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The Portsmouth game was also Brian Jensen's 300th for the club. and Duff's 200th league game. That's some achievement by Jensen and but for spells when other goalkeepers have come in and temporarily replaced him, it would have been a fair bit higher. Like Alexander he had a season to remember in 2008/09 and when the time comes for him to hang up his gloves, or move on, he will be remembered with gratitude.
It puts the length of his career in some perspective when you learn that when Roger Eli was at Scunthorpe at the end of his career, Graham Alexander was there in the early years of his. This came to light when Roger and I had our umpteenth meeting at a grand little café called the Potting Shed in a Bingley garden centre, working on something to mark the 20th anniversary of the York promotion in '91/92. Roger has a stationery business based near Bingley, so the café is a good midway meeting place. The girls there are used to us now and they think he's John Barnes. When he once went to Manchester to see a consultant about his dodgy knee, the consultant thought he was Dion Dublin. I always take Mrs T a present from the Garden Centre. The first time it was a bag of seed potatoes, and the second was a packet of runner bean seeds. Mind you, to be fair, they were Scarlet Emperor. I know what you're thinking; this guy sure knows how to spoil a woman.
With just four games to go and Easter Friday results just about favourable towards Burnley, hopes twitched yet again that the season was alive with the prospect that if Burnley beat Derby they could go joint 6th. Burnley to beat Derby away - hah, gerraway, as if that was likely. But if that happened then it certainly was all to play for, the only disadvantage being a poor goal difference, Nottingham Forest's being far superior. Meanwhile Ken Bates had publicly warned his faltering Leeds players to buck their ideas up or else they'd be given an early sighting of their P45's. It didn't work as they could only manage a 0-0 draw at home to Reading. Forest won their game 3-2.
The sun beat down yet another day as the Burnley diehards made their way to Pride Park. At 2-1 down in the first half you could have been forgiven for thinking "ah well that's it" for another year. But then came a second half performance that earned rave reviews with Mears, Eagles and Cork utterly outstanding. With Elliott not far behind, Rodriguez being his usual handful, Burnley rattled the goals in to win 4-2 by the end. That rank bad display at home to Ipswich seemed years ago.
How the luck has changed as well. A penalty and a sending off changed the game. And when Eagles put it home at the second attempt firing home the rebound after the goalkeeper saved you began to wonder if this might be another end of season run where the Gods were with us, the ball ran kindly and fortune favoured the brave. But whilst two years ago clean sheets miraculously appeared in the final six games, yet again this season the defence still looked decidedly vulnerable with clean sheets but a distant dream. The idea of a clean sheet at Derby was consigned to the dustbin as early as the 6th minute.
The biggest talking point though was the surprise return of Chris McCann after his long absence. He had a superb game and capped it with a 25-yard goal. What a comeback, the sort that brings a lump to the throat. There were fears his career might be over, or at best he would return in a diminished capacity. On this evidence, he is back, with a vengeance.
Mrs T kept bringing me bulletins as I spent the afternoon power-washing the paths and patios round the house. Not my cuppa tea doing stuff like this or painting the decking or the railings. Some blokes spend hours on these jobs. Sunday mornings on this estate and they're all out washing cars. Give me the Sunday papers and a coffee and that's my Sunday morning sorted especially when it's Derby 2 Burnley 4.
Discussions centred on the return to form and the reasons. Iwelumo provoked mixed reactions. Critics say he can't do this, or that or the other. Scott Reid on Radio Lancs caused outrage calling him a "clown." But by the end of the Derby game he had featured in three consecutive wins. Perhaps the most obvious was the return to form of Eagles and Elliott and the return from illness of Cork.
The Portsmouth game was only 1-1. But what a tremendous game it was. Try as they did, Burnley could not break down a resolute Portsmouth defence to get the elusive winner. A win would have been thoroughly deserved and no one could criticise the effort, passion and spirit. Sure it was frustrating but you had to applaud at the end. How different this was to that dreadful Leicester performance, and the half-hearted effort away at Bristol. Only a draw but Leeds lost. Alas Millwall and Forest won, but the Clarets are still twitching. There's life in the old boots yet.
