher, Jon Walters (Pablo Counago 90), Liam Trotter (Owen Garvan 70), Velice Sumulikoski, Kevin Lisbie (Danny Haynes 77), Alan Lee. Subs not used: Shane Supple, Pim Balkestein.
Previous 20 Seasons | |||||
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
2002/03 | 1 | a | 2-2 | 22,736 | Gnohere Papadopoulos |
h | 1-1 | 15,501 | Blake(pen) | ||
2003/04 | 1 | a | 1-6 | 22,048 | Facey |
| . | h | 4-2 | 11,343 | Little May Chaplow Blake | |
2004/05 | C | a | 1-1 | 23,183 | Blake |
| . | h | 0-2 | 11,969 | ||
2005/06 | C | h | 3-0 | 10,496 | J O'Connor G O'Connor McCann |
a | 1-2 | 24,482 | Ricketts | ||
2006/07 | C | h | 1-0 | 11,709 | McCann |
a | 1-1 | 20,254 | Lafferty | ||
2007/08 | C | h | 2-2 | 9,852 | Lafferty Gray |
a | 0-0 | 20,077 | |||
2008/09 | C | h | 0-3 | 11,312 | |
a | 1-1 | 18,745 | Elliott | ||
2010/11 | C | a | 1-1 | 19,317 | Carlisle |