The Door is Open

All in all, then, 2005 has been highly satisfactory for Burnley Football Club. We’ve bounced back from the trauma of losing Blake and Chaplow a lifetime ago in January. We’ve built a new team, an improving team, with a couple of vacancies still to be filled, but with potential. Our manager has enhanced his growing reputation. The training ground has undergone a major overhaul. A good Christmas run, and a good year would become remarkable.

I’m not normally given to being overly optimistic about Burnley, or for getting carried away about a few good performances. At the start of this season, I was predicting nothing more or less than mid-table mediocrity; throughout the last couple of months, I’ve stubbornly refused to accept that a top-ten finish is within our grasp. But I’m beginning to have doubts about this slightly pessimistic outlook.

Burnley were flattered by a four-one victory against Watford on Saturday. Prior to the first goal in particular, controlled football was at a premium, and Burnley’s chief tactic was a channel ball for Akinbiyi to chase. At that point, if anything, Watford looked the more likely to take the lead.

But I think I must be getting greedy. Hell, I think I’m right in saying that we haven’t thumped a play-off contender at Turf Moor since we returned this league, not even in the golden pre-Christmas of 2001/02. And 4-1 is a thumping, and Watford are most definitely contenders. They were ten games unbeaten before yesterday – and third in the league as a consequence.

So we must certainly have done something right. That we did so without a goal from Ade Akinbiyi, and on a day when Micah Hyde failed to reach his normal impeccable standards, was doubly pleasing, for those have been our two most important players this season. In doing so, we elevated ourselves into that bracket of teams who can be properly regarded as contenders for the play-offs this season.

A new squad has been moulded during this past twelve months, and it is currently outperforming its apparently modest potential. It’s rather small, and should our highly impressive core of Sinclair, McGreal, Hyde and Akinbiyi be broken up, we’d have severe problems - without Akinbiyi in particular, we’d be absolutely sunk. Not all of our rookies have been an unmitigated success, although Spicer and Gaz O’Connor have certainly had their moments.

The blend, though, must be right. The mix of old-pros, battlers, good second tier performers, and calculated gambles has obviously paid off. It doesn’t quite make sense, but the chemistry is evidently there.

And here is the most important point. Forget Reading and Sheffield United, we aren’t going to catch them. We’ve played all except Stoke of the other teams contending at this moment in time – and none of them are very good.

Gaz O'Connor - had his moments

Watford weren’t. I’m really sorry, but in previous seasons, they would have been struggling to make the top half. Wolves and Leeds might be expected to provide the class, but whilst they might be formidable on paper, they haven’t been where it matters, on the pitch. So too Palace, Southampton, or any of the other supposed challengers. This season, this league is probably at its weakest since we returned to this league over five years ago.

All of which has to give us a chance of finishing within the top four of a bad lot. I suspect this league is going to remain very tight right to the end. There is a good chance that Burnley could sneak into the play-offs if they can garner sixty nine or a bare seventy points.

I don’t know whether there is any money available to the manager during the transfer window. I’d like to think that, without putting the future of the club at risk, we could stretch to a couple of signings. It might demonstrate a bit of ambition, to both supporters and the manager. We all know that money is tight, that we’re losing money and all the rest of it – but if the finances can be put in place, there is a door ajar waiting to be pushed open.

For all that logic dictates that even with a couple of additions, there would still be stronger squads than ours amongst the Championship big-boys, I want to dare to dream. My head still tells me that we ought to finish in the higher end of mid-table; my heart tells me that if Burnley seize the day, if we can keep our key players fit and get a few breaks along the way, the end of the season could be full of bitten nails, adrenalin, and big matches every week.

If we should get that good run, then that belief will begin to flood around Turf Moor. You could sense it growing as Saturday’s match wore on. It is a feeling which has been absent from Turf Moor for the best part of four years. Belief in the stands and on the pitch builds momentum, and momentum is a powerful weapon in shaping football destiny.

The cause for optimism may not be boundless, but even the most pragmatic of Clarets should have a quiet, cautious optimism. It’s a good feeling. With a fair wind and good luck, it could yet get sweeter in 2006. Regardless of what should ultimately come to pass, the near-credibility of these thoughts is in itself a reason to raise a glass to a good years work.