And: presumably too in Graham Alexander's boots although he didn't feature in the game. Players and management lined up at the beginning of the game to make a guard of honour. Chairman Kilby presented a trophy. Cotterill too was there which was fitting as he was the manager who brought him to Turf Moor in the first place. At the end of the game Cotterill was well applauded as he came onto the pitch to applaud all four corners of the ground. His team was impressive showing a level of pace and flair that was never evident in any Burnley team he produced except on very rare occasions. Several times they broke through the Burnley midfield although there was little end product in the penalty box other than Nugent scoring once with a superb strike, and then forcing Jensen into a fine one on one save to deny him a second. Is there a better keeper than Jensen at coming out in these one on ones to smother the opportunity? Second viewings of Nugent's goal emphasised what a tremendous strike it was, thumped home from outside the box, giving Jensen no chance.
It was a game of ironies none more so than Nugent returning to score. You could have put money on it. The law of the ex they call it. He received a huge round of applause when he went off. Is there any club that receives its ex players so warmly? Even when they cost us points?
The game itself was one of cut and thrust, a box to box game that by the end had you on the edge of your seat screaming with frustration as Burnley looked for the winner and clear opportunites. It was Burnley who had by far the most attempts at goal. But of 16 attempts, ten were off target; and all too often crosses were headed away comfortably by Portsmouth's packed defence.
Funny how things work out; had we drawn at Derby and won at home to Portsmouth we'd no doubt be well pleased. But with the results reversed there is inevitable frustration and disappointment. We drove home thinking his was a good chance lost and cursing Nugent.
But how good was that to see Colin Blant back at half time. The word cult was invented for him and if you did a book of 20 Burnley cult figures you'd have to include him. Cult figures don't have to be the most skilful players in the world but they do have to leave us with indelible memories, and they do have to be out of the ordinary. In my list would be Ade Akinbiyi, Rocket Ron Futcher, Brian O'Neil, and Roger Eli; Andy Lochhead, Tony Morley, Johnny Francis and Brian Jensen. I think I have a dim and distant memory of a half-back line consisting of Merrington, Waldron and Blant. It was surely one of the roughest, toughest bunches of football brigands of all time. When the opposition saw that line-up more than one tried to get a doctor's note to stay in bed out of harm's way. I remember a game against Derby County one time when they had little Willie Carlin and big Bruce Rioch. There was a rumpus in the middle of the park and fists and boots were flying all over the place. I just happened to be watching Blant wondering who he would poleaxe. He had the look of mischief in his eyes. But he didn't belt anyone; he stood as close as possible to one of the Derby players and then fell backwards as though he had been hit by Sonny Liston. The other guy never touched him but just looked gobsmacked. Colin's dramatics were wasted. The referee didn't see it; he was too busy separating all the other players. Ee by gum, Colin Blant; them were the days.
And here's a book to look forward to. Brian Laws has just signed up with the same publisher that produced the Entertainment, Heroes and Villains book just released. When they met, Brian said he knew about the book and laughingly asked was he the villain? No you weren't replied the publisher. The title by the way comes from an Owen Coyle quote from not too long ago when he said that football was all about entertainment, heroes and villains. In the latter he was wryly referring to himself and Burnley fans' opinions of him.
And how lucky are me and Mrs T. Some good friends of ours have moved from Bingley to Burnley into a cosy bungalow out on the Tod road. We called for us tea and a few scoops after the game. How good is this? And when they get our bedroom ready we can stay over as well on dark winter nights when driving back to Leeds is a real chore. They were surprised to find that all around them on this nice little estate were people who had moved there from Tod. I didn't like to say this but whilst people with brains seem to leave Burnley to seek their fortunes elsewhere; people from Todmorden move into Burnley. How odd is that?