There’s a different team. There’s a different manager. The age has been lowered. The galacticos have all gone bar Amougou. The wages are less. But we’re still skint and there were no fireworks at the AGM when the predictions were that there might have been after the announcement of a £4million loss.
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| Initial reaction suggested a red card for Chris McCann |
In terms of number of games, points and position Howe and Brian Laws were just about level pegging, but a year ago Brian Laws was about to be booed from the field after a defeat at home to Scunthorpe. His dismissal after that was swift. But there was a good bunch of players and it was still felt they had the potential to achieve a play-off position in the second half of the season. But the season petered out tamely. Graham Alexander later commented in the Press that too many changes were made too soon.
The world outside Burnley lurched from one financial crisis to another. The euro and the Eurozone began to crumble. Cameron after vetoing the new Eurozone agreements returned in Churchillian mood. And even more surprising than that was the elimination of Man City and Man United from the Champions League. Natural disasters raged around the globe, in New Zealand, Japan and Australia. Gadaffi and Libya fell. Any last hope of foreign investment from him and family at Turf Moor disappeared with him.
As season 2010/11 ended there was a royal wedding at the end of April. As the new one began in August London exploded in riots and looting. During the year Jimmy Adamson died, along with Amy Winehouse, Joe Frazier, Jimmy Savile, Elizabeth Taylor, Seve Ballasteros, Gary Speed, Pete Postlethwaite and Basil D’Oliveira.
Paul Fletcher resigned as CEO and was replaced by American Lee Hoos. Because of the collapse of banking (and the loan market) plus the demise of Modus, Fletch was unable to leave the legacy of a new stand but did manage to get the UCFB up and running. Andy Payton at last got his story in print and sold out. The Tommy Boyle book was a remarkable piece of scholarship and research. Book of the year for me was Mick Rathbone and ‘The Smell of Football’.
The highlight of the Burnley year in terms of results was surely the 2–1 win at West Ham and… er… um… er... um… sadly there hasn’t been much else to write home about quite as stirring as that. I count myself fortunate to have been there and the scenes of joy after the game were reminiscent of Chelsea in the Carling. Not quite in the same league as Wembley, 2009, but maybe that day will never be surpassed.
But: maybe the most remarkable day of the year was at Brighton on December 17th. The bare facts will say in the record books that Burnley won 1–0 with a goal from Trippier. What they won’t describe is the mad sending off of two Brighton players in the first 11 minutes with a ref who might have thought he was giving out Christmas cards.
The first was for either a punch on Bartley, or foul and abusive language, no-one seems to be sure. And the second was for what emerged to be a stamp on McCann who was on the floor after a tough challenge on Barnes. Initial reaction was to think “whoops” that’s a red card for McCann, but to the astonishment of one and all it was the Brighton player who got the orders. Burnley fans were bemused because there was no absolutely clear reason at the time of either of the incidents why either player had been red-carded.
Brighton fans were apoplectic and Poyet the Brighton manager proceeded to give the best display of pique, strop, fury and rage since Bikey’s astonishing performance when sent off in the first leg of the 2009 play-off. Except this time Poyet didn’t rip his shirt off, it was his jacket as he stormed up the tunnel where presumably if there’d been a stadium cat, he’d have given that a kicking for good measure. Prior to that, he had certainly orchestrated the crowd into a level of ire that fortunately did not get out of hand into anything stupid and nasty.
And so we sat back, those of us who listened to Phil Bird, and presumably those in the stadium, and waited for the goalfest; except it didn’t come. There was just the one Trippier goal and what a beauty it was from outside the box from a corner routine. OK let the floodgates open, we thought; except they didn’t. Brighton shut up shop, camped in their box, blocked all avenues, whilst Burnley huffed and puffed and kept possession and worked and waited for openings; except there weren’t any other than one good chance that fell to Rodriguez in the 6-yard box that should have been buried – but wasn’t. That would have settled things. We could have relaxed.
But this is Burnley. Short finger nails are de rigeur by the end of most games. I’ve sat through games at 3–0 up and been nervous. So being 1–0 up is always a test of nerves; but against 9 men, surely not? Surely yes was the answer as Brighton in the last 15 minutes actually put Burnley under the cosh and made several chances until the best one of all when Mackail-Smith hit a good shot but straight at Grant. He got the rebound and shot again. Surely this had to be the equaliser and heap scorn on fumbling Burnley. But no, there was Edgar on the line to clear. On Claretsworld Phil Bird breathed again, Darren Bentley breathed again, Pete Oliver breathed again. We all breathed again and sighed with relief at the final whistle.
