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The opening month of the season looked to be a difficult one as the Clarets faced four league games against some of the more fancied teams in the division, including three of the top seven from last season.
Today sees us play the last of those four games at Swansea with the good news that we've already picked up seven points from the games against Nottingham Forest, Ipswich and Leicester, and to add to that we are awaiting the draw for the third round of the Carling Cup after beating Morecambe in midweek.
This week has brought further good news for the club. It started with that win at Morecambe with a side that showed nine changes from the team that beat Leicester last Saturday. We saw two of our young professionals, Michael King and Wes Fletcher, get debuts as late substitutes, and it was all followed up with the news that Chris Eagles was committing himself to another year at Turf Moor beyond this season.
Now we travel to the Liberty Stadium, hoping to make it an even better week and month by getting a result before going into the first international break of the season.
It's a much changed Swansea from the team we last played in January 2009 in front of the Sky cameras. The manager then was Roberto Martinez but both he and his successor Paulo Sousa have both been head hunted, leaving for Wigan and Leicester respectively in the last two summers.
New boss is Brendan Rodgers who has had short spells as manager of Watford and Reading after leaving Chelsea where he was the reserve team coach. It was his Chelsea connections that led to him getting Scott Sinclair recently in a record £500,000 transfer for the club and to him chasing Jack Cork who instead opted for another loan move to Burnley.
Under Rodgers, Swansea have made progress in the Carling Cup with two wins. In the league, they've lost both their away games without scoring but won their only home game easily, beating Preston 4-0 a couple of weeks ago.
Swansea were hopeful that midfielder Tom Butler and former West Brom forward Craig Beattie might be available, but both look to be about a week away yet as they recover from calf and thigh injuries.
They are also without three long term casualties in Ferrie Bodde, Gorka Pintado and the wonderfully named full back Angel Rangel.
They are expected to name a similar side to the one that were unfortunate to lose at Norwich last week with two late goals. That team was: Dorus de Vries, Albert Serran, Garry Monk, Ashley Williams, Alan Tate, Mark Gower, Darren Pratley, Nathan Dyer, Scott Sinclair, David Cotterill, Stephen Dobbie. Subs: David Cornell, Cedric van der Gun, Jordi Lopez, Joe Allen, Shefki Kuqi, Neil Taylor, Andrea Orlandi.
Other than Michael Duff and Chris McCann, Brian Laws has a fully fit squad to select from although it is unlikely he'll make many, if any, changes to the team that started last Saturday against Leicester.
If anyone is to break into the side then perhaps the most likely are Chris Eagles and Jack Cork. They both did well when they came on last week, albeit with the Clarets 2-0 and the game won, and Eagles in particular had a good game at Morecambe.
If Laws does go with the same team we'll line up: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Andre Bikey, Danny Fox, Graham Alexander, Wade Elliott, Dean Marney, Martin Paterson, Chris Iwelumo, Ross Wallace. Subs from: Lee Grant, David Edgar, Leon Cort, Jack Cork, Kevin McDonald, Chris Eagles, Jay Rodriguez, Steven Thompson.
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The first half of the game had been something of a dull affair. The home side were the better of the two teams and on the balance of play should probably have been in front. But they didn't create much in terms of chances and what they did they didn't make the most of.
It took Burnley a while to get going and it was only in the closing stages of the first half that we had any impact on the game, a first half that was dominated by some appalling refereeing by flood warden Andy Hall.
Hall got even better in the second half when he yellow carded Wade Elliott for coming onto the pitch without permission. Unfortunately for Hall, when the fourth official told him it was number 11 he was actually meaning the Swansea number 11 and not Wade. The stoppage to sort all this proved crucial.
Burnley, by now, were playing better and getting on top. A goal looked likely and it came from the unlikely source of substitute Joey Gudjonsson's head. Wade, despite the nonsense from the referee, was becoming the star of the show and from one perfect cross we saw Gudjonsson head home from about a yard out.
So much on top were we that we should have gone on and won the game, but instead we withdrew both strikers, Martin Paterson and Steven Thompson, and dropped ever deeper allowing Swansea to come forward too much.
Then came the time added on for the number 11 mix up. Even so, we could blame no one but ourselves. Alan Mahon had the ball with less than two minutes remaining. All he had to do was take it into the corner and the game was won. Instead he opted to shoot.
Almost immediately they got the ball clear to their left, hit a cross field pass beyond Stephen Jordan. In came the cross and the unmarked Bodde equalised.
What a disappointment in the end, the game really should have been won.
The teams were;
Swansea: Dorus de Vries, Angel Rangel, Gary Monk, Ashley Williams, Fede Bessone, Andrea Orlandi (Jason Scotland 73), Leon Britton, Ferrie Bodde, Darren Pratley (Jordi Gomez 61), Shaun MacDonald (Mark Gower 45), Gorka Pintado. Subs not used: Alan Tate, Febian Brandy.
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Russell Anderson, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Stephen Jordan, Graham Alexander, Wade Elliott, Kevin McDonald (Joey Gudjonsson 45), Chris McCann, Steven Thompson (Alan Mahon 80), Martin Paterson (Robbie Blake 75). Subs not used: Diego Penny, Jay Rodriguez.
Previous 20 Seasons | |||||
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
1992/93 | 2 | h | 1-0 | 10,913 | Penney |
| . | . | a | 1-1 | 4,973 | Farrell |
1993/94 | 2 | a | 1-3 | 3,358 | Francis |
| . | . | h | 1-1 | 10,694 | Davis |
1995/96 | 2 | h | 3-0 | 8,068 | Nogan Joyce Eyres |
| . | . | a | 4-2 | 2,078 | Eyres Nogan Cooke(2) |
2008/09 | C | a | 1-1 | 13,299 | Gudjonsson |
| . | . | h | 0-2 | 13,740 | . |