The pundits brought out the stats about this being the third time Burnley have beaten Brighton 1–0 down there. Once was in ’72 when Burnley went on to win promotion. Gerraway, it’s not gonna happen again this season… er… um… is it? The historians dug out all the other references to Burnley playing against 9 men AND sometimes losing.
When the dust had settled by Sunday lunchtime most people had agreed this was a good three points and it doesn’t matter how these away wins come. There was certainly none of the glory and elation of the West Ham win. It was more of a “what the hell kind of a game was that?” This was the sixth away win of the season against a poor three wins at home. One comment summed it up. It made up for the last minute defeat at home to Portsmouth.
It was after 22 games that Brian Laws was dismissed. Eddie Howe on 22 games was secure and established in his position. After the Brighton win that was four wins out of five. His overall win ratio at that stage was 40%, respectable enough; especially with what one might say was pretty much a new team. Despite some quite severe blips and periods when the wins would not come, supporters’ patience overall remained steadfast.
Is Blackburn Rovers versus Bolton Wanderers anything to do with Burnley supporters? Of course it is. Is it agame where you’d like both teams to lose 5–0? Yes it is. Sadly only one could win in the bottom of the table fixture. The debate raged as to which club you would like to lose. In the white corner there was support for Bolton simply on the grounds that no sane Burnley supporter could ever contemplate a Rovers win. In the blue corner there was support for Rovers purely on the grounds that for many, Owen Coyle is still the most disliked person in the history of the club.
Two years on and a day rarely goes by without some discussion of his decision to leave in mid season and leave the club high and dry. Would we have stayed another year in the Prem had he stayed? I believe we would. There were games that we lost in the second half of that season that I cannot think we would not have won with a team that was still under his spell – at least in the home games.
The Independent on the day of the game pointed to Mark Hughes waiting in the wings to take over at Bolton. The article pointed to an overall debt of £100million+ meaning that relegation would leave them sinking in the perfect storm. The prospect of that is delicious. No end of players out of contract at the end of the season and a massive debt. The perfect recipe for a slide down the leagues and if I read or heard it right somewhere, owner Eddie Davies is no longer prepared to sink more money into this stricken outfit.
There is nothing amusing about their position inasmuch as it hasn’t come about because of anything laughable or comic. There is no comedy situation over there in Horwich. At Blackburn, however, there is something intrinsically entertaining and hugely funny about their struggles to stay in the Premiership where the players eat chicken nuggets to promote the Venky takeways. The story has emerged that when the Venkys took over they had no idea that Premier clubs could be relegated. For the life of me I cannot understand the banners that scream Kean out. Surely it is the derided Venky’s that are the root cause? Do they really know anything at all about football?
If this was Shakespeare would it not be Bolton written as the tragedy and the theme would be the rise and then sorry downfall of one man – a sort of King Coyle or Coyliolanus. George Clooney would play the lead. And there in the background shadows, in a long Darth Vader cloak, would be Gartside. In our keenness to hurl mud at Coyle behind him is Gartside, the guy who plotted this tale in the first place. We tend to forget this; a “graceless” man according to one article on the day of the game.
Blackburn, on the other hand, would be the lighthearted, flippant slapstick where at the Globe Theatre the groundlings would chortle and hurl cabbages at the bumbling chicken tycoons whenever they appeared stage left. Lee Evans would do rather well as Steve Kean I think, or for those who can remember – Jerry Lewis. Peter Sellars would do the Venkys rather well.
In the Daily Telegraph, Henry Winter referred to the possibility of Avram Grant replacing Keen should he be sacked. If Grant is the answer, he wrote, the question must be terrifying. There is also something quite sweet about the trustees of the Jack Walker millions, and handed that trust to safeguard the future of the club, then deciding in 2008 not to invest in the club any more and then selling Blackburn to the Venkys. I don’t think the venerable Jack ever envisaged his beloved club sinking to these comic depths. I thought Trusts could be trusted.
So: who did YOU want to win was the topic of the day? On balance I rather fancied Rovers (forgive me). And, maybe that’s not just because of the predicament that Owen Coyle found himself in, but just as important is the ridiculous debt that Bolton have amassed and that any club guilty of such staggering imprudence deserves its fate; and, what a comeuppance relegation would be for Phil Gartside.
However, it was Bolton who came out on top. In the first half Blackburn displayed a level of ineptitude that bordered on the staggering. In the second half they deserved to get the draw but Bolton lurched to the win. It’s hard to remember any real Bolton attempts on goal other than the two that went in. I thought at the beginning of the game that I wasn’t too bothered who won or lost but in the last 15 minutes or so I found myself willing Blackburn to score.
A disappointing result then, but what a good night for all Clarets. It was one night when we couldn’t lose.